Paraffinic sludge reduction in crude oil storage tanks through the use of shearing and resuspension

Abstrakt This paper presents a method of cleaning paraffinic crude oil sludge from storage tanks by shearing and resuspension using an in-line jet mixer. An explanation is presented of why sludge deposition occurs in storage tanks that contain paraffinic crude oil. Conventional methods of tank cleaning are discussed. A theory regarding the behaviour of a submerged fluid jet is presented and the concept of “critical energy minimum’ is established. This paper presents a method used to successfully clean a crude oil storage tank using an in-line jet mixer and the results of a practical case study are presented.