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AssigneeCommonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation
InventorsMohamed A. Fouad M. Gaber, Pablo Juliano, Maged Peter Mansour, Rod Smith
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The present disclosure relates to a process for refining crude oils using a combination of a chemical process and mega-sonic treatment to simultaneously and efficiently separate oil and gum phases. In particular, the present disclosure relates to a process for refining crude oils using a combination of chemical processes followed by megasonic treatment to effectively separate and recover entrained oil from a gum phase to increase the oil yield, and to produce an oil of higher quality with reduced gum content. The present disclosure also relates to a process for refining crude oils using a combination of chemical processes followed by megasonic treatment to effectively separate and recover entrained gums from an oil phase to increase the gum yield, and to produce a gum of higher quality with reduced oil content. The present disclosure also relates to obtaining refined oils and refined gums from the process described herein.
A process for refining crude oil to produce a refined oil and/or a refined gum, the process comprising the steps of:
The process of any one of the preceding claims, wherein in step (a) the chemical process comprises addition of water, at least one acid, at least one alkali, or a combination thereof.
The process of any one of the preceding claims, wherein in step (b) the megasonic treatment step comprises the use of megasonic frequencies of about 100 kHz to about 10 MHz.
The process of any one of the preceding claims, wherein in step (b) the megasonic treatment step comprises the use of megasonic frequencies of about 400 kHz to about 10 MHz, or about 600 kHz to about 4 MHz.
The process of any one of the preceding claims, wherein in step (a) the crude oil is subjected to a temperature of about 0° C. and 150° C.
The process of any one of the preceding claims, wherein in step (a) the crude oil is subjected to a temperature of about 20° C. and 100° C.
The process of any one of the preceding claims, wherein in step (a) the crude oil is subjected to a temperature of about 60° C. and 90° C.
The process of any one of the preceding claims, wherein in step (b) the mixture is subjected to a temperature of about 0° C. and 150° C.
The process of any one of the preceding claims, wherein in step (b) the mixture is subjected to a temperature of about 20° C. and 100° C.
The process of any one of the preceding claims, wherein in step (b) the mixture is subjected to a temperature of about 30° C. and 60° C.
The process of any one of the preceding claims, wherein in step (b) the mixture is further subjected to a mixing step.
The process of any one of the preceding claims, wherein in step (b) the pH of the mixture of refined oil and an aqueous gum phase is about 0 to 14, or about 2 to 12, or about 4 to 8.
The process of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the process of step (c) comprises subjecting the phases to at least one centrifugation step.
The process of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the process further comprises step (d) subjecting the refined oil and/or the refined gum to (i) a megasonic treatment step and (ii) a separation step.
The process of an one of the preceding claims, wherein the % reduction of entrained oils in gums (on a wet weight basis) is in a range of about 20% to about 60%.
The process of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the recovered gum contains less than about 60% of crude oil on a dry weight basis.
The process according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the process is a continuous, semi-continuous or batch process.
A refined oil prepared by the process of any one of the preceding claims.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.