Hydrocyclone optimisation to separate oil and water in the separator

The conventional 3-phase separator installed cannot anticipate the increase in fluid flow so that the oil content carried into the produced water from the separator consistently exceeds the upper operating threshold. This study aimed to test the application of a hydrocyclone device to a 3-phase horizontal separator. Hydrocyclones are widely used as auxiliary devices to optimise oil separation by minimising oil carried into the produced water stream. This study made a comparison between installing a hydro cyclone at the inlet with a 3-phase horizontal separator. Applying a hydrocyclone at the inlet of a 3-phase horizontal separator increases the efficiency of the separation process in production. Proper design improvements with Hysys and flow characteristics with CFD can reduce the oil content carried in the produced water stream below 20 mg/l. The results of this study can support de-bottlenecking to increase production to a production target of above 375 kbps. A robust application of engineered hydrocyclones with correct production and operating shrouds has been experienced to optimise the separation process by up to 92%.

Poultry Slaughterhouse Wastewater Remediation Using a Bio-Delipidation Pre-Treatment Unit Coupled with an Expanded Granular Sludge Bed Reactor

The treatment of poultry slaughterhouse wastewater (PSW) with an Expanded Granular Sludge-Bed Bioreactor (EGSB) is hindered by the accumulation and washout of sludge, and difficulties associated with the operation of the three-phase separator and the determination of the optimum up-flow velocity for sludge-bed fluidization. This results in a poor reactor functionality, and thus a poor performance due to fats, oil and grease (FOG) in the PSW being treated. Hydrolyzing the FOG content with a bio-delipidation, enzyme-based agent in a pre-treatment unit would significantly improve the effectiveness of the EGSB. In this study, PSW was pre-treated for 48 h with a biological mixture containing bioflocculants and bio-delipidation constituents. The pre-treated PSW was further treated in an EGSB. The PSW FOG, total chemical oxygen demand (tCOD) and total suspended solids (TSS) content were determined to assess the effectiveness of the pre-treatment process as well as to observe the remedial action of the combined pre-treatment-EGSB system. An increased treatment efficacy was noted for the combined PSW treatment system, whereby the COD, FOG and TSS removal averaged 76%, 88% and 87%, respectively. The process developed is intended for micro, small and medium poultry slaughterhouses.

Experience of Application of Different Multiphase Metering Technologies for Cold Production and High Viscosity Oil Systems

Production monitoring is essential not only for fiscal applications, but also for production optimization and efficient reservoir management. So, production measurements must be both accurate and frequent enough, revealing a consistent trend of well operating parameters. This is especially important for reservoirs of complex geology, like oil rim reservoirs in poorly consolidated sandstone formations with presence of aquifer and gas cap drive. Production monitoring can be implemented with different technologies, accuracy of monitoring is however affected by different factors like gas content, viscosity and temperature of produced fluids. Paper presents pragmatic approach and analysis of applicability of different measurement technologies: compact two-phase separator and two different multiphase metering technologies applied at oil wells of Tazovskoye field operated by LLC "Meretoyakhaneftegaz", which production conditions are very challenging due to high gas volume fraction of the produced fluid, high viscosities and low temperatures.

Experimental Evaluation of Novel Swirl Flow Air-Water Separation Apparatus for Desalination/Water Remediation Applications

A novel apparatus that is capable of dynamic flash evaporation and phase separation using centrifugal flow (i.e., using a Hydro-Cyclone Apparatus/HCA) is evaluated in this study. The objective of this study is to evaluate the performance of a novel phase separator apparatus that forms a stable air core at the center from a premixed air-water mixture. The air core is retrieved using a retrieval tube placed at the center of the test section. Experiments were performed by varying the inlet volume flow rates of air and water to determine the maximum separation efficiency and plot its variation as a function of inlet air and water flow rates. The data obtained from this study is used as a preliminary indicator of the anticipated range of separation efficiencies for the system during experiments involving phase change for the production of potable water from saline water for water remediation applications.

Three-Phase Separator Online Measurement and Data Analytics for Fluid Interface and Emulsion Thickness Utilizing a Single Emulsion Watch Profiler

Separators can over the length of field life be exposed to operating conditions outside the set design conditions, which can cause operating issues in terms of separator efficiency, operating expenditures and potential need for frequent maintenance and/or retrofitting new internals. In mature operations with heavy oils, there can be severe issues with Water-in-Oil and Oil-in-Water emulsion layers. In late life operations, enhanced oil recovery (EOR) efforts with polymer injection can also take place to produce more, but at the same time making the separator function in terms of phase separation even more complex. Emulsion thickness and residence time optimization in separators and tanks are key issues in the oil and gas operations. Real-time data of the full level profiling is complicated and has been based on instruments with varying reliability and performance. Operations have been relying on other process parameters and bottle tests. However, in this work, separator profiler utilizing electrical tomography was used for monitoring separator content online, especially fluid interface levels as well as emulsion and foam layer thicknesses. In addition, effect of polymer injection to the wells is investigated. From the single profiler, data for the separator fluid levels, emulsion and foam thicknesses can be derived. The profiler used is a safe-to-use non-radioactive probe-type measurement sensor which is installed through an existing separator nozzle. The actual separator profiler with dimensions 5 cm diameter and 3 m length was installed downstream of the inlet cyclones and the flow distribution baffles in the three-phase separator located at one of the production fields in the Middle East. Water-oil interface, turbulent water-in-oil dispersion band, oil-gas interface and foam layer thickness were monitored continuously for several months with varying flowrates and operation conditions. Later, effect of polymer injection was also investigated. Interface level and layer monitoring results will be given and discussed. The results show that the profiler is highly useful for monitoring the separator fluid distribution online, building a rigid data analytics model over time that can be utilized by the operations to improve and optimize the performance. This paper shares novel information on operational experience of data analytics used for three-phase separators operating in a heavy oil field with polymer injection. The sensor type used is novel to the industry with high robustness and reliability generating multiple data points per second, enabling a highly detailed analytics model generating new possibilities for operational optimization through digitalization. In addition, commissioning and monitoring of the sensor was done remotely during covid-19 shutdown without the need of external personnel entering the field demonstrating remote commissioning and digital oil field concepts.

THE METHOD OF OBTAINING CAROTENOID-CONTAINING DYE AND FOOD ADDITIVES

Introduction. The developed technology for obtaining natural dye is based on the physical process of formation of phase separation observed in the juice space of some vegetables and melons. The technological mode is selected in such a way as to preserve the biological active substances available in the cheese as much as possible. The process of phase separation in the juice space is scientifically justified. It is shown that the resulting natural dye, carrot flour, and transparent juice are applicable in the food industry. In order to widely apply the developed dye production technology, the juice phase separator plant was created. Spectroscopic studies have established that the main coloring pigment of carrot dye is β-carotene.

Study on Computer Monitoring System for Oilfield Joint Stations Based on the BP Neural Network PID Control Algorithm

The Hanqu Joint Station of the Dingbian Oil Production Plant of Yanchang Oilfield Co., Ltd is located at the edge of the desert in northern China. the bad field conditions and strong sandstorm, the hardware of computer monitoring system of Joint Station is often damaged. At the same time, the core equipment of the joint station three-phase separator oil chamber liquid level is hard to achieve high precision constant value control, the general control algorithm is difficult to meet the control requirements.This paper proposed a design scheme of a oilfield joint station computer monitoring system based on the Siemens S7-300 PLC, the hardware of the monitoring system adopts the redundancy scheme of dual monitoring computers, dual programmable logic controllers (PLCs), and dual industrial Ethernet. The BP neural network PID control algorithm was used to realize constant value control of the oil chamber liquid level of the three-phase separator of the core equipment of the joint station，and realized high control precision. The monitoring system could well adapt to the harsh environment of the scene, and showed high reliability and efficiency.

Zero-Flaring Mudcake Removal: New Techniques for Efficient Natural Cleanup of Horizontal/Multilateral Open-Hole Wells

Effective mudcake removal is essential to restore the optimal well productivity/injectivity after different drilling operations. Typically, this objective is achieved by using harsh chemical treatments such as hydrochloric acid (HCl), organic acids and oxidizers. However, these methods have been limited due to associated high corrosion rates, high operation cost, and un-even mudcake removal. This task becomes even more difficult and very challenging in horizontal/multilateral wells. Organic acids and acid precursors have been also used to clean long horizontal wells following drilling operations. However, in long multilateral horizontal wells, fluid placement is considered one of the main challenges with chemical mudcake removal treatments due to accessibility to each lateral and reaching its TD. Additionally, the use of these treatments has poor health, safety and environmental (HSE) footprints. This work provides a workflow and illustrates the use of an in-house designed zero-flaring flowback system to clean up recently drilled multilateral horizontal wells with water-based mud. The system consists of two upstream solid management systems, namely de-sander (cyclone), and sand catcher (filter). Downstream, the choke manifold, 4-phase separator, a downstream solid management equipment, and 3-phase separator are also included. Additionally, there is also a surge tank, as a backup flowback vessel to be used if needed to revive the well and offload any heavy fluids. This tank is used to initially help the well to gain the pressure momentum to naturally flow and offload heavy fluid present in production tubular. The cleanup campaign was successfully and safely completed for effective cleanup of more than 30 openhole horizontal multilateral wells without the use of any chemical treatments. The duration of cleanup operations was optimized using several techniques to effectively and efficiently remove existing mudcake. This paper provides the operational criteria to achieve effective and adequate mudcake removal for horizontal/multilateral wells and restore its optimal performance. Different design parameters and tailored flowback programs will be discussed, which led to effective drawdown pressure to reach optimized natural cleanup of each well. The well simulated flow model was also considered and used as input to design each well specific flowback program and minimize the risks of erosion, solids settlement in pipeline and downstream facilities. As a result, each well cleanup duration was reduced to an average of 1-2 day, while achieving the maximum potential production rate of each treated well.