Research progress of source,distribution and removal technology of chlorides in crude oil

Inorganic chlorides in crude oil exist mainly in the forms of alkaline metals and alkaline-earth metal salts,and can be effectively removed by using electrostatic desalting units.Organic Chlorides are from chloride-containing additives used in oil production.It was believed by the research in the early stage that the organic chlorides were mainly distributed in the light distillates of the crude oil.The research in recent years show that the organic chlorides is quite complicate,the heavy distillates also contain large amount of chlorides,and the existing electrostatic desalting units can not effectively remove the organic chlorides from the crude oil,so new methods for organic chloride removal need to be developed.