User:Milton Beychok/Sandbox

A crude oil desalter is a device used in petroleum refineries to remove inorganic salts, water and sediment from the incoming petroleum crude oil feedstock before it is refined.

The amount of water, salts and sediment in the crude oil as received at petroleum refineries varies widely with the source of the crude oil and with the mode of transporting the crude oil from its source to the refineries.

Almost all refineries now use electrostatic desalters to separarate the clean, desalted crude oil from the water, salts and sediment although there may still be a few that use chemicals and settling tanks.

(CC) Drawing: Milton Beychok Figure 1: Schematic flow diagram of a typical crude oil distillation unit.

(CC) Drawing: Milton Beychok Figure 2: Cross-sectional diagram of a crude oil desalter