Organic Chlorides in Petroleum Crude Oil: Challenges for Refinery and Mitigations

Abstract Crude oils contain chloride impurities, including some organic components termed as ‘organic chloride'. Owing to the high dissociation energy of the C‐Cl bond, organic chlorides are very difficult to remove during the desalting process unlike inorganic chloride salts. Failure to properly remove organic chlorides could have a significant adverse effect on petroleum refinery equipment in terms of corrosion during crude oil processing. Therefore, stringent specification of organic chlorides is being maintained throughout the refining process to avoid corrosion‐related incidents. Generally, a guard bed column is used for the removal of organic chlorides in the downstream of the refining process. Guard bed columns are comprised of metal oxide‐based components that operate at a very high temperature. In contrast, a phase transfer catalyst (PTC)‐based process for organic chloride removal at the upstream of the refining process is established up to lab‐scale and with model compounds only. This review is aimed to highlight the technical challenges associated with organic chloride contamination in refining processes and plausible methods and techniques available for smooth refining operations.