Produced Water Treatment with Deoiling Hydrocyclones - Misconceptions & Corrections (B-PWT011)
Misconception 3 : Deoilers cannot deal with Emulsions
Correction 3 : Deoilers can deal and treat emulsions, just not all emulsions efficiently without chemicals.
This misconception comes about due to the expectation that the Deoiler is only a primary separation device. Although this is correct for the first generations of Deoilers, the performance of the latest generation of Deoilers reflect those of a secondary separation device.
Furthermore we saw in the first chapter of this series that when a stable emulsion is present, any mechanical solution alone will not facilitate the separation process, and other mechanisms, specifically the use of chemicals, need to be addressed and used in order to solve the separation problem.
Where the emulsion is unstable this latest generation of Deoilers can effectively treat the fluid with reasonably high efficiency.
Notwithstanding the above, in applications where an unstable emulsion is present, it is highly recommended to undertake a Deoiler hydrocyclone field test to adequately evaluate the performance of the technology under actual operating conditions.
The compact nature of the Deoiler lends itself to an easy field test arrangement where the equipment required is small, compact, and easily mob / demobilised.
