To meet the increasing requirements of its customers, WVT Industries (Belgium) has developed a new demulsifier called ‘Ash Decon’.
When MARPOL refers to the lowering the emissions to decrease pollution, companies are required to explore new paths, to enable them to improve their environmental behaviour.
In the oil industry, harbors around the world receive waste-oil, which contains water, sediments and ash.Ash is limited in percentage as they cause heavy pollution when the oil is used as a bunkerfuel in ships. Containing elements such as sulphur, aluminum, nickel, silicon and phosphorus, reducing ash is a very important step in the process, when transforming waste-oil to a product which could be used as a fuel in the MARPOL sector.
WVT Industries (Belgium) was requested to develop a new product to add to its existing demulsifier range in order to reduce ash in waste-oil and then process this waste-oil to a product. This ‘refined’ oil would then be supplied to the market as a fuel and not anymore as waste.
Ash Decon the newly formulated demulsifier features a low pH range, low corrosion effects and exceptional performance when reducing ash in oil.
Following tests by different customers, WVT met it targets in this ‘project’, by being able to reduce ashes from 5%, to less than 0.5% in 1 step.
Ash Decon can be used for mechanical, or gravitational separation, together with Demulsifier Q03, to remove water, sediments or ash from waste oil, meeting the fuel standards.
Ash-Decon offers an
outstanding result as treatment for De-Ashing.
The following outlines the results of WVT studies on its use in cleaning
and descaling applications, and provides relevant physical and chemical
properties for Ash-Decon and its salts.
The benefits provided by Ash-Decon
in cleaning and descaling applications can be summarize as follows:
•
Strong acidity ⇒ Promotes rapid attack on
carbonate and oxide
scales
•
Forms highly solubility salts ⇒ Enhanced dissolution and
removal of salts
•
Non-foaming and slightly hydrotope ⇒ Easily combined with
surfactants.
•
Stable to most oxidizing agents ⇒ Formulate with H2O2 or
peracetic acid bleaching
agents
•
Non-oxidizing ⇒ Minimize degradation of
other formulation
components
•
Low corrosivity to metals vs. other acids ⇒ Less damaging to pipes and
fixtures
•
Low toxicity and ecotoxicity ⇒ Dilute solutions safe for
discharge to waste
treatment facilities
ACIDITY:
Ash-Decon is a very
strong organic acid, like the strong mineral acids HCl and H2SO4.
Ash-Decon’s acidity in aqueous solutions is substantially greater than that of
phosphoric, sulfamic, or the carboxylic acids. The high acidity of Ash-Decon
promotes rapid reaction with carbonate and oxide scales.
REACTIVITY OF ASH-DECON IN DESCALING:
Nitric acid is not representated on this graph,
but:
Ash-Decon > Sulfamic > formic > phosphoric
> lactic=glycolic > citric
As showed in the graph, Ash-Decon is the most
efficient acid, mainly on short time contact. On the graph we can see that
Ash-Decon is much more efficient than other acid even at a low temperature of
20°C. Sulfamic acid is not far in efficiency at 70°C, but its poor water
solubility and nitrogen group are not in its advantage. Weak acid have very low
efficiency.
Moreover, at opposite of Ash-Decon all those acids
are unstable in presence of strong oxidizers, and their chemical oxygen demand
is much higher than Ash-Decon one.
TOXICITY AND ECO-TOXICITY:
The
toxicity and ecotoxicity of Ash-Decon arises from its high acidity, which is
similar to that of the strong mineral acids. WVT testing has shown :
•
Neutralized Ash-Decon
offers extremely low toxicity.
•
Ash-Decon is not
genotoxic, not teratogenic, not a skin sensitizer, and is not expected to
bioaccumulate.
•
Ash-Decon is
readily biodegradable (100% after 28 days).
•
Ash-Decon can be
directly discharged to waste treatment plants at concentrations up to 160 mg
L-1 as the acid, or more than 1.75 g L-1 after neutralization.
Contact
WVT for additional toxicity and eco-toxicity information.
CORROSIVITY:
Results
from several studies on the comparative corrosivity of Ash-Decon with other
strong acids are tabulated below. As would be expected for strong acids in
water, the relative corrosivities vary with concentration, temperature and the
exposed metal. The corrosivity of aqueous Ash-Decontowards carbon steel,
aluminium or copper is similar to that for phosphoric acid, and substantially
less than that for sulfamic acid or HCl.
Contact
WVT for information on Ash-Decon compatibilities with other materials of
construction.
This information is intended as guidance. WVT
provides no warranty on the suitability of Ash-Decon formulation base for
contact with any material. We strongly recommend that customers conduct their
own testing to assure compatibility of Ash-Decon and other components in
mixtures with the materials of construction. WVT technical laboratories can
help you to check the materials compatibility.
Unit conversion: 25.4 µm = 1 mil = 0.001 inches In
chemical processing equipment, corrosion rates less than 100 µm/year are
generally regarded as acceptable.
WVT gets some data on the corrosion at higher Ash-Decon
concentration, and can do, in the frame of cooperation agreement, some
corrosion trials on your final formulation. Pure Ash-Decon is strongly
corrosive versus stainless steel 304 or 316. WVT is able to propose a new grade
without corrosion versus SS 304 and 316.
If you are interested in this new grade, please contact WVT’s
representative