Oil and Water

Electolis Ltd

These two liquids are invaluable,

but only when they are separated

 

Human activity force mineral oil and water contact with one another, and it destroys natural harmony of purity.

In each stage, including oil production, transportation, processing, usage, and utilization of fuel and other oil products, as well as oil spill elimination and run-off water refining, there is a problem of separation of water and oil products.

Effectiveness of this problem solving has an essential impact on profitability of individual enterprises, on economic conditions in some regions, as well as on environmental conditions and as a result on living standards and population health.

Despite the fact that the problem of separation of water and oil products as old as oil production, the ideal equipment for solving this problem has not been created yet. Many companies in various countries are working on this problem.

Our equipment (see Picture 1), which is patented in Russian Federation, has the following advantages over other known engineering solutions:

  • High effectiveness of separation and refining (up to 95-99,9%);
  • Absence of replacement materials;
  • Absence of movable parts;
  • High serviceability;
  • Relatively low materials consumption;
  • Relatively low cost of separation;
  • Minor electrical energy consumption or absence of energy consumption, if flow velocities of separable liquids are sufficiently large.

Instruments that work on gravidynamic principle so-called Gravidynamic Separators are used for liquids separation.

Gravidynamic Separators (GS) are the instruments in which comprehensive approach to liquids separation is used. The following things are supported in interrelated proportions:

  • Cyclone (hydrocyclone) preliminary separation of oil and water and optimal deceleration of incoming flow;
  • Income oil-enriched and oil-depleted liquid component in hydrophobic and hydrophilic liquid filter;
  • Gravidynamic separation of liquid phases;
  • Active coalescences of fine-dispersed components and water globules destruction;
  • Hydrostatic adjustment of unloading of separated water and oil.

 

Main fields of application of the equipment

 

1. Preliminary separation of stratal water

Systems of oil transportation and preparation include extraction area, booster pumping stations, assembly places, and kilometers of pipelines. Preliminary evacuation of water makes an the most essential impact on cost saving, mainly thanks to energy saving. Water evacuated from oil wells is a corrosive liquid and its transportation leads to intensive corrosion of pipeline and other oil equipment. In addition, this water is a source of pollution of the environment. So, it is reasonable to exclude water transportation and to pump it back to beds. Suggested equipment can be used for that in extraction area directly.

Output of the stratal water separation plants can be from 50 to 5000 cubic meters per twenty-four hours. It depends on the number of wells and theirs outputs.

The separation of water directly in extraction area has the following advantages:

  • Decrease or even elimination of demulsifier consumption;
  • Decrease of booster pumping stations loading as well as assembly places loading;
  • Undergage of pipelines from places of pumping water back to beds to places of preliminary oil preparation;
  • Essential decrease of loading of existent oil dehydration plants;
  • Essential decrease of path length of stratal water transportation;
  • Essential decrease of power inputs needed for transportation as well as appropriate transfer pumps output;
  • Increase of pipelines and appropriate oil equipment durability;
  • Decrease of needed capital investment and so on.

In addition to the advantages mentioned above, preliminary stratal water pumping in places of water-oil liquid extraction has a good effect on operation of equipment for oil transportation and preparation.

In order to maintain oil production on existence level under increasing of watering it is necessary to increase extracted volume. But the volume that can be extracted is limited to pumps output, pipeline throughput, water refining equipment output, and so on. Increase in portion of water in a flow leads to increase in corrosion of pipelines and other equipment. Therefore, additional anticorrosive treatment or repair expenses are needed. Pipelines damages induced by corrosion due to additional water can lead to heavy expenses for oil spill elimination.

Increase in portion of water in extracted liquid leads to necessity for closing wells with high water content or oil equipment modernization that require considerable capital investment. Usually, such situations arise in the final stage of oilfield exploitation. In this stage investments become unreasonable and wells temporarily abandon. Coast of produced oil is a lost profit.

Decrease in current or future expenses for extraction, refining, and placing a large amount of corrosive associated water is also very important. Problems with stratal water will lead to pollution of underground deposits of drinking water sooner or later, if appropriate steps, starting with decrease in volume of stratal water transported to a long distance, do not be taken.

Usage of suggested equipment is another way to decrease expenses for solving the problems with stratal water. The main idea is to separate associated water in each stage of oil production, transportation, and preparation where water exists in free phase spontaneously due to relative instability of oil-water emulsion and/or because of special arrangements such as heating or bringing in of demulsifiers.

Thus, usage of suggested equipment based on gravidynamic separators will increase oil production from running wells and restore the output of temporarily abandoned wells.

 

2. Gathering of oil and elimination of oil outflows

Recently many company increase a production of mobile equipment for oil gathering, especially on vehicle with cross-country capacity. Suggested gravidynamic separators can successfully be used almost on any vehicle.

The output of the equipment is limited to the carrying capacity of carrier only. For vehicle the output is from 10 to 20 m3/hour.

If the equipment is placed on a riverboat or on a sea craft, the output is limited to output of transfer pump or displacement ton of the boat.

Depending on gathering of water-oil blend and transportation it to separator as well as necessity of special oil dehydration high dehydration rate as well as high water quality can be achieved. For example:

  • Residual water content in gathered oil — 0.5 – 3,0 %;
  • Oil content in water — 15 mg/litre.

More efficient approach to equipping boats (especially oil-tankers) with instruments for oil dehydration is possible. This approach is based on using gravidynamic separators.

 

3. Refinement of manufacturing water and process liquid

Gravidynamic separators can be used for refinement of manufacturing water and process liquid from oil-products either as a main separator or as a preliminary one. The following characteristics can be reached:

  • Output for water refinement — from 0,1 to 2000 m3/hour;
  • Output for oil dehydration — from 0,1 to 300 m3/hour;
  • Water purification efficiency (depending on type of original liquid) — 95.0 – 99,9%;
  • Oil dehydration efficiency — more than 90%.

If there is a need of refinement of manufacturing from another pollutants, such as salts, heavy metal ions, and dredges, sedimentation can be applied, using most recent coagulants that allow achieving current standards of residual pollutants.

Technical specifications for gravidynamic separators with output up to 2000 m3/hour have been developed and approved.

Gravidynamic separators have been applied in oil industry in Czechia and Slovakia. Experimental samples have been tested by such companies as “Tatneft”, “Noyabrskneftegaz”, and “Lukoil”. Gravidynamic separators have been tested and applied in others branches of industry also.

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