Patent ID: 9540571
Date: 2017-01-10
CPC Classifications: C10G

Claim:
1. A method of de-salting fuel oil in a fuel supply system of a gas turbine engine, comprising the following steps: providing a static emulsifier formed of a piece of pipe of predetermined length having a flow path therein along the piece of pipe from a fuel oil inlet at one end of the piece of pipe to an emulsion outlet at the opposite end of the piece of pipe, and having therein, in sequence along the flow path from the inlet to the outlet, a fuel oil-swirl-producer, a water-mist nozzle, and a turbulent-flow-promoter, the static emulsifier being provided as an in-line section of pipe of the fuel supply system; supplying salt-containing fuel oil to the inlet of the in-line section of pipe before adding water to the fuel oil; swirling the fuel oil using a propeller using the swirl-producer to cause the fuel oil to swirl and to cause the fuel oil to flow in a turbulent flow region upon entering the in-line section of pipe; spraying a fine mist of water into the swirling and turbulent flowing fuel oil by supplying water to the water-mist nozzle of the in-line section of pipe and using the nozzle to inject the mist of water in the fuel oil immediately after the fuel oil has been swirled by the swirl-producer to create a fuel oil/water mixture and emulsion, at the same time the water is added, in the in-line section of pipe between the fuel oil-swirl-producer and the turbulent-flow-promoter, to permit the water in the emulsion to extract salt from the salt-containing fuel oil; turbulently further mixing the oil and water by passing the emulsion to the turbulent-flow-promoter and using the turbulent-flow-promoter to promote turbulent flow in the emulsion in the in-line section of pipe that increases the salt content of the water in the emulsion; and passing the emulsion from the outlet of the in-line section of pipe to a separator in the fuel supply system that separates fuel oil from water that now contains an increased content of salt in the emulsion.