3 replies to this topic

[tsewell]

Hi all!

 

I am trying to simulate a crude oil desalter in Aspen Hysys using a 3-phase separator, but I am running into some issues. The problem statement requires the crude oil/water mixture to be liquid and no vapor product exiting the desalter. However, when I try to use the "quick size" button in the ratings tab, Hysys tells me it cannot be sized because there is no vapor product. Is there a way to size a 2-liquid phase separator without vapor in Hysys? If not, what are the best sources to go to to size a desalter by hand?

 

Thanks!

[Pilesar]

Try adding a little nitrogen to your stream to trick the software.

[tsewell]

Thanks, that's sneaky! I threw in a lbmol/hr and it was able to size it. Unfortunately a little bit of the nitrogen ended up in the crude stream, so if anyone happens to have a non-tricky way to do this I'd still love to hear it.

[SilverShaded]

The three phase seperator sizes vessels based on vapour/liquid seperation and a rule of thumb for residence time, there is no way you can realistically use it to size a desalter which is seperatng oil/water emulsion with an electrostatic field.