Stimulating in situ microbial communities in oil reservoirs to produce natural gas is a potentially viable strategy for recovering additional fossil fuel resources following traditional recovery operations. Little is known about what geochemical parameters drive microbial population dynamics in biodegraded, methanogenic oil reservoirs. We investigated if microbial community structure was significantly impacted by the extent of crude oil biodegradation, extent of biogenic methane production, and formation water chemistry. Twenty-two oil production wells from north central Louisiana, USA, were sampled for analysis of microbial community structure and fluid geochemistry. Archaea were the dominant microbial community in the majority of the wells sampled. Methanogens, including hydrogenotrophic and methylotrophic organisms, were numerically dominant in every well, accounting for, on average, over 98% of the total Archaea present. The dominant Bacteria groups were Pseudomonas, Acinetobacter, Enterobacteriaceae, and Clostridiales, which have also been identified in other microbially-altered oil reservoirs. Comparing microbial community structure to fluid (gas, water, and oil) geochemistry revealed that the relative extent of biodegradation, salinity, and spatial location were the major drivers of microbial diversity. Archaeal relative abundance was independent of the extent of methanogenesis, but closely correlated to the extent of crude oil biodegradation; therefore, microbial community structure is likely not a good sole predictor of methanogenic activity, but may predict the extent of crude oil biodegradation. However, when the shallow, highly biodegraded, low salinity wells were excluded from the statistical analysis, no environmental parameters could explain the differences in microbial community structure. This suggests that the microbial community structure of the 5 shallow, up-dip wells was different than the 17 deeper, down-dip wells. Also, the 17 down-dip wells had statistically similar microbial communities despite significant changes in environmental parameters between oil fields. Together, this implies that no single microbial population is a reliable indicator of a reservoir's ability to degrade crude oil to methane, and that geochemistry may be a more important indicator for selecting a reservoir suitable for microbial enhancement of natural gas generation.

Factory legacy pollutants are an increasing concern for waterways as old infrastructure deteriorates and contaminates nearby environments. The Fisherville Mill in Grafton, Massachusetts, USA exemplifies this problem since it has now fallen into disrepair and is leaking Bunker C crude oil into the adjoining Blackstone River, a third order stream. Our research examines how effectively an ecologically engineered system (EES), consisting of anaerobic bacteria environments, fungal microcosms, and aquatic plant environments, can break down petroleum hydrocarbons, specifically aliphatic and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), in this river environment. Our testing protocol involved taking water samples before and after each filtration stage monthly from June through October 2012. Water samples were analyzed at the Brown University Superfund Research Lab using mass spectrometry to determine aliphatic and PAH concentrations. Post-treatment aliphatic oil concentrations were significantly different from baseline concentrations (p=0.005), with an average reduction of 95.2%. Post-treatment PAH concentrations were also significantly different from baseline concentrations (p=0.001), with an average reduction of 91%. We conclude that this EES provided effective treatment for Bunker C crude oil, even though some filtration stages did not achieve their intended objectives. This type of filtration arrangement might be scaled up for use in larger remediation efforts regarding Bunker C crude oil.

Knowledge of thermodynamic fluid properties, such as density and phase behavior, is important for the design, operation, and safety of several processes including drilling, extraction, transportation, and separation that are required in the petroleum. The knowledge is even more critical at extreme temperature and pressure conditions as the search for more crude oil reserves lead to harsher conditions. Currently, there is dearth of experimental data at these conditions and as such, the predictive capability of the existing modeling tools are unproven. The objective of this research is to develop a fundamental understanding of the impact of molecular architecture on fluid phase behavior at temperatures to 523 K (250 °C) and pressures to 275 MPa (40,000 psi). These high-temperature and high-pressure (HTHP) conditions are typical of operating conditions often encountered in petroleum exploration and recovery from ultra-deep wells that are encountered in the Gulf of Mexico. This PhD study focuses on the fluid phase behavior of a low molecular weight compound, two moderately high molecular weight compounds, three asymmetric binary mixtures of a light gas and a heavy hydrocarbon compound with varying molecular size. The compounds are selected to represent the family of saturated compounds found in typical crude oils. Furthermore, this study reports experimental data for two "dead" crude oil samples obtained from the Gulf of Mexico and their mixtures with methane from ambient to HTHP conditions. A variable-volume view cell coupled with a linear variable differential transformer is used to experimentally measure the high-pressure properties of these compounds and mixtures. The reported density data compare well to the limited available data in the literature with deviations that are less than 0.9%, which is the experimental uncertainty of the density data reported in this study. The phase behavior and density data obtained in this study are modeled using the Peng-Robinson (PR), the volume-translated (VT) PR, and the Perturbed-Chain Statistical Associating Fluid Theory (PC-SAFT) equations of state (EoS). The EoS pure component parameters, typically obtained from the open literature, are derived from fitting the particular EoS to, critical point, or to vapor pressure and saturated liquid density data, or to HTHP density data. For the density data reported here, the PREoS provided the worst predictions, while the VT-PREoS gives an improved performance as compared to the PREoS. However, the PC-SAFT EoS provided the best HTHP density predictions especially when using HTHP pure component parameters. The situation is however reversed in the modeling performance for the phase behavior data whereby the PC-SAFT EoS with HTHP parameters provided the worst vapor-liquid equilibria predictions. Better predictions are obtained with the PC-SAFT EoS when using parameters obtained from fit of the vapor pressure data and is comparable to the PREoS predictions. This reversal in performance is not surprising since the phase behavior data occur at moderately low pressures. The performance of the PC-SAFT EoS is extended to the experimental density data reported for the dead crude oil samples and their mixtures with methane. The PC-SAFT EoS with either set of pure component parameters yield similar predictions that are within 3% of the reported crude oil density data. However, when using the HTHP parameters, the PC-SAFT gives a good representation of the slope of experimental data, which is crucial in the calculation of second-derivative properties such has isothermal compressibility. The PC-SAFT EoS is also employed to model the crude oil HTHP density data for both the dead crude oils and their mixtures with methane using correlations for both the Low-P parameters and the HTHP parameters. The Low-P parameters are derived from fitting the PC-SAFT EoS to pure compound vapor pressure and saturated liquid density data, while the HTHP parameters are obtained from fitting the PC-SAFT EoS to pure compound HTHP liquid density data. Interestingly, the PC-SAFT EoS with the Low-P parameters provided better HTHP density predictions that are within 1.5% of the experimental data for the dead oils than the HTHP parameters that are within 2 to 4% of the data. Density predictions for the dead oil mixtures with methane are however comparable for both sets of parameters and are within 1% on average. However, the PC-SAFT EoS with HTHP parameters clearly provided better representation of the isothermal property, a derivative property obtained from density data, within 10% while predictions with the Low-P parameters can be as high as 37%. The successful completion of the thesis work expands the current knowledge base of fluid phase behavior at the extreme operating conditions encountered by engineers in the petroleum industries. Furthermore, the reported HTHP experimental data also provide a means to scientists and researchers for the development, improvement, and validation of equations with improved modeling performance.

The goal of this master thesis is to analyze impact of shocks in oil prices to automobile industry stock prices and returns. We decompose oil price shocks on oil supply shocks, aggregate demand shocks and oil-specific demand shocks and assess their individual impacts on these stock prices/returns. This is done using the vector autoregression (VAR) methodology which allows us to compute impulse responses, that is the reaction paths on the individual shocks. In addition to linear VARs we also employ threshold VAR models in order to capture nonlinearities in impulse responses and besides the aggregate automobile stock price index we compute these nonlinear impulse responses also for some selected individual car producers. We think that this analysis have two different uses. First, it can be beneficial to stock market investors. Second, it can be used by policymakers in countries such as Slovakia and the Czech Republic, which are relatively heavily dependent on automotive industry. 1

This thesis investigates the relationship between daily spot and futures prices for maturities of one, two, three and four months of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil. The data cover period January 1987-April 2015. Based on economic theory, the futures prices should be closely related to the spot price, which - in the case of crude oil market - this thesis analyses using wavelet-based approach. Main contributions of this thesis are findings in the field of time-frequency relationship of spot-futures prices of crude oil, where an alternative methodology - wavelet transformation - is used. The usage of this advanced method is also an additional contribution of this thesis because it allows us to rigorously study how co-movement (relationship) differs across frequencies/scales and time. In this thesis wavelet Coherence, wavelet bivariate correlation and relatively new method wavelet band spectral regression (WBLS) are used. This thesis brings 4 main findings. First, relationship between Futures and spot prices of crude oil is strong in all time-periods (frequencies/scales), which supports economic theory. Second and In contrary to the first finding, in the gasoline spot-futures market, we find that the relationship is strong mainly in higher scales (lower frequencies) while in lower scales (higher...

<p>Mass spectrometry (MS) alone or coupled with high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) or gas chromatography (GC) is a versatile analytical tool that is routinely employed for identification of unknown compounds in complex mixtures. MS operates by separating ionized analytes based on their mass-to-charge (<i>m/z</i>) ratios. If the analyte can be ionized without complete fragmentation, MS provides molecular weight information and, if performed at high resolution, elemental compositions for the ionized analytes. Tandem mass spectrometry (MSⁿ, n <u>></u> 2 where each MS step corresponds to an ion isolation or separation event) also provides structural information of ionized analytes. With this approach, structural information of the ionized analytes is obtained by isolating the ionized analytes of interest and subjecting them to fragmentation experiments, such as collision-activated dissociation (CAD). The ions of interest can also be isolated and allowed to react with gaseous molecules to generate product ions (ion-molecule reactions). </p> The experiments described in this dissertation focused on the development of tandem mass spectrometry methods based on CAD and/or gas-phase ion-molecule reactions for the differentiation of acyl, <i>N</i>- and <i>O</i>-glucuronide drug metabolites and for identification of primary carbamates as potentially mutagenic impurities. Further, by using a previously published method titled Distillation, Precipitation, Fractionation Mass Spectrometry (DPF MS), the chemical compositions of five crude oil samples, including heavy, medium, and light crude oils with different API gravities, were determined. Additionally, the gravimetric percentages of different compound classes found in these crude oils are reported as well as the correlations found between API gravities and the chemical compositions of crude oils.

Les perspectives énergétiques globales soulignent une demande croissante d'énergie sur les prochaines décennies. Le pétrole brut devrait représenter environ 35% de l'offre d'énergie primaire à l'horizon 2030 d'après l'AIE. Parmi les sources d'approvisionnement, les hydrocarbures "non conventionnels" devraient contribuer significativement à l'offre de produits pétroliers, puisqu'ils présentent un intérêt stratégique en termes de réserves et d'indépendance énergétique. L'objectif de cette thèse est l'étude du potentiel de développement des ressources d'hydrocarbure non conventionnelles sous différents scénarios liés au contexte économique et environnemental. Les sables asphaltiques, principalement localisés au Canada, constituent notre cas d'application. La première partie de cette thèse a mis en évidence deux phases de développement: la première, de 1980 à 2005, correspondant à l'émergence de la filière grâce à des leviers réglementaires, économiques et géographiques; la seconde, amorcée en 2005 avec la dégradation du contexte économique, pendant laquelle le développement de la filière s'est fortement ralenti. La seconde partie de cette thèse porte sur l'analyse prospective à horizon 2050. L'élaboration d'un premier modèle basé sur la programmation linéaire a permis de quantifier l'offre tendancielle sous différents scénarios déterministes de prix et de réglementations environnementales. En particulier, la décision d'investissement apparaît significativement impactée par l'introduction d'une taxe CO2. Un second modèle basé sur la programmation dynamique a permis d'évaluer l'offre prospective en présence d'incertitudes. Un impact négatif de l'incertitude et de la volatilité des prix sur la décision d'investissement a été mis en évidence, avec ou sans réglementation environnementale. Cet impact négatif est accentué lorsqu'une incertitude supplémentaire sur le cadre réglementaire environnemental est introduite. / International energy outlook emphasizes an increasing energy demand over the next decades. Crude oil should represent about 35% of primary energy supply by 2030 according to the IEA. Among supply sources, non conventional crude oil should contribute significantly to the supply of petroleum products, being strategic in terms of reserves and energy independence. This thesis aims to evaluate the development potential of non conventional crude oil using different scenarios regarding the economic and environmental context. Oil sands, essentially located in Canada, constitute our application. The first part of this thesis highlights two development phases: the first one, from 1980 to 2005, corresponding to the emergence of the oil sands sector through regulatory, economic and geographical levers; the second one, started in 2005 with the deterioration of the economic climate, during which oil sands development slowed down significantly. The second part of this thesis focuses on the prospective analysis of the horizon 2050. Firstly, the development of a supply model based on linear programming allowed us to quantify non conventional oil trend supply under deterministic price and environmental regulation scenarios. In particular, investment decision is significantly affected by the establishment of a CO2 tax. Secondly, the development of another supply model based on dynamic programming allowed us to evaluate future non conventional crude oil supply under uncertainties. A negative impact of price uncertainty and volatility on investment decision is highlighted, under or without environmental regulation. This negative impact is strengthened by the introduction of a supplementary uncertainty in environmental legal framework.

O objetivo desta pesquisa foi o desenvolvimento de métodos para: determinação simultânea de Cr/Fe/Ni/V em óleo cru; determinação simultânea de Co/Cu/Pb/Se em óleo cru, gasolina e diesel; determinação monoelementar de Si em óleo cru, gasolina e diesel; e determinação de espécies porfirínicas de Fe/Ni/V em óleo cru, utilizando ultracentrifugação e extração em ponto nuvem, por espectrometria de absorção atômica com forno de grafite e detecção simultânea (SIMAAS). Foram estudadas as condições de preparo das amostras por emulsão, empregando Triton X-100® como surfactante e hexano ou clorofórmio como solventes diluentes do óleo cru. Nas melhores condições, as emulsões foram preparadas em 6% (m v-1) de Triton X-100® com o óleo cru previamente diluído com 125 &#181;L de hexano (nos métodos para as determinações totais dos elementos) ou diluído com 400 &#181;L de clorofórmio (no método para a determinação das espécies porfirínicas). No método envolvendo a determinação simultânea total de Cr/Fe/Ni/V não foi utilizada agitação ultrassônica devido à pequena massa de óleo necessária (50 mg) para análise. Por outro lado, a agitação ultrassônica foi essencial para possibilitar a estabilização de maiores massas de óleo cru (200 mg e 400 mg) na emulsão. A estabilidade da emulsão só foi melhorada com agitação ultrassônica, antes da etapa de diluição com água. Nessa condição, foi possível obter emulsões estáveis com 200 mg ou 400 mg de óleo cru, por 30 min ou mais de 8 h, respectivamente. O programa de aquecimento do forno de grafite foi avaliado em cada caso, com e sem uso de diferentes modificadores químicos (Pd e Mg), especialmente nos métodos de determinação simultânea, em que foi necessário adotar condições de compromisso. Para a determinação monoelementar de Si foi verificado melhora nos parâmetros analíticos (sensibilidade e repetibilidade) com o uso de NbC como modificador permanente combinado com 20 &#181;g de Pd como modificador químico co-injetado. Os LODs estimados para Cr (0,07 &#181;g g-1), Fe (2,15 &#181;g g-1), Ni (1,25 &#181;g g-1), V (1,25 &#181;g g-1), Co (0,02 &#181;g g-1), Cu (0,03 &#181;g g-1), Pb (0,04 &#181;g g-1), Se (0,11 &#181;g g-1) e Si (0,16 &#181;g g-1) foram suficientemente baixos para permitir as determinações dos elementos com boas precisão e exatidão. Análises de materiais de referência forneceram resultados a um nível de confiança de 95%, quando aplicado o teste t>/i> de Student. O fracionamento de porfirinas de Fe/Ni/V foi feito em emulsão de óleo cru combinando com a extração por ponto nuvem (CPE) e ultracentrifugação. Nesse estudo, foi verificado a necessidade do uso de 0,1 mol L-1 de HCl para extração dos elementos associados a espécies organometálicas não porfirínicas. Após a ultracentrifugação da emulsão de óleo cru, os alfaltenos e material particulado foram separados e no sobrenadante permaneceram espécies inorgânicas, compostos organometálicos leves e porfirinas de Fe, Ni e V. Após CPE de outra emulsão de óleo cru permaneceram na fase aquosa espécies inorgânicas e composto organometálicos leves. As concentrações das porfirinas de Fe, Ni e V foram determinadas após a subtração dos resultados obtidos no primeiro (ultracentrifugação) e segundo (CPE) procedimentos. / The objective of this research was the methods development for: simultaneous determination of Cr/Fe/Ni/V in crude oil; simultaneous determination of Co/Cu/Pb/Se in crude oil, gasoline and diesel; determination of Si in crude oil, gasoline and diesel; and determination of porphyrin species of Fe/Ni/V in crude oil using graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry with simultaneous detection (SIMAAS). It was studied the conditions for the emulsion sample preparation, employing Triton X-100® as surfactant and hexane or chloroform as diluent of the crude oil. Under the best conditions, the emulsions were prepared in 6% (m v-1) of Triton X-100® with crude oil previously diluted with 125 &#181;l of hexane (in methods for total determination of elements) or diluted with 400 &#181;l of chloroform (in the method for determination of porfhyrin species). In the method for the simultaneous determination of Cr/Fe/Ni/V it was not necessary to use ultrasonic agitation due to the small mass of oil needed (50 mg) for analysis. On the other hand, ultrasonic agitation was essential to enable the stabilization of larger masses of crude oil (200 mg and 400 mg) in emulsion. The emulsion stability was improved with ultrasonic agitation, before dilution step with water. In this condition, it was possible to obtain stable emulsions with 200 mg or 400 m;g of crude oil, for 30 min or more than 8 h, respectively. The heating program of graphite furnace was evaluated in each case, with and without use of different chemical modifiers (Pd and Mg), especially in the methods for simultaneous determination, in which was necessary to adopt compromise conditions. For Si determination, was verified significant improvement in analytical parameters (sensitivity and repeatability) with the use of NbC as permanent modifier, combined with co-injected 20 &#181;g of Pd as chemical modifier. The LODs estimated for Cr (0.07 &#181;g g-1), Fe (2.15 &#181;g g-1), Ni (1.25 &#181;g g-1), V (1.25 &#181;g g-1), Co (0.03 &#181;g g-1), Cu (0.03 &#181;g g-1), Pb (0.04 &#181;g g-1), Se (0.11 &#181;g g-1) and Si (0.16 &#181;g g-1) were low enough to allow measurements of the elements with great precision and accuracy. Analysis of reference materials provided results at confidence level of 95%, when applied to the Student\'s t-test. The Porphyrin fractionation of Fe/Ni/V was done on crude oil emulsion by combining cloud point extraction (CPE) and ultracentrifugation. In this method, 0.1 mol L-1 of HCl must be used for extraction of elements associated with the organometallic species different of porfhyrins. After the ultracentrifugation of crude oil emulsion, asfalthene and particulate matter were separated and in the supernatant remained inorganic species, organometallic compounds and porphyrins of Fe, Ni and V. After CPE of another emulsion of crude oil, remained in the aqueous phase only the inorganic and organometallic compound species. The porphyrin concentrations of Fe, Ni and V were determined after the subtraction of the results obtained in the supernatant from the first (centrifugation) and second (CPE) procedures.

Thesis advisor: Christopher Baum / Thesis advisor: Fabio Ghironi / Do events in the natural gas market cause repercussions in the crude oil market? In light of the enormous impact that price movements in the two largest U.S. energy markets have on the economy, it is important to understand not just the individual markets but also how they relate to one another. On this front, the literature presents a puzzle: while economic theory suggests that the oil and gas markets are interlinked through a bi-directional causal relationship, empirical research has concluded that the oil market affects the gas market but not vice versa. The first chapter of this dissertation improves on the previous studies in two ways: by using high-frequency, intraday oil and gas futures prices and by analyzing the effect of specific news announcements from the weekly oil and gas inventory reports. The results dispel the notion of one-way causality and provide support for the theory. The reaction of the futures volatility and returns is asymmetric, although this asymmetry does not follow the "good news" vs. "bad news" pattern from stock and bond markets; the response depends on whether the shock is driven by oil or gas inventory gluts or shortages. The two-way causality holds not only for the nearby futures contract but also for contracts of longer maturities. These findings underscore the importance of analyzing financial markets in a multi-market context. The second chapter of this dissertation asks whether volatility and trading volume evolve in a unidirectional or bidirectional, contemporaneous or lagged relationship in the crude oil and natural gas futures markets. This question is important because it affects trading and government regulation but previous studies have come to conflicting conclusions. Their main shortcoming is the low frequency of data used in the analysis. This chapter improves on the previous studies in three ways: by using high-frequency, intraday oil and gas futures prices and volume, by including trading not only during the day but also during the night, and by analyzing not only the nearby futures contract but also contracts with longer maturities. For the nearby contract, Granger-causality tests show that past values of volume help explain volatility which agrees with the Sequential Information Arrival Hypothesis. Past values of volatility have explanatory power for volume only when absolute return is used as the volatility measure; when the conditional variance from GARCH models is used as the volatility measure, the causality in this direction disappears. These results change when low-frequency daily data is applied. It is also shown that the volatility-volume relationship differs for contracts with longer maturities. These findings are relevant for regulations, such as trader position limits recently adopted by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trade Commission. The third chapter of this dissertation investigates whether the production structure of firms affects international optimal portfolios, risk-sharing, and response of terms of trade (TOT) to shocks. The answer to this question would enhance our understanding of the home equity bias, yet it has not been addressed in the theoretical literature. This chapter studies the question in a two-country dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model with endogenous portfolio allocation. It shows that the optimal portfolio includes more home equity as the production structure changes from exporter-only, i.e., firms operating in their home countries and serving foreign markets by exports, to multi-national-company-extreme (MNC), i.e., firms hiring labor in both countries and producing locally in both countries. This shift occurs because changing the firms' production structure eliminates exposure to technology differences and allows the home household to accomplish the same diversification with less foreign equity. The production structure also has implications for the effect of technology shocks on the TOT. Under the exporter-only setup, a shock to technology causes a standard TOT deterioration, whereas under the MNC-extreme setup, a shock to technology leads to a TOT improvement. By producing testable predictions, this chapter underscores the need to take firms' production structure into account when analyzing international optimal portfolios, risk sharing, and response of the TOT to technology shocks. This is especially important since empirical research has generated conflicting results. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2012. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Economics.

Este trabalho visa o estudo da viabilidade da redução do uso de água no processo de dessalgação em refinarias de petróleo. Em uma primeira fase, foi necessário o estudo teórico da separação das emulsões água/óleo. Em seguida, foi desenvolvido um modelo matemático baseado nas forças atuantes nas gotas de água, o que possibilitou a determinação do tempo entre as colisões de pares de gotas e o estabelecimento do critério para que ocorra o fenômeno de coalescência. Esse modelo foi empregado em um sistema desenvolvido com base em autômatos celulares, o qual possibilitou o acompanhamento do processo micro e macroscópico, através do cálculo para o conjunto das gotas, e o acompanhamento visual até a separação da fase contínua. Os experimentos de laboratório, para os quais foi usado equipamento ótico para a medição da intensidade de luz transmitida ou espalhada pelas gotas, possibilitaram avaliar a influência da qualidade da água de mistura no tempo de separação das emulsões. Na unidade industrial, foram realizados testes que permitiram analisar o desempenho das dessalgadoras em diferentes situações operacionais. Os resultados obtidos através dos experimentos de laboratório e da simulação usando o modelo matemático desenvolvido mostraram-se compatíveis com os dados obtidos nos testes na unidade industrial. O trabalho mostrou ser possível alterar os esquemas de usos de água nas dessalgadoras, aumentando a taxa de reciclagem e possibilitando a otimização do consumo de água fresca neste processo, o que resultaria em redução substancial no consumo geral de água na refinaria. / The aim of this work is the study of the reduction of water consumption in petroleum desalting processes. The study of the attraction forces acting on the droplets was necessary to know how the emulsion water/oil is separated. A mathematical model based upon these forces was built to calculate the time between each droplets collision and to establish criteria for their coalescence. This model was applied to a system developed based on cellular automata, which allows to follow the process micro and macroscopically. Computations were carried out to the ensemble of droplets and the visual progression, from the start of droplets separation of the continuous phase to the end of the process could be visualized. Laboratory experiments, in which optical equipment was used to measure the light intensity transmitted or scattered by the droplets, allowed to evaluate the influence of the type of mixing water in the separation time of the emulsions. Tests in the industrial unity allowed evaluating the performance of the desalting units at different operating conditions. Conclusions of the laboratory experiments and the results of the mathematical model were compared with results of the industrial tests, showing coherence between them. The work shows that it is possible to simulate the effect of the operating variables and to alter schemes of water use in desalting units, increasing the water recycling rate, allowing optimization of fresh water consumption in this process and reducing the total water consumption in the refinery.