The Acid-IER Method – a Method for Selective Isolation of Carboxylic Acids from Crude Oils and Other Organic Solvents

Abstract

Abstract The amount of acidic crude oils produced worldwide is increasing. These oils introduce problems throughout the hydrocarbon value chain due to their high content of carboxylic acids, examples of which are naphthenate deposition in production facilities and refinery corrosion. In order to deal with these problems, it is often necessary to isolate the carboxylic acids in different fluid streams or solids to allow further analysis without interference from other compounds. This paper presents and verifies an ion-exchange method that can be used for selective isolation of carboxylic acids from crude oils, distillate fractions and other organic solvent. The efficiency and selectivity of the method have been demonstrated as >98 mol-% using two synthetic carboxylic acids. Its usefulness for isolation of carboxylic acids from solids and non-organic solvents has also been demonstrated, exemplified by calcium naphthenate deposits and water.