SEPARATION OF OIL-WATER EMULSION

Removing water from crude oil often requires additional processing beyond the normal
gravity separation. Crude oil treating equipment is designed to break emulsions by
coalescing the water droplets and then using gravity separation to separate the oil and
water. In addition, the water droplets must have sufficient time to contact each other
and coalesce. It is important when designing a crude oil treating system to take into
account temperature, time, viscosity of the oil, which may inhibit settling, and the
physical dimensions of the treating vessel, which determines the velocity at which
settling must occur. A common method for separating water-in-oil emulsion is to heat
the stream. Increasing the temperature of the two immiscible liquids deactivates the
emulsifying agent, allowing the dispersed water droplets to collide. As the droplets
collide they grow in size and begin to settle. If designed properly, the water will settle to
the bottom of the treating vessel due to differences in specific gravity. The greater the
difference in density between the oil and water phases, the easier the water droplets will
settle.



Adding heat to the incoming oilwater stream is the traditional method of separating the
phases. The addition of heat reduces the viscosity of the oil phase, allowing more rapid
settling velocities in accordance with Stokes law of settling. For some emulsifying
agents, such as paraffins and asphaltenes, the addition of heat deactivates, or dissolves,
the emulsifier and thus increases its solubility in the oil phase. Treating temperatures
normally range from 100 to 160F (38 70C). In treating of heavy crudes the
temperature may be as high as 300 F (150C).

Advantages of heating:
1. It reduces the viscosity of continuous oil phase, thus increasing settling rates.
2. It increases the Brownian motion and natural convection currents within the
emulsion, thus increasing and intensifying drop collision.
3. It generates thermal currents, which promote uniform distribution of demulsifiers
etc.


Techniques
Gravity Electrical Chemical

Disadvantages:
1. It drives some of the more volatile hydrocarbons out of the crude oil into the gas
phase.
2. Costly due to flue price rise.
3. It is prone to hazard.
4. Coke deposition on fire tube may cause problems.

THE HEATER-TREATER

Heater-treaters are used for removing water from the oil and emulsion being treated.
They are less expensive initially, offer lower installation costs, provide greater heat
efficiency, provide greater flexibility, and experience greater overall efficiency as
compared to other treaters. On the other hand, they are more complicated, provide less
storage space for basic sediment, and are more sensitive to chemicals.
Since heater-treaters are smaller than other treating vessels, their retention times are
minimal (10 to 30 min) when compared to gun barrels and horizontal flow treaters.
Internal corrosion of the down-comer pipe is a common problem.

How it works?
Oil with emulsified water, solids and gas from the upstream separation process enters
the crude oil treater near the top of the vessel, in the gas separation section. This
section is isolated from the oil treating section with a full-diameter baffle. An inlet flow
diverter causes a rapid separation of gas and liquid. Gas exits through the gas outlet at
the top of the vessel, and liquids flow through a down comer into the treating section of
the vessel. The treating section of the vessel is equipped with a fire tube to heat the
oil/water/solids mixture.
A gas flame heats the fire tube, which transfers heat to the surrounding liquid. Heat
reduces the viscosity of the oil and accelerates gravity separation of water droplets and
solid particles from the oil. Under the force of gravity, water and solids settle to the
bottom of the treating section, while oil and liberated gas rise to the top. Gas, liberated
by heating the oil, passes into the gas separation section via an equalizer tube, and then
exits through the gas outlet. Dehydrated, degassed oil rises to the oil outlet and exits
the treater through the oil outlet piping and a mechanical level control. Water falls into
the bottom of the vessel, then exits through the water outlet and an external water
siphon.










Vertical Heater Treaters:

It is the most commonly used single well heater treater. The vertical heater-treater
consists of four major sections: gas separation, free-water knockout, heating and water
wash, and coalescing-settling sections. Incoming fluid enters the top of the treater into a
gas separation section, where gas separates from the liquid and leaves through the gas
line.
The liquids flow through a down-comer to the base of the treater, which serves as a
free-water knockout section. The end of the down-comer should be slightly below the
oilwater interface so as to water-wash the oil being treated. This will assist in the
coalescence of water droplets in the oil.

The oil and emulsion rise through the heating and water-wash section, where the fluid is
heated. A fire tube is commonly used to heat the emulsion in the heating and water-
wash section. After the oil and emulsion are heated, the heated oil and emulsion enter
the coalescing section, where sufficient retention time is provided to allow the small
water droplets in the oil continuous phase to coalesce and settle to the bottom.





Treated oil flows out the oil outlet, at the top of the coalescing section, and through the
oil leg heat exchanger, where a valve controls the flow.
Heated clean oil preheats incoming cooler emulsion in the oil leg heat exchanger.
Separated water flows out through the water leg, where a control valve controls the flow
to the water treating system.
The gas liberated when crude oil is heated may create a problem in the treater if it is not
adequately designed. In vertical heater-treaters the gas rises through the coalescing
section. If a great deal of gas is liberated, it can create enough turbulence and
disturbance to inhibit coalescence.



Horizontal Heater Treaters:

The horizontal heater-treater consists of three major sections: front, oil surge chamber,
and coalescing sections.
Incoming fluids enter the front section through the fluid inlet and down over the
deflector hood where gas is flashed and removed. Heavier materials flow to the bottom
while lighter materials flow to the top. Free gas breaks out and passes through the gas
equalizer loop to the gas outlet. The oil, emulsion, and free water pass around the
deflector hood to the spreader located slightly below the oilwater interface, where the
liquid is water-washed and the free water is separated. The oil and emulsion are
heated as they rise past the fire tubes and are skimmed into the oil surge chamber.


A level safety low shutdown sensor is required in the upper portion of the front section.
This sensor assures liquid is always above the fire tube. If the water dump valve
malfunctions or fails open, the liquid surrounding the fire tube will drop, thus not
absorbing the heat generated from the fire tube and possibly damaging the fire tube by
overheating.







The oil and emulsion flow through a spreader into the back or coalescing section of the
vessel, which is fluid packed. The spreader distributes the flow evenly throughout the
length of this section. Because it is lighter than the emulsion and water, treated oil rises
to the clean oil collector, where it is collected and flows to the clean oil outlet. The
coalescing section must be sized to provide adequate retention time for coalescing to
occur and to allow the coalescing water droplets to settle downward counter current to
the upward flow of the oil.




PROCESS DESCRIPTION



Gathering system:
It consists primarily of pipes, valves and fittings necessary to connect the
wellhead to the separations equipment.
Accessory items include:
o Gross production meters
o Automatic well test units
o Corrosion inhibitors
o Chemical injection equipment
Oil well steam injection facilities have been installed in a no. of low gravity oilfields
to simulate oil production.
Development of oil well steam injection procedures has added to the complexity of some
field gathering systems; however, new development facilities, although more complex,
often tend to simplify the overall design for good continuity and operation.
Oil well stem injection facilities have been installed in a number of low-gravity oilfields to
stimulate oil production. Steam simulation in several installations, increased the net oil
production of an existing well up to ten times the production prior to steaming
operations and created new well drilling activity in many existing fields. The line to each
well from oil production-steam injection manifold is often a dual purpose line used for
steaming the well for a certain period of time. In this case, the oil production returns
through the same line to the manifold, where the production is then routed to the group
header. The manifold may contain twenty or more wells, each of which can be designed
with automatic diverter valves in order to:
Direct the flow of an unit
Return the flow to an automatic well test unit
Return the flow to the main group header
After a purge period, program the next well for testing, etc.


Separation Section:

Heating water requires about twice as much energy as it does to heat oil. For this
reason, it is beneficial to separate any free water from the emulsion to be treated with
either a free-water knockout located upstream of the treater or an inlet free-water
knockout system in the treater itself.
The major difference between a conventional three-phase separator and an FWKO is that
in the latter there are only two fluid outlets; one for oil and very small amounts of gas
and the second for the water. FWKOs are usually operated as packed vessels. Water
outflow is usually controlled with an interface level control.






Treating section:

The treating section consists of some method of dehydration, such as using wash tanks,
heater treaters, or electric dehydrators. The principal purpose of the treating section is
to remove water, sand and other contaminants from the oil. In most cases, the waste
water must be cleaned to meet the requirements of the local water quality board. Often
the water is processed for water flood applications or for reuse as steam generator feed
water in some locations where the water has proper chemical composition and
properties.

Oil enters the treating section from the separators, where it has been essentially
degassed, and flows to the dehydration equipment. Dehydration may be accomplished
by one or a combination of several methods ranging from simple tank settling to
complex methods. In general, dehydration equipment can be divided into three classes:
gravity, electrical and chemical or combination thereof.



Storage Shipping Section:

After heat and chemical treating, pure crude oil is sent to the storage tanks where it is
kept for inventory and then further to pipelines and LACT units.

A Lease Automatic Custody Transfer unit or LACT unit measures the net volume and
quality of liquid hydrocarbons. A LACT unit measures volumes in the range of 100-
1000 BOPD. This system provides for the automatic measurement, sampling, and
transfer of oil from the lease location into a pipeline. A system of this type is applicable
where larger volumes of oil are being produced and must have a pipeline available in
which to connect
























DESIGN PROCEDURE


In specifying the size of a treater, it is necessary to determine the diameter (d), length
or height of the coalescing section (L_eff or h), and treating temperature or fire-tube
rating. These variables are interdependent, and it is not possible to arrive at a unique
solution for each. The design engineer must trade the cost of increased geometry
against the savings from reducing the treating temperature.

Because of the empirical nature of some of the underlying assumptions, engineering
judgment must be utilized in selecting the size of treater to use.




General Design Procedure:

1. Choose a treating temperature.
2. Determine the heat input required from the following:




Where,
q = heat input, BTU/hr (kW),
Q
o
= oil flow rate, BOPD (m
3
/hr),
T = increase in temperature, F(C),
SG
o
= specific gravity of oil relative to water

Derivation:
The general heat transfer equation is expressed by:

q=WCT Where,
q = heat (kW),
W = flow rate (kg/hr)
C = specific heat (approximately 0.5 for oil and 1.0 for water) (J/kg_C),
T = temperature increase, C
Water weighs 1000 kg/m
3

W = 1000(SG)
l
Q
,
where
SGl= specific gravity of the liquid,
Ql= liquid flow rate, m
3
/hr.

The total energy required is determined from
q = qo+qw+qlost_ where
q = total energy required to heat the stream,
qo= energy required to heat the oil
= [(1000) (SG)oQo] (0.5) T,
qw= energy required to heat the water
= [(1000) (SG)wQw] (1.0)T,
qlost= energy lost to surroundings, assume 10% of total heat input (q).
Substituting gives us
q =(1000)[(SG)oQo](0.5)+(SG)wQw]T +(0.1)q
Assume 10% water and specific gravity water = 1:
q = 1100QoT[0.5(SG)o+ (0.1)]

3. Determine oil viscosity at treating temperature. In the absence of laboratory data,
following figure provides correlations that can be used to estimate crude viscosity
given its gravity and temperature.









4. Select a type of treater, and size the treater using the appropriate design
procedure below.
5. Choose the design minimum droplet size that must be separated from
experimental data, analogy to other treaters in service from the following
equations:

d
mi
% = 200
0.25
,
o
< 80 cp_ where
d
mi
% = diameter of water droplet to be settled from the oil
to achieve 1% water cut, microns,
= viscosity of the oil phase, cp.

6. Repeat the above procedure for different treating temperatures.