Petroleum

TTS specializes in CRUDE OIL SLUDGE handling as a Technical, Economical and Environmental Problem. TTS is a Limited Partnership company, and started its activity in 1993 at both the domestic and regional levels with the largest petroleum companies inside and outside Egypt to include Canada.
 

TTS enjoys a unique advantage which is non-competitive with similar companies as it possesses the Patented right for the chemical substance which is used through the thermo-chemical treatment operations for each of the following Storage tanks, Crude oil tanks, Gas/oil separation, Vessels and open pits.

The method proposed by TTS can be described in general as the “Thermo-Chemical method”.

CHEMICAL because the chemical TTS-750 is introduced in to the sludge to break the sludge into three components (hydrocarbon, water and inorganic sediments). In addition, all the hydrocarbon contents of sludge will be provided with a permanent floating ability for dissolving into crude oil.

THERMAL, in order to achieve the optimum function of the chemical in the sludge within an acceptable time. The sludge is stirred and warmed. For this purpose, mixing pumps and heat exchangers are temporarily piped to storage tanks, so by elevating the temperature of the mixture, the sludge will be easy pumped and liquefied, and then at 50-55 °C the chemical will start to act as a surfactant.

1) Calculating the sludge quantity in the tank by the average height of the sludge using the standard tape method which enables us to calculate the whole sludge quantity (soft, medium & hard sludge)

2)    Installation of our closed circuit around the tank with our equipment of heating, pumping & injecting (as indicated in our brochure)

-    Step by step procedure in the tank:

1) Transfer a certain quantity of fresh crude oil to the tank by
mixing ratio (1:1).

2) Start circulation and heating by TTS circuit until reaching the temperature of (50:55 o c).

3) When the temperature is reached, we begin introducing the chemical injection with a certain dose from 500 to 1000 ppm, and get an amount of fresh crude while keeping the warming and steering to ensure the homogeneity of all components inside the tank.
 
4) We then begin the settling, this will be done for 2 hours, at that time the water is drained from the tank.

5) This batch will be transferred to another tank after the estimate of mixing ratio between de-sludging tank and the shipping tanks by LAB.

6) After that TTS will make other batches (batch wise) until finishing the job.  No waste product is produced. Traditional methods to deal with sludge have always been to remove the sludge and dumping it into the environment or keeping sludge temporarily in suspension in crude oil. Both of these systems are no longer acceptable in today’s industry as they pollute the environment or they pass on the sludge problem to oil company’s customers.

The TTS method is based upon recovering hydrocarbons from the sludge into crude oil. Once the hydrocarbons from the sludge are mixed with crude oil, they remain in suspension permanently. Since this is done in closed circuit system, there is no wastage to pollute the environment.

Beside the fact that the environment is not polluted, the main advantage is that the recovered hydrocarbons represent sale-able crude oil. As such, every barrel is a sheer profit at market price level compared to any other system that turns the sludge into an environmental problem by dumping it.

The used TTS chemical TTS-750 is a mixture of petroleum based products. The pH value of the mixture is 7 and as such, it is neither aggressive nor corrosive. The chemical does not contain poisonous elements and forms no hazard to humans (skin irritation, inhalation, etc). The chemical composition does not form a threat to any downstream equipment, process systems or catalysts.

There are many companies inside and outside Egypt that have gained a profit of our method as GUPCO, PETROBEL, WEPCO and more.