WO1990003221A1 - Procede et appareil de separation de composants liquides d'un melange de liquides - Google Patents

Procede et appareil de separation de composants liquides d'un melange de liquides Download PDF

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Publication number
WO1990003221A1
WO1990003221A1 PCT/AU1989/000412 AU8900412W WO9003221A1 WO 1990003221 A1 WO1990003221 A1 WO 1990003221A1 AU 8900412 W AU8900412 W AU 8900412W WO 9003221 A1 WO9003221 A1 WO 9003221A1
Authority
WO
WIPO (PCT)
Prior art keywords
mixture
oil
water
inlet
outlet
Prior art date
Application number
PCT/AU1989/000412
Other languages
English (en)
Inventor
Charles Michael Kalnins
Original Assignee
Charles Michael Kalnins
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Priority claimed from AU23374/88A external-priority patent/AU2337488A/en
Priority claimed from AU31512/89A external-priority patent/AU3151289A/en
Application filed by Charles Michael Kalnins filed Critical Charles Michael Kalnins
Publication of WO1990003221A1 publication Critical patent/WO1990003221A1/fr

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Classifications

    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B04—CENTRIFUGAL APPARATUS OR MACHINES FOR CARRYING-OUT PHYSICAL OR CHEMICAL PROCESSES
    • B04C—APPARATUS USING FREE VORTEX FLOW, e.g. CYCLONES
    • B04C5/00—Apparatus in which the axial direction of the vortex is reversed
    • B04C5/08—Vortex chamber constructions
    • B04C5/081—Shapes or dimensions
    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B01—PHYSICAL OR CHEMICAL PROCESSES OR APPARATUS IN GENERAL
    • B01D—SEPARATION
    • B01D17/00—Separation of liquids, not provided for elsewhere, e.g. by thermal diffusion
    • B01D17/02—Separation of non-miscible liquids
    • B01D17/0217—Separation of non-miscible liquids by centrifugal force
    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B04—CENTRIFUGAL APPARATUS OR MACHINES FOR CARRYING-OUT PHYSICAL OR CHEMICAL PROCESSES
    • B04C—APPARATUS USING FREE VORTEX FLOW, e.g. CYCLONES
    • B04C5/00—Apparatus in which the axial direction of the vortex is reversed

Definitions

  • This invention relates to a method and apparatus for separating liquid components from a liquid mixture.
  • SUBSTITUTE SHEET components from mixtures where there were substantial differences in specific gravity of components to be separated.
  • hydrocyclones were regarded as being of only limited usefulness in separating liquid components one from another in a liquid mixture, in view of the relatively small differences in specific gravity existing as between many liquids.
  • cyclone separators capable of separating liquid components one from the other within a liquid mixture have become more commonly used.
  • United States patent 4,237,006 and United States patent 4,576,724 describe cyclone separators capable of effective separation of liquid components, and these separators have found commercial application in oil processing technology, particularly in the separation of residual oil from a mixture predominantly comprising water.
  • Such a mixture is produced as a by-product of initial separation of oil from formation liquid initially recovered from an oil well. Similar technology has subsequently been applied, using cyclone separators, for separation of oil and water components- from admixtures thereof where there are significant quantities of water, unlike the last described application, where, generally speaking, the inlet liquid has only a relatively small amount of oil present therein.
  • the cyclone separators are of particular form. More particularly, the separating chamber is in each case in the form of an axially extending surface of revolution having three portions, the three portions
  • S U B STITUTESHEET having diameters, at their largest diameter ends, of d,, d_ and d_ respectively and lengths 1., 1 police and I- respectively.
  • the three portions may be cylindrical in form in the sense that they have
  • the separating chamber has one or more inlets at the first portion arranged for providing inflow of a mixture to be separated with a tangential flow component.
  • A. is the total inlet area of the or each inlet.
  • the second portion being tapered, such as with a half angle of taper in the range 20* to 2°
  • cyclone separators for effective separation of oil-water mixtures, should be of form similar to the above, but it has now been found that constructions of more general form may be suitable.
  • the three separately defined portions as above described be provided.
  • arrangements which exhibit a continuous taper change possibly with portions of constant diameter interposed therewithin or at either or both ends may be utilised.
  • area A. may be more generally defined as follows
  • a I.X is the projection of the cross sectional
  • SUBSTITUTE SHEET 4-V area of the x inlet measured at entry to the cyclone in the plane parallel to the cyclone axis which is normal to the plane, also parallel to the cyclone axis, which contains the tangential component of the inlet centre line,
  • d I.X is twice the radt ⁇ ius at which flow enters the cyclone through the x inlet, (i.e., twice the minimum distance of the tangential component of the inlet centre line from the axis).
  • the inlet plane is defined as the plane perpendicular to the axis of the cyclone at the mean axial position of the weighted areas of the inlets such that the injection of angular momentum into the hydrocyclone is equally distributed axially about it and is thus such that
  • Z is the axial position of the centre line of the x inlet.
  • the diameter d- may also be more generally defined as the diameter at z 3 where -_L d_> 0.98 for all z > z,. Then, further, ⁇ is defined as
  • the diameter is one half the diameter d..
  • the swirl coefficient S as above described has values in the range 5 to 12.5. While it has been found that values within this range are suitable for many applications, it has now been determined that, for certain specific circumstances, optimum operation or near optimum is not provided by use of a cyclone separator exactly as contemplated in the two United States patents. More particularly,
  • d X. , d,__• and AX. being as above defined. More generally, 'S' may in this case be in the range from 8 up to 17.
  • 'S' may in this case be in the range from 8 up to 25 or from 10 to 19 and the mean droplet size is in the range 28 to 42 micron.
  • SUB STITUTESHEET range 33 to 38 micron.
  • the swirl coefficient *S' may be in the range from 8 to 30 or from 9 to 25, for example
  • Figure 1 is a diagram illustrating a method in which the invention is applicable
  • Figure 2 shows an exemplary cyclone separator constructed in accordance with the teachings of this invention
  • Figures 3 to 7 are respective graphical representations of variation of separation efficiency versus feed flow rate for cyclone separators having varying swirl coefficients when used in the apparatus of Figure 1, respectively for liquid mixtures having five different mean sizes of oil droplets therewithin,
  • Figures 8 to 12 inclusive are graphical representations of variations in efficiency versus swirl coefficient for liquid mixtures having mean
  • Figure 13 is a graphical representation or variation in swirl coefficient as against droplet size, derived from the data in Figures 2 to 12 inclusive.
  • a cyclone separator 10 is shown receiving oil on a line 12 from a suitable separating device such as a knock-out tank 14, which in turn receives formation liquid on a line 16 from a subterranean oil field 18.
  • the knock-out tank 14 may be in the form of a settling chamber which receives the formation liquid and has provision for take off of gas which rises to the top of the chamber, via a line 20, for take-off of oil at an intermediate location along the height of the chamber, via a line 22 and for take-off of settled water from the bottom thereof via the aforementioned line 12.
  • the cyclone separator 10 is designed to remove residual oil from the water on line 12 so that relatively pure water is produced at an underflow outlet 24 from the separator with separated oil being taken on via an overflow outlet 30 a line 26 as required, such as to cojoin with the line 22. It is desirable that the water taken on line 12 from the knock-out tank 14 be as pure as possible to minimise environmental problems. For example, where the apparatus shown in Figure 1 is an off-shore oil well, the only practical thing to do
  • the separator 10 may, as above described, be of any suitable form for a cyclone separator adapted for separating small quantities of oil from large quantities of water.
  • the aforementioned United States patent specifications describe two constructions which are so suitable. Each of these is generally in the form of Figure 2, having a separating chamber 32 with a first portion 34 of relatively large diameter a second portion 36 which is of tapered form but which has a maximum diameter rather less than the diameter of the portion 34 and a third portion 38 of smaller diameter again, these cojoining but with a tapered flow smoothing portion 34a interconnecting the portions 34 and -36.
  • the separating chamber 32 is thus of generally tapered form having a larger diameter end at the portion 34 and a smaller diameter end at the portion 38.
  • One or more tangential inlets is provided at the larger diameter portion 34 for inflow of liquid mixture to be separated.
  • a single such inlet 35 is shown. At least two such inlets are preferably provided, but a single inlet may be employed if it is of a particular form as described in the specification of the International application PCT/AU85/00010.
  • d is the diameter of the cyclone separator at its largest diameter end
  • d- is the diameter of the cyclone separator at its smaller diameter end
  • 2 is the diameter of the portion 36 at its largest diameter end 1
  • 1 2 is, respectively, the lengths of the portions 34, 36 and 38
  • ⁇ is the half angle of taper of the portion 34a
  • ⁇ is the half angle of taper of the portion 22
  • d is the diameter of the overflow outlet 30, the diameter of the underflow outlet 24 being equal to d 3 .
  • Cyclone separators of different form may be used. For example, these may be characterised as next described, where d 2 is the diameter of the cyclone separator at the point Z 2 where the following relationship first applies:
  • d is the cyclone diameter at z
  • z 2 is reckoned in the direction Z shown in Figure 2 from a location Z , along the axis of the cyclone separator, the location Z being the location of the inlet plane previously defined. That is, the inlet plane is defined as the plane perpendicular to the axis of the cyclone at the mean axial position of the weighted areas of the inlets such that the injection of angular momentum into the hydrocyclone
  • SUB S TITUTESHEET is equally distributed axially about it and is thus such that
  • Z is the axial position of the centre line of the xtS inlet.
  • the inlet plane is designated by reference numeral 40, and is located towards the larger diameter end of the separating chamber.
  • A. is the projection of the cross sectional ⁇ x th area of the x inlet measured at entry to the cyclone in the plane parallel to the cyclone axis which is normal to the plane, also parallel to the cyclone axis, which contains the tangential component of the inlet centre line.
  • the diameter d. may also be more generally defined as the diameter at z. where d/d_> 0.98 for all z > z- 3 . Then, further, ⁇ is defined as
  • separators generally similar to that as above shown may be employed in the present invention where the form of the separating chamber is not exactly as shown.
  • the separating chamber may exhibit a continuous taper at least of the portions 34a, 32 and 38, the taper angle decreasing in the direction towards the underflow outlet 24.
  • FIGS 3 to 7 inclusive there are shown plots of efficiency versus feed flow rate through a cyclone separators, for various cyclone separators constructed generally in accordance with Figure 2, but exhibiting different swirl coefficient, IT d. d 2 /4A., the variation in swirl coefficient being effected by varying the inlet area for inflow of liquid, that is to say by varying A..
  • the plots for Figures 3 to 8 were taken, using, respectively, oil water mixtures having similar oil concentrations, and wherein the oil was present in the form of a disperse phase having.
  • Figure 13 there are plotted on plot 50 the variation in most effective swirl coefficient for each mean droplet size taken from the plots in Figures 8 to 12. Again, this shows a rise in most efficacious swirl coefficient with increasing droplet size up to about 35 micron whereupon the most efficient swirl coefficient decreases with droplet size. Also shown in Figure 13 are two plots 50a, 50b representing respectively the upper and lower ranges of swirl coefficient about the optimum swirl coefficient for each mean droplet size at which the efficiency of separation has dropped by only 1% as compared with the optimum swirl coefficient as plotted on plot 50. These plots are obtained by noting the intersections of horizontal lines on Figures 8 to 12, with the plots shown therein the horizontal lines representing points of variation of 1% from the maximum efficiency point represented by each plot.
  • plots 54a, 54b are plots of swirl coefficient, respectively above and below the plot of optimum swirl coefficient, for which efficiency has dropped by 2% as compared with the efficiency obtained from the optimum swirl coefficient for any particular droplet size.
  • the points on this plot are determined from intersections of plots of Figures 8 to 12 with respective horizontal lines at 2% below the optimum plotted efficiency in each of these Figures.
  • swirl coefficients in the range from 8, such as greater than 12.5, or from at least 13, up to 25 may be employed with, at most, no loss in efficiency exceeding 2% as compared with an optimum swirl coefficient, or from 10, such as greater than 12.5, or from at least 13, up to 19 with no such loss of efficiency exceeding 1%.
  • swirl coefficients in the range from 10, such as greater than 12.5 or from at least 13, up to 24 may be employed with no loss in efficiency exceeding 1% over the optimum value of swirl coefficient.
  • ⁇ is possible to use a swirl coefficient in the range from 8, such as greater than 12.5, or from at least 13, up to 28 with a loss of efficiency not exceeding 2% as compared with the result obtainable using the most effective swirl number.
  • the swirl coefficient may be in the range from 8 to 17 such as from greater than 12.5, or from at least 13, up to 17 with only 2% comparative loss of efficiency.
  • a swirl number in the range from about 9, such as greater than 12.5, or from at least 13, up to 25 may be employed with only a 1% relative loss of efficiency or in the range from 8 such as greater than 12.5, or greater than 13, up to about 30 with only a 2% efficiency loss.

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  • Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Geometry (AREA)
  • Thermal Sciences (AREA)
  • Chemical & Material Sciences (AREA)
  • Chemical Kinetics & Catalysis (AREA)
  • Cyclones (AREA)

Abstract

Le procédé décrit sert à séparer des mélanges d'huile et d'eau dans lesquels l'huile est présente sous la forme de gouttelettes telles qu'elles comprennent la phase dispersée, la grandeur moyenne des gouttelettes étant comprise entre 22 et 50 microns. On utilise à cet effet un séparateur cyclone ayant un coefficient de tourbillonnnement compris entre 8 et 30, par exemple supérieur à 12,5 ou d'au moins 13. Le coefficient de tourbillonnement est défini par le rapport πdi d2/4Ai, où di représente le diamètre effectif à l'entrée du séparateur, d2 représente le diamètre nominal du séparateur en un point en aval, et Ai représente la superficie d'entrée effective totale.
PCT/AU1989/000412 1988-09-30 1989-09-27 Procede et appareil de separation de composants liquides d'un melange de liquides WO1990003221A1 (fr)

Applications Claiming Priority (4)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
AU23374/88 1988-09-30
AU23374/88A AU2337488A (en) 1988-09-30 1988-09-30 Oil droplet from water cyclone separator
AU31512/89A AU3151289A (en) 1988-09-30 1989-03-20 Method and apparatus for separating liquid components from liquid mixture
AU31512/89 1989-03-20

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
WO1990003221A1 true WO1990003221A1 (fr) 1990-04-05

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Cited By (2)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
GB2258833B (en) * 1988-09-30 1993-12-22 Conoco Specialty Prod Method and apparatus for separating liquid components from a liquid mixture
US5340481A (en) * 1993-02-26 1994-08-23 Pv Enterprises, Inc. Dense media processing cyclone

Citations (9)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
AU4675385A (en) * 1984-08-02 1986-03-07 Conoco Specialty Products Inc. Cyclone separator
AU5999286A (en) * 1985-06-17 1987-01-13 Conoco Specialty Products Inc. Cyclone separator
AU5999486A (en) * 1985-06-17 1987-01-13 Baker Hughes Limited Cyclone separator
AU7761087A (en) * 1986-08-27 1988-03-03 Conoco Specialty Products Inc. Cyclone separator
AU8333287A (en) * 1986-11-21 1988-06-16 B.W.N. Vortoil Rights Co. Pty. Ltd. Cyclone separator
AU1398388A (en) * 1987-03-03 1988-09-26 Conoco Specialty Products Inc. Cyclone separator
AU1945188A (en) * 1987-06-10 1989-01-04 Conoco Specialty Products Inc. Liquid separator
AU1802988A (en) * 1987-06-10 1989-01-04 Conoco Specialty Products Inc. Liquid separator
AU3201589A (en) * 1988-02-19 1989-09-06 Conoco Specialty Products Inc. Separating liquids

Patent Citations (9)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
AU4675385A (en) * 1984-08-02 1986-03-07 Conoco Specialty Products Inc. Cyclone separator
AU5999286A (en) * 1985-06-17 1987-01-13 Conoco Specialty Products Inc. Cyclone separator
AU5999486A (en) * 1985-06-17 1987-01-13 Baker Hughes Limited Cyclone separator
AU7761087A (en) * 1986-08-27 1988-03-03 Conoco Specialty Products Inc. Cyclone separator
AU8333287A (en) * 1986-11-21 1988-06-16 B.W.N. Vortoil Rights Co. Pty. Ltd. Cyclone separator
AU1398388A (en) * 1987-03-03 1988-09-26 Conoco Specialty Products Inc. Cyclone separator
AU1945188A (en) * 1987-06-10 1989-01-04 Conoco Specialty Products Inc. Liquid separator
AU1802988A (en) * 1987-06-10 1989-01-04 Conoco Specialty Products Inc. Liquid separator
AU3201589A (en) * 1988-02-19 1989-09-06 Conoco Specialty Products Inc. Separating liquids

Cited By (2)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
GB2258833B (en) * 1988-09-30 1993-12-22 Conoco Specialty Prod Method and apparatus for separating liquid components from a liquid mixture
US5340481A (en) * 1993-02-26 1994-08-23 Pv Enterprises, Inc. Dense media processing cyclone

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