Interface Management during Transportation of Products through Multi-Product Petroleum Pipelines without Kerosene Plug

Abstract

This is an innovative work that may prove to be a milestone in terms of saving money that gets wasted due to the generation of unwanted interface (I/F) mixture between different petroleum products (diesel, gasoline and kerosene oil) in direct contact, that are being pushed back-to-back through the same pipeline as per current industrial practice. It is known that the interface between any two liquids is generated due to diffusion as per Fick’s first law of diffusion. Industrial diesel is often called high speed diesel (HSD), gasoline is called motor spirit (MS) and kerosene oil is called superior kerosene oil (SKO). Now, let’s take the example of pumping of HSD-SKO-MS, in that order, through the pipeline. It is obvious that the amount of diffusion, hence, interface generation, increases with the increase in the time for which they are in contact. That is why, if its’ considered to be shutdown, the interface quantity increases. The presence of HSD in MS adversely affects its Octane no. and other basic properties. So, HSD is not desirable to be allowed to get mixed with MS batch. The present study is discussed about how to manage the interface without SKO plug so that the product quality is meeting the Industry standards. In this work, it has been proposed for using ethanol (aqueous) as a plug between MS and HSD, which are being pushed back-to-back through the pipeline as per current industrial practice.