The development of technology for debottlenecking of produced water treatment systems occurred about 10 years after the liquid-liquid deoiling hydrocyclone was commercialized.  Esso installed the first L/L deoiler in the Bass Strait in 1982.

The first pilot testing of Pre-Separating (bulk oil-water) and Dehydrating (removal of water from oil Applications was in 1989 for Conoco in Grand Isle, LA.  Individual deoiler liners designed for non-traditional oil-water separation was tested.  Results from the testing paved the way to the commercialization of specialized partial processing liners for debottlenecking hydraulically constrained systems.

Photo above illustrates the size of the Pre-separator liner in comparison to the traditional liquid/liquid deoiling hydrocyclone liner.

References:

1. Rawlins, C.H., “Partial Processing: Produced Water Debottlenecking Unlocks Production on Offshore Thailand MOPU Platform”, paper SPE-187109-MS, presented at the 2017 SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, San Antonio, TX, October 9 – 11, 2017. https://doi.org/10.2118/187109-MS