water in Heavy fuel oil #6 1

[diefsanc]

Hello everyone!!! any of you know if it's possible to distillate Heavy fuel oil 6 in order to determine the amount of water in HFO 6 plus any suggestions on how to reduce the amount of condensated water in the bunker?

Thank you

 

[chicopee]

Isn't there an additive that fuel oil supplier put in the tanks to assimilate water into the fuel?

 

[BigInch]

Are you sure you're a chemical engineer.

The two may become entrained but have you not ever heard that "oil and water don't mix". Oil floats on the water, so allowing some time for settling and then draining the tank (from the bottom) will eliminate most all of the water.

If you cook anything at 100C, the water vaporizes. Capture the vapors, condense it and measure the water.
Remove all condensates before reaching 100C.

 

[diefsanc]

BigInch the question was simple a yes or no straight answer about distillating HFO 6 , at Big operations as the ones of the company i work you don't have time for water to settle altho drainning is done every day i asked for advices to reduce the condensated water which can be related to the dew point, as a petroleum engineer i suppose you have heard of ASTM-D96 for determination of water and sediments in crude oil, as it is possible to determine the amount of water not only by distillation but it can be as well determined by the centrifuge method,please notice that heating in order to vaporize water from any fuel is dangerous as one of my teacher from university ended up burned while distillating diesel please consider the fire point as HFO has a fire point approx of 75°C

 

[BigInch]

Thanks for the valuable insight there diefsanc.

Product quality control specifications (you're the ASTM expert) require your oil to meet limits on water content and other compounds. If you mix crap with the water, you have not removed the water ... plus now you have crap. What we going to do? Mix WD-40, or alcohol with the water so the water will go through fuel injectors and get vaporized with the pre-ignited combustion process you've started and then leave the mud it carries with it to plug the injectors?

Remind me which country you are, so I won't buy any fuel there ... or fly your national airline.

 

[BigInch]

I suppose you'll charge your customers the same price for that water that you charge for your #6.

 

[LittleInch]

Can we calm this down a bit please....

dief sanc,

yu seem to know some things and not others. If you look up ASTM D96, you should also find reference to ASTM E123 - Standard specification for apparatus for determination of water by distillation - You can buy this for between $22 to 44 - just search for a download online or find someone in your company who has it.

As regards your other point, then to reduce condensed water you need to control what gas is entering the tank when you empty it. This normally means some sort of inert gas (nitrogen) or dried air. Depending on your tanks and flowrates in and out this could be quite simple or a major issue. Most tanks which are designed as "atmospheric" will stand a small positive pressure of a few mbar, but normally very small negative pressures.

given that no 6 HFO is something resembling tar and needs a high degree of heat to move it anywhere - what is yours stored / moved at? - your condensed water might actually be coming from the fuel itself and then just condensing on the slightly cooler walls or roof of the tank if you're storing it at 50C+.

You give us so little detail it is impossible to be any more specific.

More details = better answers

My motto: Learn something new every day

Also: There's usually a good reason why everyone does it that way

 

[BigInch]

I am calm.

 

[LittleInch]

I know that - it just seemed to be getting a bit off track....

My motto: Learn something new every day

Also: There's usually a good reason why everyone does it that way

 

[BigInch]

 

[MortenA]

look for "Karl Fisher" for determening WIO - but it wont capture any water that has separated out as a seperate phase. Dont trust this site for this kind of info, talk to an instrument supplier or your lab.

 

[BigInch]

What instrument does this, "Reduce the amount of condensed water in the bunker"?

ANSWER:
evlav llab ro etag

 

[MortenA]

He asks for two thing: analysis and ways to remove. BTW I think ASTM 4006 "Standard Test Method for Water in Crude Oil by Distillation" actually provides guidance on how to do this and that a "Dean Stark apparatus"

http://en.petrotech.ru/en/equipment/E/1/127/

should do just that )although im nor very familiar with this type of analysis as im more accustomed to Karl Fisher=

 

[georgeverghese]

Fuel oil no 6 is probably very viscous. You may need to heat it up a bit to make it flow easily and allow any one of these to work

Here are some suggestions

Step 1

Pass the fuel oil through a fuel filter coalescer-that should remove most of the free water. If the fuel oil has particulate matter in it, you'll need a particulates filter upstream of this fuel filter coalescer. Fuel filter coalescers are readily available off the shelf from many vendors.

Step 2

You could try one of these non regenerable drying agents in a packed bed if you need to go even lower on water content:

a) Activated alumina - BASF Sorbead

b) Anhydrous calcium chloride

OR if you need a regenerable process ( which is going to involve a lot more equipment and capital ) -

Use mono ethylene glycol in an countercurrrent LLE process with a packed bed

If you have a source of dry gas, try countercurrent gas stripping in a packed bed - we can increase the water vapor holding capacity of the dry gas by heating it up - obviously stay below HFO flash point

Hope this helps

 

[georgeverghese]

There is an error in my previous advice

" a) Activated alumina - BASF Sorbead"

Should be corrected to

"Activated alumina OR BASF Sorbead"


For lab scale samples, you've got a centrifuge.