Pignat gets licence to distil from French Petroleum Institute

Lyon, 26 April 2005 – Pignat of France, a leading company in the construction of chemical engineering equipment and process engineering, has just signed two licence agreements with the French Petroleum Institute (Institut Français du Pétrole). The licence agreements will enable Pignat to launch two new products: DESALTOP®, a crude-oil desalting pilot unit, and TOPCONT®, a continuous distillation unit for crude oil.

Using well-known and recognised processes, Pignat is one of the few companies in the world that is capable of building this type of crude-oil pilot unit. The pilot units, which concern two fundamental oil-industry processes, were specially designed to prepare fractions for use in process-engineering studies (hydrotreatment, cracking, reforming, etc.) from a wide spectrum of crude oil (API 16 to 40). The fractions are comparable to those obtained via industrial processes.

The water scrubbing process perfected by Pignat uses water that has been physically decanted under electric potential, which allows fine water droplets to coalesce. The DESALTOP® pilot desalting unit lowers NaCl concentration levels for crude oils from approximately 10,000 pounds per 1,000 barrels to less than 10 pounds per 1,000 barrels.

The TOPCONT® pilot distillation unit is capable of producing fraction volumes of around 100 kilos (gas, diesel fuel, VGO, neutral, residue) with quality criteria comparable to those obtained by industrial units for heavy crude oils.

Pignat also produces other pilot units for liquid-liquid extraction, reaction, crystallisation and other operations.

About Pignat
Pignat, which has its headquarters in south-east France, is a forward-looking company that is international in scope, with operations around the globe. The quality of Pignat products and the company’s high level of professionalism have made it one of the leading companies in its field.
For more information, please go to: www.pignat.com