Surface cover method to reduce evaporation rate of crude oil

Abstract

One of the problems that commonly found in petroleum industry is related to the evaporation of crude oil during storage. Hence the purpose of this study is to find lower-cost method to reduce crude oil evaporation. The method has the same principle as floating roof tank, but instead of surface covered by metal, low-density chemical substances, i.e., polyurethane foam and ethylene vinyl acetate foam (EVA mat), was used to cover the surface of crude oil. In comparison with EVA mat, polyurethane foam gave lower percentage of reduced crude oil evaporation. Increasing the thickness of the additive to 3 cm was found to be the best parameter to reduce the evaporation of crude oil. At temperatures of 40, 45, and 50°C, 3 cm thickness of polyurethane foam was able to reduce the evaporation of crude oil by 81.6 - 91.7%, 75.9 - 87.3%, and 74.2% - 86.6%, respectively. At temperatures of 40, 45, and 50°C, 3 cm thickness of EVA mat can reduce the evaporation of crude oil by 68.6 - 78.1%, 56.8 - 60.9%, and 42.4 - 49.6%, respectively.