diff --git a/dhp-workflows/dhp-dedup-openaire/src/main/java/eu/dnetlib/dhp/oa/dedup/SparkCreateMergeRels.java b/dhp-workflows/dhp-dedup-openaire/src/main/java/eu/dnetlib/dhp/oa/dedup/SparkCreateMergeRels.java
index c0503d991..19e60b520 100644
--- a/dhp-workflows/dhp-dedup-openaire/src/main/java/eu/dnetlib/dhp/oa/dedup/SparkCreateMergeRels.java
+++ b/dhp-workflows/dhp-dedup-openaire/src/main/java/eu/dnetlib/dhp/oa/dedup/SparkCreateMergeRels.java
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ import org.apache.commons.io.IOUtils;
 import org.apache.spark.SparkConf;
 import org.apache.spark.api.java.JavaPairRDD;
 import org.apache.spark.api.java.JavaSparkContext;
+import org.apache.spark.api.java.function.MapFunction;
 import org.apache.spark.api.java.function.PairFunction;
 import org.apache.spark.graphx.Edge;
 import org.apache.spark.rdd.RDD;
@@ -100,8 +101,10 @@ public class SparkCreateMergeRels extends AbstractSparkAction {
 
 			final RDD<Edge<String>> edgeRdd = spark
 				.read()
-				.load(DedupUtility.createSimRelPath(workingPath, actionSetId, subEntity))
-				.as(Encoders.bean(Relation.class))
+				.textFile(DedupUtility.createSimRelPath(workingPath, actionSetId, subEntity))
+				.map(
+					(MapFunction<String, Relation>) r -> OBJECT_MAPPER.readValue(r, Relation.class),
+					Encoders.bean(Relation.class))
 				.javaRDD()
 				.map(it -> new Edge<>(hash(it.getSource()), hash(it.getTarget()), it.getRelClass()))
 				.rdd();
diff --git a/dhp-workflows/dhp-dedup-openaire/src/main/java/eu/dnetlib/dhp/oa/dedup/SparkCreateSimRels.java b/dhp-workflows/dhp-dedup-openaire/src/main/java/eu/dnetlib/dhp/oa/dedup/SparkCreateSimRels.java
index 2cfe2e080..7bc77fe2b 100644
--- a/dhp-workflows/dhp-dedup-openaire/src/main/java/eu/dnetlib/dhp/oa/dedup/SparkCreateSimRels.java
+++ b/dhp-workflows/dhp-dedup-openaire/src/main/java/eu/dnetlib/dhp/oa/dedup/SparkCreateSimRels.java
@@ -95,19 +95,23 @@ public class SparkCreateSimRels extends AbstractSparkAction {
 					});
 
 			// create blocks for deduplication
-			JavaPairRDD<String, Block> blocks = Deduper.createSortedBlocks(mapDocuments, dedupConf);
+			JavaPairRDD<String, Block> blocks = Deduper
+				.createSortedBlocks(mapDocuments, dedupConf)
+				.repartition(10000);
 
 			// create relations by comparing only elements in the same group
-			JavaRDD<Relation> relations = Deduper
+			Deduper
 				.computeRelations(sc, blocks, dedupConf)
-				.map(t -> createSimRel(t._1(), t._2(), entity));
+				.map(t -> createSimRel(t._1(), t._2(), entity))
+				.repartition(10000)
+				.map(r -> OBJECT_MAPPER.writeValueAsString(r))
+				.saveAsTextFile(outputPath);
 
 			// save the simrel in the workingdir
-			spark
-				.createDataset(relations.rdd(), Encoders.bean(Relation.class))
-				.write()
-				.mode(SaveMode.Append)
-				.save(outputPath);
+			/*
+			 * spark .createDataset(relations.rdd(), Encoders.bean(Relation.class)) .write() .mode(SaveMode.Append)
+			 * .save(outputPath);
+			 */
 		}
 	}