METHOD FOR CONTROLLING A PROCESS INVOLVING THE DEWAXING OF HYDROCARBON OILS
The invention relates to a method for controlling the dewaxing of an oil phase comprising a hydrocarbon oil which has been optionally diluted in at least one organic solvent. The inventive method includes the following steps namely: a step (a) comprising the formation of wax crystals in the above-mentioned phase, and a step (b) comprising the separation of the wax crystals thus formed from the dewaxed oil phase. An additional step is performed between step (a) and step (b), consisting in measuring the number of wax crystals in the flux conveying a suspension of crystals from step (a) using a particle-size analysis probe, comprising the reflection of light on the crystals. According to the invention, an alarm procedure and/or an intervention procedure is triggered if the number of measured particles falls suddenly by a pre-determined value. The invention also relates to the use of one such particle-size analysis probe in order to detect at least one continuous liquid phase demixing phenomenon in a solid/liquid suspension or liquid/liquid dispersion flux.