Since the advent of products pipelines, the operators of these lines have been faced with interior corrosion—a problem rarely if ever encountered in the older crude systems. The corrosion quite early manifested itself in the form of moderate to severe pitting, which in turn made for heavy accumulations of oxidized scale, thereby seriously interfering with the maintenance of maximum line capacities. After a rather lengthy period of investigation, coupled with some costly experience, it was found that line capacities could be maintained by 1, employing a regular schedule of interior scraping; 2, by introducing anti-corrosion inhibitors; and, 3, by dehydration of the product prior to delivery to the pipeline. It is with this last phase of endeavor that this paper is primarily concerned.
Before taking up the subject of dehydration of such, it might be well to review briefly a few of the fundamentals involved in the problem confronting us....
