What You Should Know About How Crude Oil Flows Through a Tank Battery

Crude oil is what remains after natural gas is extracted from the fluid pumped out of a well. It includes substances such as oil, paraffin (and other petroleum products) and water. In a tank battery, the crude oil system and lines are everything that exist after the separator, which includes the heater-treaters, stock tanks and various other types of tanks and lines.

When setting up a tank battery for any industrial operation you have underway, you need to understand the way crude oil flows through a tank battery in Carlsbad, NM, as well as the various standards and regulations associated with this kind of option. In most cases, you’ll have a line that pipes the output from the separator right into the stock tank. For this purpose, you can implement a diverter manifold and add line openings to the tanks and equipment you’re using, such as a heater-treater or gun barrel.

Here’s a quick overview of some of what you’ll need to know:

• Heater-treater: A heater-treater may burn gas to heat up crude oil as one part of the separation process. Because it involves burning, there are some important safety rules you’re going to need to take into consideration. You’ll need a flame arrestor to fit the firebox, and should keep the heater-treater at least 100 feet from the closest hatch through which gas could potentially escape. This means you’ll need to carefully plan out the system when you’re placing your heater-treater. Operation of the heater-treater will be simple—crude oil goes through the inlet and gets directed through a downcomer close to the bottom. Oil rises up beyond the heating element and through plates that serve as baffles, and at each step water falls to the bottom to be drained as oil floats up and out of the tank.
• Gun barrel: The gun barrel is a part used to remove any additional water that exists in the oil. You can run a line to an inlet at the top of this part, or you can use an external side boot to add to the efficiency of the gun barrel. When the oil enters a gun barrel, it collides with a spreader that disperses the oil throughout the tank. That oil then floats up to the top as the rest of the water sinks down to be drained from the bottom.
• Stock tanks: After the crude passes through specialized vessels, it gets sent back into a stock tank to be held for storage. The outlet line that runs out of the gun barrel most frequently goes directly to a stock tank, and the crude shouldn’t have to travel far to get there. These tanks will usually be stored very closely to each other. You can add equalizer lines to stock tanks to ensure greater control over where and how the oil flows.

For more information about how crude oil flows through a tank battery in Carlsbad, NM, we encourage you to contact the experienced team at JB Electric LLC today.

Categorised in: Tank Batteries