Novel Coalescer Technology in First-Stage Separator Enables One-Stage Separation and Heavy-Oil Separation

摘要

Vetco Aibel (former ABB Offshore Systems) has for a long time carried out fundamental research on compact separation, A great part of the development has been to incorporate robust electrostatic coalescers into three-phase separators. The current technology enables one stage separation and accelerates separation of oil and water. The most recent product developed to enable one stage separation is the LOWACC (Low Water Content Coalescer). The LOWACC is an electrostatic coalescer element enhancing and accelerating the separation in an oil/water/gas separator. It is designed to be located downstream VIEC (Vessel Internal Electrostatic Coalescer), which is a bulk separating device, in a separator. A prototype LOWACC, together with a VIEC, has been tested on several different real crude oils ranging from API 17 to API 29. For the API 29 crude, LOWACC successfully reduced the water in oil content below 0,5% without the use of chemicals. For the challenging API 17 oil, the oil in water was reduced to below 2-5%. All the test results verified good separation even with tough separation conditions that created stable complex emulsions and small droplets. The produced water leaving the separator contained 2-200 ppm oil in water.