Dehydration and desalination of oils using supercritical carbon dioxide

A new technology for purification of oil from water, salts, and solid impurities with supercritical (SC) CO₂ before refining at existing refineries is developed. The proposed technology, along with purifying oil from water, salts, and solid particles, accomplishes its deasphalting and demetallization. The process is implemented on a facility at a pilot plant of the Institute of Petrochemical Processes of the Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences. Preliminary technical-economical calculations show that the energy expenditures on oil extraction with SC-CO₂ are significantly lower than for the existing processes.