Frames Group B.V. (Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands; www.frames-group.com) has been awarded a contract to supply two desalters (electrostatic coalescers) to leading Hungarian oil and gas company MOL Group for the Duna Refinery at Százhalombatta near Budapest. The Frames Desalters will enable MOL to process a broader range of crude oils more cost effectively.
MOL Group is developing a new crude desalting system at the Duna (Danube) refinery. It is part of the company group’s program of crude basket diversification, moving from the current alternative seaborne crude intake to above 33% and aiming for 50+ crude grades. Following a ‘desalter optimization study’ focused on identifying the shortcomings of the existing desalters, and the changes required by the refinery to handle more complex and challenging blends, MOL opted to install a new Frames two-stage Desalter system to broaden its crude diet.
Frames’ proprietary Desalters are 2-phase separators that utilise an electrostatic field to remove water and salts from crude oil, allowing cost-effective transport and protecting downstream processes from unwanted corrosion and fouling. The new desalters will be installed in the Duna refinery’s crude oil distillation unit.
“By selecting the Frames’ Desalter we have taken into account both the purchase of the most efficient desalter from many points of view as well as all aspects of present and future operational conditions,” says the Project Manager from the MOL Group. “We particularly prefered the desalter’s ease of operation, its efficiency of desalting, its lower energy consumption and total the cost of ownership (TCO) in selecting the desalter supplier.”
The Frames Desalters build on the company’s vast experience in coalescer engineering, enabling it to give clients a competitive advantage when cleaning crude oil. “We are used to processing difficult crude blends to remove undesirable water and salts. This allows us to meet stringent performance guarantees while at the same time reducing energy consumption to provide optimum TCO performance,” notes Geert Willemse, Product Specialist – Separators & Treaters at Frames.