A Review on Crude Oil Fouling and Mitigation Methods in Pre-heat Trains of Iranian Oil Refineries

Abstract

Crude oil fouling of the equipment surfaces is a troublesome issue which leads to operating difficulties, economic penalties, increased environmental impacts, and health and safety hazards in petroleum industry. With a rough estimation, a minimum cost of equal to 4 million barrels of oil/year is required to be invested to offset the costs of crude oil fouling in Pre-heat Trains of Iranian oil refineries. Considering the price of each oil barrel equal to 50$, crude oil fouling cost is predicted to be 200 million$/year. Additionally, burning extra fuel leads to emission of a great portion of CO2, which is associated with a highly negative environmental and economic impacts. Therefore, crude oil fouling mitigation methods such as controlling the operating conditions, utilizing additives, and surface modification techniques have received a great deal of attention. Surface modification in terms of modification of its geometry and texture and/or surface energy can help mitigate fouling to a large extent.