CONTINUOUS DE-GUMMING

Refinery

CONTINUOUS
DE-GUMMING

This Degumming section is the first stage in Refinery plant. The purpose of degumming is to remove phospholipids or gums from the crude oil. Two types of phospholipids are present in crude oils according to their level of hydration, i.e., hydratable and nonhydratable ones. After addition of water (1-3%), most of the phospholipids are hydrated and are insoluble in the oil. The hydrated compounds can be efficiently separated by filtration or centrifugation and the non-hydratable compounds still remains in the oil after this section.

This separation of gums and soap from the oil is done by highly trusted MACFUGE equipment which are designed for centrifugal separation of solid-liquid, liquid-liquid-solid, liquid-liquid, in all its versions, types and materials. MACFUGE separator is a product of Servizi Industriali SRL located in Italy, is a partner with Ferro Oiltek for the supply of macfuge separator in India.

Depending on the oil composition, the degumming step can be eliminated as the phosphatides are also removed along with the soaps during the next step of neutralization. However, degumming is mandatory for physical refining and the content of phosphorus after degumming should be lower than 10 mg/kg.

In Ferro’s Degumming section, the main equipments are Reactor vessels, Knife-mixtures, Centrifuge separators, Plate type heat exchangers, etc along with various sub-parts like flowmeters, pumps, control valves, hot- and cold-water tank, strainers, etc.