De-asphalter
Sign in to saveA de-asphalter is a unit in a crude oil refinery or bitumen upgrader that separates asphalt from the residuum fraction of crude oil or bitumen. The primary purpose of the separation is to remove contaminants (asphaltenes, metals) from the feed that would cause rapid deactivation of catalysts in downstream processing units. In doing so, the de-asphalter is the first step in a series of processes that upgrade a low-value feedstock to high-value refined products.
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Within Vinony's link graph, De-asphalter is referenced by 21 other articles, and connects out to petroleum, oil refinery and International Standard Book Number.
It is catalogued under topics including Chemical equipment, Distillation and Petroleum technology.
Its subject is documented across 5 Wikipedia language editions.
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A de-asphalter is a unit in a crude oil refinery or bitumen upgrader that separates asphalt from the residuum fraction of crude oil or bitumen. The primary purpose of the separation is to remove contaminants (asphaltenes, metals) from the feed that would cause rapid deactivation of catalysts in downstream processing units. In doing so, the de-asphalter is the first step in a series of processes that upgrade a low-value feedstock to high-value refined products.
The de-asphalter unit is usually placed after the vacuum distillation tower and receives feed from the bottom (residuum) stream. It is usually a solvent de-asphalter unit, SDA. The SDA separates the asphalt from the feedstock because light hydrocarbons will dissolve aliphatic compounds but not asphaltenes. The output from the de-asphalter unit is de-asphalted oil ("DAO") and asphalt.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “De-asphalter” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.