Abstract:
A system and method for dehydrating crude oil on a floating production storage and offloading installation include a separator vessel (20) to receive an incoming produced water stream (15), followed by a flash vessel (30), a treatment block, a crude oil storage tank (60), and an electrostatic treater (70). The treatment block includes a low pressure degasser (40) followed by a compact electrostatic separator pre-treater (50) or a compact electrostatic separator pre- treater (50) followed by a low pressure degasser (40). The flash vessel (30) and/or the low pressure degasser (40) may employ an inlet cyclonic distributor and demisting cyclones, while the electrostatic treater may employ DUAL FREQUENCY® technology. The separator vessel (20) may be a single horizontal two-phase separator/degasser or two vertical two-phase separator/degassers that operate in parallel with each receiving approximately 50 percent of the incoming produced water stream. The final outlet stream preferably contains no more than 0.5 BS&W and 285 milligrams per liter salt.
Abstract:
A system ( 10) for separating the components of an incoming oil-water mixture includes two electrode sets (30/40), one set arranged to apply an electrostatic field to an oil layer residing within a separator vessel and the other set arranged to apply an electrostatic field to the interface emulsion layer residing within the separator vessel (12). The first set of electrodes (30) is in communication with a high voltage power source that ranges from 1 to 60 kV; the second set of electrodes (40) is in communication with a low voltage power source that is no greater than 5 kV. Each set of electrodes (30/40) may also be in communication with a second voltage source to provide increased power to promote effective coalescence. The system (10) may also include power electronics to produce a variable amplitude and a variable frequency voltage supply to one or both electrode sets (30/40).