Moscow Politech and Maxinvest: Oil purification technology for sulphur

2022: Development of a technology for cleaning oil from sulphur

Employees of Moscow Polytechnic University together with Maxinvest (Skolkovo resident) developed oil desulfurization technology and even created a pilot plant demonstrating the key advantages of this technology. Its essence is in the effect on oil of rotating electromagnetic fields of high power. This happens in the engineer-developed electromagnetic process activator - EPA (electromagnetic process activator). This was reported on February 11, 2022 at Moscow Polytechnic University.

In Russian oil production, the share of raw materials with a high sulfur content is growing. This is an environmental problem: the use of high-sulfur oil pollutes the atmosphere, since combustion produces sulfur gas. In addition, this problem is also economic, since companies have to pay for high-sulfur oil to be "taken into the pipe."

"In an engine, a fixed stator sets variable magnetic fields for rotor rotation. And we use instead of a rotor a lot of ferromagnetic elements with the addition of a nanopowder of magnetite - natural iron oxide, which has magnetic properties and is not prone to oxidation. Ferromagnetic elements rotate, mixing and grinding the substance. But this is not just a stirrer, many physicochemical processes take place in the activator, including magnetostriction, cavitation, the formation of low-temperature dense plasma, " spoke about the comparison of the activator with the electric motor, scientific project manager - head of the department "Mathematics" of Moscow Polytechnic, professor Stepan Andreev

The entire device consists of several nodes. First, the oil undergoes primary treatment in an electrolytic cell. Then it is mixed with a ferromagnetic liquid based on a nanopowder of magnetite and supplied to the activator, where the main treatment takes place. After its completion, the mixture is passed through a magnetic separator, where metal residues settle, and a centrifuge, where excess water is separated. All processes take place at normal atmospheric pressure, without chemical catalysts and at a temperature not higher than 100 degrees Celsius. These are milder conditions for processing raw materials than usual, without the participation of electromagnetic fields.

Laboratory tests showed: if you undergo such treatment, then the sulfur content in it decreases, and the number of light fractions - gasoline, kerosene - increases. This technology allows reducing the viscosity and density of not only oil, but also fuel oil, shale oil and other petroleum products.

For different types of petroleum products under different treatment conditions in this apparatus (the rotation speed of the ferromagnetic elements or the treatment time of the mixture may differ), the results may be different. For oil, the reduction in sulfur can be from 4% to 1.6%, and for fuel oil - from 2.6% to 1.4%.

This technology allows you to work in-line, the installation takes up small areas and does not require the construction of capital structures. It does not require large material and energy costs, is easily embedded in existing technological cycles and scales.

"The development raises quite a lot of interest among various stakeholders, and we are negotiating to make an industrial sample and start introducing it into the oil industry," told by Professor Andreev

Start of the device has to become the project of laboratory which the Moscow Polytechnic University plans to create together with Institute of problems of oil and gazarossiysky academy of Sciences and LLC Maksinvest, Skolkovo.

See also

• Oil production in Russia