Naphthenic acid is an old enemy to petroleum refinery corrosion. Naphthenic acid compounds contribute to this corrosion in a characteristic temperature range of approximately 220-400 �C. Efforts are directed to mitigate this problem by essentially taking a blending strategy, where a less corrosive crude is blended with a more corrosive one to reduce the extent of corrosion. Although this method curbs corrosion to some extent, it does not mitigate it substantially. A few researchers have reported the catalytic decomposition of carboxylic acid by palladium and nickel based catalyst. It has recently been reported that MgO is an effective catalyst to decompose naphthenic acid to ketones and hydrocarbon.But ketones can potentially be reoxidised to form the naphtnenic acids. Therefore there is a need for a more effective catalyst. As it was known from earlier refinery experiences that nickel-containing steels behave better in an environment highly corrosive to iron (the main component of carbon steel in refinery pipelines). We, in this work, developed a new nickel based catalytic system to effectively decompose naphthenic acid to hydrocarbon. The lab simulated crude after the catalytic treatment, proved to be non-corrosive to iron, which is a big step forward to mitigate high temperature crude corrosion in the refineries. This catalyst can be reused for several cycles without much loss in its activity. This process will be of use to the oil refineries to mitigate naphthenic acid corrosion challenge to a large extent in the future as world reserves of the sweet crude are decreasing and the industries are left with no option but to turn towards the sour or corrosive crudes.

Development of a new catalytic method to substantially reduce high temperature naphthenic corrosion in the refinery

248th National Meeting (2014)

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