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1 Recent Advances in Offshore Technology. St.Johns, Newfoundland. Wednesday 1 of October 2014
INTRODUCTION The principle of electrocoalescence, which lies at the heart of
the VIEC technology, will be described. We present the VIEC
Many challenges can be encountered when separating oil and technology and how it can be used to optimize and
water in a oil production train. Two of the most common debottleneck oil production trains together with Wärtsilä’s
challenges are presence of stable emulsions and/or high oil framework for predicting separation performance. Finally, a
viscosities, both of which can limit separation efficiency case study where VIEC technology is applied are presented.
significantly if not appropriately addressed. Production of
heavy oil is becoming more the norm in today’s mature oil ELECTROCOALESCENCE
industry, where most of the light and easy oil fields have
been produced or are nearing their end-life. Similarly, stable Electrocoalescence is the process where droplets of a first
emulsions are increasingly encountered as new wells and liquid dispersed in a second continuous liquid are caused to
fields are tied-in to existing ones, which increases tendency coalesce by application of an external electrostatic field. This
to form stable emulsions due to incompatible chemical is a principle that has been applied very successfully in the oil
compositions. Break-up of water droplets due to shear forces industry for many years to separate produced water from
in pipes, manifolds, valves and pumps also add to stability of crude oil. The electrostatic forces that act on the droplets can
emulsions. be categorized into three different types, depending on the
characteristics of the external electrostatic field:
It is seen quite often in the industry that oil separation trains
fail to perform as designed, due to these challenges. Typically 1. Electrophoretic forces. These are forces that cause
the separation trains produce oil to specification in the early motion due to a net charge of the droplets. Since
life of the field. But as the water cut increases, emulsions droplets of produced water are normally electrically
with high water content start to affect the performance neutral, the droplets would have to be charged by an
gradually, until some sort of debottlenecking solution has to external source for this force to take effect. The force
be implemented to sustain the production. Typical is a directional driving force that causes the charged
conventional measures to address these issues are for droplets to move either parallel or anti-parallel to the
example to apply more potent and larger dosages of imposed electrical field, depending on the sign of the
demulsifier and/or to apply a lot of heat to help break the charge. The force does not cause direct attraction
emulsions. Unfortunately, these conventional measures between droplets.
usually have a high impact on the operating costs. Often they
2. Dielectrophoretic forces. These are forces that act on
also require significant capital cost investments.
electrically neutral droplets of a polarizable liquid due
In this paper we present a more effective and cost-efficient to an external non-uniform electrical field. Spatial
solution to the separation challenges discussed above. The variation in the electrical field over the droplets results
solution is based on the VIEC (Vessel Internal Electrostatic in a non-uniform polarization of the droplet s, thus
Coalescer) technology developed by Wärtsilä Oil & Gas setting up a net force in the direction of the field
Systems [1-6]. The VIEC technology applies high voltage gradient. As for the electrophoretic forces, the result is
electrostatic fields in the same way as conventional a directional driving force that moves all droplets in a
electrostatic coalescers to separate out the water by making given direction, depending on the field gradient. The
use of the principle of electrocoalescence. However, several force does not cause direct attraction between
inventive steps make it especially well-suited for application droplets.
in heavy oil separation trains to resolve emulsion problems
3. Electrical dipole-dipole forces. These are forces that
and to provide optimal conditions for separation.
act on electrically neutral droplets of a polarizable
The paper also discusses how separation performance can be liquid due to an external uniform electrical field. The
predicted in a consistent and representative way by external field polarizes the droplets so that one side of
combining detailed laboratory analyses with separation tests the droplets has a positive surface charge while the
and in-house developed scaling laws. opposite side has a negative surface charge. Note that
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2 Recent Advances in Offshore Technology. St.Johns, Newfoundland. Wednesday 1 of October 2014
the net charge of the whole droplet remains zero. This neighboring droplets, and s is the distance between the
gives rise to attractive dipole-dipole forces between droplets. The axis between the droplets forms an angle of θ
droplets, where the positively and negatively charged relative to the electrostatic field. Fr and Fθ are the radial and
sides of a droplet attract the oppositely charged sides tangential components of the induced electrostatic forces.
of neighboring droplets. As opposed to the first two
types of forces, this force acts directly between From these expressions we see that a pre-requisite for
droplets, causing adjacent particles to attract to each erecting an effective electrostatic force between the droplets
other thereby greatly facilitating droplet growth. is that the electric permittivity of the dispersed phase is
significantly higher than for the continuous phase. This
Since the electrical dipole-dipole forces give rise to direct requirement is fulfilled for a dispersion of water-in-oil, since
droplet-droplet interactions, they are the primary driving crude oils have a relative permittivity in the range of 2-3,
forces behind electrostatic coalescence. while water has a relative permittivity in the range of 55-80
depending on temperature.
÷ r +
÷ 2 +
÷
+
The attractive forces will be opposed by drag forces Fd acting
÷ +
Fr
on the droplets due to the viscosity of the continuous phase.
E θ Fθ
s The drag force is described by Stokes’ drag law:
÷ + Fd = 6πµrv (4)
÷ r11 +
÷ +
÷ +
÷ + where µ is the viscosity of the continuous phase and v is the
velocity of the droplets.
Figure 1: Force components of induced dipole-dipole
forces between two neighboring droplets of radii r1 and r2 Assuming balance between the forces we can calculate the
separated by a distance s forming and angle θ relative to time it takes to bring two droplets with identical radii
the external electrostatic field E. together under the influence of an electric field. We define
this as the mean electrostatic collision time Tc
Assuming that the distance s between neighboring droplets is
larger than the droplet radii r, the induced attractive dipole- 5
dipole force between the droplets can be calculated using a Tc =
8 µ π 3 − 1
6φ (5)
15 ε cγ 2 E 2
point dipole approximation. Figure 1 shows an illustration of 0
the induced dipoles in the droplets and force components.
The forces can be written as [7, 8] where ϕ0 is the initial fraction of emulsified water. To arrive
at this expression we have assumed that the droplets are
(3 cos θ − 1)
3 3
r r aligned with the external electrical field.
Fr = 12πγ 2ε 0ε c E0 (1)
2 1 2 2
4
s
Inserting typical values for the constants, we can get an idea
3 3
Fθ = −12πγ ε 0ε c E
2 r r
sin (2θ )
2 1 2
(2) of the typical electrostatic collision time scale. We assume
0 4
s water cut of 40%, viscosity of 20 cP, relative oil permittivity of
2.3, relative water permittivity of 60 and electrical field
where the dielectric force factor γ is defined as
strength of 2.0 kV/cm. Eq. (5) gives a collision time of
εd − εc approximately 0.9 milliseconds. This corresponds to
γ = (3) approximately 1000 droplet-droplet collisions per second.
ε d + 2ε c
The greatly enhanced collision frequency due to the electrical
and εd and εc are the relative electrical permittivities of the
field increases the likelihood of droplet-droplet coalescence
dispersed and continuous phases, ε0 is the electrical
considerably compared to normal gravity separation.
permittivity of vacuum, E0 is the average value of the
external electrostatic field, r1 and r2 are the radii of two
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3 Recent Advances in Offshore Technology. St.Johns, Newfoundland. Wednesday 1 of October 2014
An additional advantage of applying electrostatic dipole- coalescers, the VIEC technology uses fully insulated
dipole forces is that they also facilitate binary coalescence electrodes with a low voltage (220V) power distribution both
once the droplets are brought together. The force inside and outside the separator. A patented solution which
expressions Eq. (1) and (2) show that the magnitude of the makes use of fully insulated electrodes and internal
force increases very strongly when the droplets are close to transformers that are integrated into the VIEC electrodes
each other. This causes stretching of the droplets, which means that the high voltage electrostatic field is contained
destabilizes the surface films surrounding them, making locally to the volume treated by the VIEC electrodes and that
coalescence much more likely than in a conventional process. no bridging can occur between the electrodes. As a result of
this, the VIEC technology tolerates any water cut and
According to Stokes’ sedimentation law, presence of gas. This means that by using the VIEC
technology, the benefits of electrostatic coalescence can be
∆ρgd 2 ,
vs = (6) implemented in any three-phase separator.
18µ
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4 Recent Advances in Offshore Technology. St.Johns, Newfoundland. Wednesday 1 of October 2014
Demulsifier
HP Gas LP Gas Oil
Coalescer
Heating Heating
The outlet stream from the second stage is then fed to one
stage (dehydrator) or two stages (dehydrator and desalter)
with conventional electrostatic coalescers, depending on
Figure 3: VIEC wall inside a separator. BS&W and salinity specification. The conventional
electrostatic coalescers will apply a high voltage electrostatic
field to separate the remaining emulsified water droplets and
achieve oil quality specification. As discussed above,
conventional electrostatic coalescers do not tolerate
presence of any gas in the inlet stream and they have a limit
for how much water can be contained in the inlet stream.
Typically, the limit is around 15-20%. This places strict
demands on the gravity separators upstream to achieve
optimal operation of the separation train: They have to
Figure 4: Three-phase separator with VIEC system evacuate all gas and also remove enough water so that the
installed. conventional electrostatic coalescers downstream can work
as designed.
OIL PRODUCTION WITH VIEC TECHNOLOGY
However, even if the gravity separators are successful in
Traditional oil separation trains consist typically of a first high removing all free water, there can still be significant amounts
pressure stage gravity separator, a second stage low pressure of water present in the outlet streams in the form of
gravity separator and a conventional electrostatic coalescer emulsified water. This is water that is dispersed in tiny
unit (see Figure 5). Normally the separation train is designed droplets in the oil continuous phase, making them much
so that most of the free gas and free water is removed in the more difficult to separate out. The heavier the crude oil, the
first and second stages. The first stage gravity separator more difficult it is to separate water emulsified in an oil-
targets to remove most of the free water. This is especially continuous phase. Note that heavy crude oils have an
important for fields where the water cut is starting to get inversion point ranging from typically 40% up to 50%. This
high, meaning that presence of free water is very likely. Any means that an oil-continuous phase can contain emulsified
carry-over of free water from the first stage is removed in the water with water cuts of up to 40-50%. Since gravity
second stage gravity separator. Free gas is removed from the separators do not normally separate out emulsified water,
crude oil phase in both stages. Normally, the two stages of this means that the oil outlet stream from the gravity
gravity separation are sufficient to remove all free water and separators can contain as much as 40-50% water in the form
free gas. The first two stages are normally not designed to of an emulsion (depending on inlet water cut and crude oil
remove emulsified water; they remove only free water. properties). This exceeds significantly the limit for inlet water
cut to the conventional electrostatic coalescers. Thus, there is
a significant risk that a conventional gravity separation
scheme fails to produce to the required specifications, due to
overloading of the conventional electrostatic coalescers
downstream.
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5 Recent Advances in Offshore Technology. St.Johns, Newfoundland. Wednesday 1 of October 2014
By applying VIEC technology the risks can be mitigated. • The production rate can be increased without
In addition, several operational benefits are provided. Typical increasing the size of the production train due to the
use of VIEC technology in a oil separation train sees it increased separation efficiency offered by the VIEC
installed in the first and/or second stage three-phase technology.
separators. Since the VIEC system tolerates any water cut and • Level control can be improved by reducing or
presence of gas, this allows to bring the principle of removing emulsion bands (see Figure 6)
electrocoalescence upstream in the separation train to treat
the emulsion issues efficiently where they arise. By this, the
water content of the outlet streams from these separators
can be reduced to values that can be processed efficiently in
the conventional electrostatic coalescer downstream,
ensuring that the separation train produces to specification.
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6 Recent Advances in Offshore Technology. St.Johns, Newfoundland. Wednesday 1 of October 2014
The first stage is crude oil characterization, which quantifies tests are therefore only used for qualitative considerations
physical and chemical parameters relevant to emulsion and serve as input to the next stage of the testing.
stability and separation efficiency. These include viscosity,
density and dielectric parameters as a function of The final stage consists of flow loop tests (See Figure 8 for a
temperature. Emulsions are analyzed in microscope and picture of the flow loop test setup).The most relevant
propensity of the crude towards forming stable emulsions is conditions identified based on the characterization and batch
investigated qualitatively by generating synthetic emulsions separation tests are tested under more representative
with different shear rates. flowing conditions. The tests are performed both with and
without application of VIEC in order to compare and quantify
In the next stage, small scale batch separation tests are the separation benefits of the technology. Since flow loop
performed. Synthetic emulsions are generated by tests allow for dynamic development of the flow in a similar
recombining dry crude oil with produced water using a high- fashion to a field separator, the results can be used for scale-
shear stator-rotor mixer. The shear rate is adjusted to obtain up to the full separator size.
emulsions with an average droplet size corresponding to a
pre-identified target value specific to the crude and field
conditions. The emulsion droplet sizes are verified using a
Visual Particle Analyzer from Jorin [11]. Separability of the
emulsions is tested at different conditions. Important
parameters that are varied in the batch separation tests are
temperature, water cut, demulsifier type and dosage and
electrostatic treatment time. Figure 7 shows some of the
equipment used for the batch tests
Due to the static nature of the batch tests, the results The two main physical processes which dictate separation
obtained from these cannot be extrapolated directly to a full- performance are coalescence and sedimentation. The
size separator. The reason for this is that there are several process of coalescence is generally quite complicated and can
important dynamic effects that are absent in a static test. in most cases not be described by a simple force expression.
These include presence of turbulence, shear and flow re- However, when electrostatic fields are applied the forces
entrainment of the smallest droplets. The results from these erected by the field will dominate over the other droplet-
droplet forces. Thus, assuming that an appropriate
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7 Recent Advances in Offshore Technology. St.Johns, Newfoundland. Wednesday 1 of October 2014
demulsifier treatment has been used together with the
electrostatic treatment, so that mechanical barriers towards
coalescence have been minimized, the mean electrostatic
coalescence time defined in Eq. (1) will be dimensioning with
respect to coalescence time. Dividing the mean electrostatic
coalescence time with electrostatic treatment time tE, we can
define the following dimensionless parameter α for
electrostatic coalescence efficiency:
t Eγ 2ε c E 2 .
α=
5
π 3 (7)
µ − 1
6φ
0
Figure 9: Relative separation for tests at two different
For the process of sedimentation we can consider Stokes’ scales is shown as a function of the parameter α. The
behavior is consistent with scale invariance.
sedimentation law as defined in Eq. (6). Assuming that the
droplets have to sediment a distance H to join the continuous
water phase, we can divide the expression in Eq. (6) with H to CASE STUDY
obtain an average sedimentation time. Dividing this
expression again with total retention time available in the In the following we describe a case study where laboratory
separator tR, we obtain a second dimensionless parameter β tests have been conducted to optimize a oil separation train
for sedimentation efficiency: with VIEC technology. The case relates to a new field
development with restrictions on process temperature
t R ∆ρgd 2 . and/or size of process equipment.
β= (8)
µH
Case : API 20 crude – Energy savings and size reductions
Invariance with respect to the parameters α and β means that
The case relates to development of a heavy oil offshore field
the BS&W value at the oil outlet will remain the same for any
located in Canada. The field will be processed in a stand-
two dynamic separation processes regardless of scale, as long
alone platform. The VIEC technology was evaluated by the
as the values of the parameters are kept the same. As
operator in the pre-FEED stage as a means of reducing the
discussed above, the invariance assumes that the emulsions
process temperature at the intermediate stage of the
are treated with a sufficiently strong electrostatic field and
separation train as well as reducing the size of the separator.
that a suitable demulsifier treatment is used.
Both energy consumption and size requirements were
Figure 9 illustrates the scale invariance of the two considered to an issue due to lack of gas in the reservoir and
parameters. The figure shows plots of relative separation cost of space in a platform.
performance of a crude oil as a function of the electrostatic
Two studies were performed by Wärtsilä to evaluate the
droplet growth parameter α for tests where variation in β can
benefits of VIEC. One study was performed in a location close
be neglected. Data from tests at two different scales are
to the field in collaboration with a major chemicals vendor.
superimposed in chart. One set of tests is performed in
The other study was performed in Wärtsilä’s laboratory in
Wärtsilä’s flow loop, while the other is performed in a larger
Norway. Oil available from drilling of a previous well was
test separator on the same crude. The behavior of the two
used for both studies.
different data sets as a function of α is statistically
indistinguishable, which is consistent with invariance. The studies showed that the temperature at the intermediate
stage (medium pressure separator) could be reduced to 60 °C
with VIEC technology and still achieve the target of 10%
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8 Recent Advances in Offshore Technology. St.Johns, Newfoundland. Wednesday 1 of October 2014
BS&W. The temperatures initially considered during pre-FEED potential presence of stable emulsions. By applying
stage were in the range of 80-90 °C. Furthermore, the length electrocoalescence in the first and or second stage separator,
of the separator was reduced from 29m to 21.5m, allowing most of the water can be separated out efficiently at
for considerable space savings. significantly lower temperatures than with gravity separation
only. Furthermore, electrocoalescence is highly efficient in
An additional important conclusion of the study was that the breaking emulsions, thus significantly reducing the risk of
separation efficiency was much less dependent on type of excessive water carry-over due to presence of stable
demulsifier used when VIEC was applied compared to emulsions. The enhanced separation efficiency provided by
without VIEC. This gave the operator additional confidence electrocoalescence can also be used to reduce the size of
with regards to robustness of the separation process as the three-phase separators or increase production rate.
characteristics of the crude can change over the production
life of the field. Early stage application of electrocoalescence requires
electrostatic technology that can tolerate and function with
Figure 10 illustrates the significant improvements in high water cuts and presence of gas. Conventional
separation efficiency at 60 °C when VIEC is applied with electrostatic coalescers utilize bare or composite electrodes
respectively 8 and 15 seconds of exposure time. The and can therefore not be used for this purpose. Wärtsilä’s
displayed results are from batch tests and the values are VIEC technology utilizes fully insulated electrodes with low-
therefore only indicative. voltage power distribution and can tolerate water cuts and
gas content up to 100%. This makes the technology ideal for
use in three-phase separators for early stage application of
electrocoalescence.
Use of high-voltage electrostatic fields is a very effective The case study presented in this report demonstrates the
method of separating water-in-oil emulsions. The benefits of applying VIEC technology in oil separation trains.
electrostatic fields polarize water droplets causing them to The study is based on a comprehensive laboratory study as
attract to each other and coalesce. The process happens very described above. The results show significant savings in
quickly, allowing for a rapid and effective droplet growth. heating, In addition to the energy savings, separator sizes
were also reduced significantly.
For oil separation trains there are significant benefits of
applying electrocoalescence at an early stage in the In summary, the VIEC technology represents an important
separation train. This is due to high crude oil viscosities and tool for resolving emulsion problems and optimizing oil
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9 Recent Advances in Offshore Technology. St.Johns, Newfoundland. Wednesday 1 of October 2014
separation trains. And by performing appropriate laboratory Enhancing Heavy Oil Separation and Improving
studies and combining these with scale-up laws, the Produced Water Quality”, paper presented at the
separation benefits can be quantified in advance and a 2005 Advances in Multiphase Separation and
Multiphase Pumping Technologies Conference,
performance guarantee can be given.
Aberdeen, United Kingdom, September 1-2.
[5] T. A. Fjeldly et al., Novel Coalescer Technology in
NOMENCLATURE
First Stage Separator Enables One-Stage Separation
α = Invariant electrostatic droplet growth parameter and Heavy-Oil Separation, OTC 18278, paper
β = Invariant sedimentation rate parameter presented at the 2006 Offshore Technology
εc = Relative electrical permittivity of continuous phase Conference 1-4 May 2006.
εd = Relative electrical permittivity of dispersed phase [6] Al Qahtani, A., Vessel Internal Electrostatic Coalescer
ε0 = Electrical permittivity of vacuum (8.854E-12 F/m) Technology (VIEC), SPE 156087
γ = Dielectric force factor [7] Chiesa M. et al.: Forces acting on water droplets
µ = Viscosity of continuous phase (oil) falling in oil under the influence of an electric field:
ϕ0 = Ratio of water emulsified in oil numerical predictions versus experimental
g = Gravitational acceleration constant observations, Eur. J. Mech. B-Fluid 24 (2005) 717–
d = Diameter of dispersed water droplets 732
r = Radius of dispersed water droplets [8] Eow, J.S. et al., Electrostatic enhancement of
tE =Electrostatic exposure time coalescence of water droplets in oil: a review of the
tR = Total retention time current understanding, Chem. Eng. J. 84 (2001), p.
vs = Sedimentation velocity 173.
AC = Alternating current [9] Waterman, L.C., Electrical coalescers, Chem. Eng.
BS&W = Basic Sediment and Water Progr. 61 (1965) 51-57.
E = Electrical field strength [10] Taylor, S.E., Theory and practice of electrically-
Fr = Radial component of electrostatic force enhanced phase separation of water-in-oil
Fθ = Tangential component of electrostatic force emulsions, Trans. IChemE A 74 (1996) 526-540
Fd = Drag force on droplets [11] http://www.jorin.co.uk/technology/
H = Settling height of emulsion
ID = Internal diameter of separator
T/T = TAN to TAN length of separator
Tc = Electrostatic collision time
VIEC = Vessel Internal Electrostatic Coalescer®
REFERENCES
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10 Recent Advances in Offshore Technology. St.Johns, Newfoundland. Wednesday 1 of October 2014