Due to their unfavorable product properties – such as impurities in the form of inorganic and organic solids, metallic salts and asphaltenes – the processing of crude oils, which tend to become heavier and heavier, poses many challenges. The prerequisite for economical further processing is an efficient and resource-saving removal of both these contaminants and the salts and sediments as well as the water cut they contain. This protects downstream equipment and systems from possible corrosion and reduces the risk of unplanned downtime or premature replacement.

The GEA Crude Oil Treatment System takes effect before the "off-spec" product is fed to the refineries for further processing: Installed as a treatment system downstream of the storage tanks for the contaminated heavy oil, GEA centrifugal desalting Centrifuges reduce the negative product properties to the necessary level. The treated crude oil is then fed via further storage tanks to the refinery for further processing.

The correspondingly processed heavy oil can be mixed with higher quality raw material, which is a common method to simplify further processing in refineries. They thus have the opportunity to purchase extra-heavy crude oil at an attractive price and continue to operate profitably with the help of the GEA Crude Oil Treatment System – and all this without the necessary use of large quantities of solvents, energy and other operating materials and without adversely affecting the environment.