In recent years, domestic refineries have been processing an increasing proportion of high-calcium crude oil year by year, driving booming research and development of crude oil decalcifiers in China. Most self-developed decalcifiers are compound products composed of multiple functional additives.
Main commercial crude oil decalcifiers available in the domestic market include serial decalcifiers developed by Luoyang Petrochemical Engineering Corporation, FT-series decalcifiers from Yangzi Petrochemical Research Institute, and Decalcifier D and Decalcifier E launched by Qilu Petrochemical. Refineries often add one or more fine chemical additives as supplementary agents to solve targeted operational problems. Such refining auxiliaries feature strong pertinence, flexible deployment, and can optimize the performance of catalysts, refining processes and production equipment.
Driven by the gradual deterioration and heaviness of crude oil quality, growing market demand for high-quality light oil products, and increasingly stringent environmental regulations, domestic refining enterprises have accelerated the R&D and large-scale application of specialized refining auxiliaries.
Most mainstream crude oil demulsifiers are block copolymers of polyoxyethylene and polyoxypropylene, and newly developed products are modified versions of traditional demulsifiers with partial structural optimization.
Binzhou Chemical Research Institute adopted a targeted modification route summarized as molecular end adjustment, skeleton optimization, molecular weight regulation and compound blending to upgrade conventional demulsifiers. GD97 demulsifier produced by Shanghai Gaoqiao Petrochemical delivers stable demulsification performance for crude oil from Daqing, Shengli, Gudao and Iran. The atmospheric and vacuum distillation unit of Sinopec Zhenhai Refining & Chemical adopts oil-soluble demulsifiers supplied by Nanjing Petrochemical Co., Ltd.
Among commercial products, NS-88 oil-soluble demulsifier from Nanjing Petrochemical has outstanding desalination capacity with an average desalination rate of 93.10%. Under identical crude oil processing conditions, its desalination efficiency is 13.53% higher than water-soluble demulsifiers.
Driven by rising processing volume of high-calcium crude oil, domestic crude oil decalcifier R&D has gained widespread attention. Almost all domestically industrialized decalcifiers are compound formulations of multiple additives. The three dominant decalcifier product lines in the domestic market are developed respectively by Luoyang Petrochemical Engineering Corporation, Yangzi Petrochemical Research Institute, and Qilu Petrochemical.
Common corrosion inhibitors widely used in domestic refineries include Nifandine-18, 7019 and 1017. Sinopec self-developed SH and KG high-efficiency corrosion inhibitors have achieved large-scale industrial promotion.
Targeting scaling and corrosion failures in fractionator bottoms and heat exchangers of sulfur-bearing crude oil processing units, Luoyang Petrochemical Engineering Corporation developed VAF-1 anti-scaling and corrosion inhibitor. NS-1010 neutralizing corrosion inhibitor produced by Nanjing Petrochemical has been officially applied in PetroChina Jinling Petrochemical Branch.
Domestic research institutions have developed targeted scale inhibitors to resolve equipment scaling risks in crude oil refining, which are categorized into FCC slurry scale inhibitors and hydrocracking scale inhibitors by application scenarios.
East China University of Science and Technology, Luoyang Petrochemical Engineering Corporation and Nanjing Petrochemical have independently launched FCC slurry scale inhibitors that are widely deployed in domestic heavy oil FCC units. Different from traditional products, new-generation scale inhibitors strictly control trace harmful impurities, requiring chloride ion content ≤0.001% and iron ion content ≤0.0001% for hydrotreating scale inhibitors. Representative hydrocracking scale inhibitors include SFH series from East China University of Science and Technology and RG series from Shengli Refinery of Qilu Petrochemical.
In terms of anti-coking additives, the viscosity reduction anti-coking agent from Shengli Refinery of Qilu Petrochemical can effectively suppress equipment coking and raise the initial coking reaction temperature to facilitate cracking reactions. NS-970 delayed coking inhibitor from Nanjing Petrochemical is used in PetroChina Anqing Petrochemical, while NS-17 ethylene cracking coke inhibitor has been applied in Liaoyang Petrochemical and Lanzhou Petrochemical. It can extend equipment service life, cut energy consumption and improve overall economic benefits via excellent coking inhibition performance.
