Start Date
February 1997

Background
Since 2017, regular updates on volatile phosphorus testing, carried out by Pembina Pipelines, have been provided at Condensate Quality project meetings. Pembina has been providing regular updates for over two decades.

No volatile phosphorus above the 1.5 wppm limit has been detected during the regular testing of ~2400 samples during 2018 and 2019. As of 2020, Pembina scaled back testing however they are still testing delivery points at some key nodes along the mainline.

Milestones as of February 2024

• In 2022, several US refiners reported issues with phosphorus deposits over the past year related to US domestic production. Phosphorus has also been recently detected in both the crude feed and deposits from several Canadian refineries.
  
• Data was presented at the September 2022 Project Maintenance meeting highlighting the recent phosphorus related observations from the impacted refineries. A follow-up meeting was held on October 12 to focus on phosphorus specifically.
  
• Key Points:
  - Monitor both the total phosphorus and volatile phosphorus. Midstream companies report no volatile phosphorus results in their testing however refiners are testing and finding total phosphorus in raw crudes. The volatile phosphorus testing distillation cut point at 250°C may not be capturing the current phosphorus species.
  - Current phosphorus fouling appears in the hotter tower sections than the previous fouling issues.
  
• The above were discussed at the December 2022 Project Maintenance meeting.
  
• At the March 2023 Project Maintenance meeting, a US refiner provided a dataset with ~2200 total phosphorus results from their various operations in North America over the past 5 years. The dataset showed a significant amount of phosphorus reporting from both North American and international sources. 56% of results are 1 wppm and 8% of the results are >1 wppm.
  
• Deposits from both two refineries were discussed at the September 2023 Project Maintenance meeting. Although phosphorus was detected in the deposits, the analysis indicated it was inorganic based and not organically bound like historical deposits.
  
• Deposits also have a different morphology/texture than those found during the alkyl phosphate ester fouling issues of the past. Those deposits were hard and adherent while the current deposits are powdery and easily removed.
  

• Nine sample were received from fouled tower trays. Seven had sufficient material for characterization.
  
• Included in the characterization is the novel use of TGA-FTIR-MS to allow evaluation the organic portion of the deposit in narrow boiling ranges as opposed to on the bulk deposit. The FTIR will provide structural information while the MS will provide potential compound identification.
  
• The results of the characterization will be presented at the March 2024 Project Maintenance meeting.