separators

Lessons learned by the members of the SPE Separations Technology Technical Section, representing more than 250 years' experience, are presented so that the same mistakes are not repeated in the future.

An underperforming scrubber that was suffering from too much oil carry-over is described along with options for debottlenecking and improving performance.

To support subsea processing of heavy crudes, an inline electrocoalescer was tested for separation of water droplets dispersed in the crude oil.

Efficient separation assumes uniform flow, but the reality of inlet geometries can invalidate this assumption, leading to separation problems and loss of separation efficiency.

"Gas Scrubber Design and Validation for Robust Separation Duty" is the title of a special session planned by the Separations Technology Technical Section.

Some internals components affect a separator's gas- and liquid-handling capability because of their effects on the liquid level. In this article, the interdependency of cyclonic inlets, cyclonic mist eliminators, and liquid level is highlighted.

The sizing procedure described in the paper allows one to size horizontal gas/liquid separators considering nonstable flow rate at the inlet or fluctuations in the liquid fraction on the same stream.

A project spearheaded by Exxon­Mobil, Shell, Chevron, and the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has been established to advance separation technology through improved testing methods and collaboration between users and suppliers.

This paper summarizes the results of a qualification program that included a multiphase, subsea-separation system for shallow-water applications.

Mark Bothamley's series quantifying separation performance in the August-December 2013 issues represents a significant addition to the literature in two-phase separator design. Ken Arnold proposes additional areas of study to take our knowledge even further.