To provide an impurity separation apparatus for heavy oil producing light oil portion while reducing equipment cost.
The impurity separation apparatus 1 for heavy oil is for removing an asphaltene portion contained in the heavy oil and is provided with an ultrasonic dispersing unit 3 for dispersing heavy oil in water to have a size of oil droplet previously set in a range from submicrometer order to nano-order to be larger than the critical radius of the asphaltene portion. a settling separator 5 for separating a separated oil phase formed by uniting oil droplets dispersed in the ultrasonic dispersing unit 3 and each having a radius larger than the critical radius from an emulsion phase dispersed in the ultrasonic dispersing unit 3 and comprising oil droplets each having smaller radius than the critical radius and water and a centrifugal separator 6 for separating oil portion and water contained in the emulsion separated in the settling separator 5 from each other.
YOKOTA OSAMU
HAYASHI AKINORI
TAKAHASHI HIROKAZU
KOKUBO SHINSUKE
| JP2034865A |
| US4446012A | 1984-05-01 |