Catalytic heater unit for heating wet crude oil to enhance processing

Abstract

Methods and systems of using a catalytic heater unit to heat a wet crude oil to enhance processing of the oil. The methods and systems include using the catalytic heater unit to enhance separating a wet crude oil into a gas fraction, an aqueous fraction, and an oil fraction. The wet crude oil may pass through a two-way separator to separate a portion of the gas fraction from the aqueous fraction and the oil fraction prior to heating to a predetermined temperature in a catalytic heater unit. The catalytic heater unit may include a plurality of catalytic heating pads surrounding at least a portion of a plurality of oil stream channels. The heated wet crude oil then passes through a three-way separator to separate the remaining gas fraction, the aqueous fraction, and the oil fraction.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.