SPE 147163

In-Line Water Extraction from Crude Oil using Compact Separation

Technology
Carl Wordsworth and Najam Beg, Caltec Limited, UK

Copyright 2011, Society of Petroleum Engineers

This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition held in Denver, Colorado, USA, 30 October–2 November 2011.

This paper was selected for presentation by an SPE program committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents of the paper have not been
reviewed by the Society of Petroleum Engineers and are subject to correction by the author(s). The material does not necessarily reflect any position of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, its
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Abstract

Conventional bulk oil-water separation is usually undertaken using gravity separators, where the phases are
allowed to separate over time using gravity. One consequence of this technique is that in order to allow a sufficient
residence time for the two phases to separate, gravity separators, tend to be large vessels. The step change
alternative to this traditional approach is to consider using a compact separator where a high centrifugal force is
impacted on the two phases to bring about separation and in doing so reducing the residence time needed to
separate the fluids. As a consequence of this approach not only are the separators size and weight significantly
reduced but correspondingly its safety features are considerably enhanced due to the lower hydrocarbon inventory
and design codes used.

Caltec have developed an in-line cyclonic separator that is designed to separate water from a water continuous oil-
water mixture, the devices are capable of recovering up to 60% of the total water at a quality of 1000ppm or less.
They are designed to pipeline or process pipework code; can be installed in-line; have a large turn down ratio;
have enhanced separation of fluids if gas is present; can separate the fluids at full pipe line pressure and are a
fraction of the size and weight of a conventional gravity separators.

Caltec’s Water Extraction (Wx) technology has been extensively tested in its own laboratories at Cranfield, and at
TUV NEL’s multiphase test facilities in Glasgow. Work has also been undertaken both onshore and offshore but
this data will not be published in this paper, but will be reported at a later date. This paper describes the water
extraction technology and reviews the results of the trials undertaken. This paper also examines potential
applications where compact in-line separation technology can be used in future developments.

1 INTRODUCTION

Conventional bulk oil-water separation is commonly undertaken by using gravity separators, where the phases are
allowed to separate over time under gravity. One consequence of this technique is that gravity separators tend to
be quite large vessels in order to allow a sufficient residence time for the two phases to separate,. The step
change alternative to this traditional approach is to consider using a compact separator where a high centrifugal
force is imparted on the mixture to bring about separation of the two phases, and in doing so reduce the residence
time needed to separate the fluids.

As a consequence of this approach not only the separator`s size and weight are significantly reduced but
correspondingly its safety features are considerably enhanced due to the lower hydrocarbon inventory and the
design codes used. The approach is therefore ideally suited to offshore platforms, sub-sea applications or land
operations where the requirement to easily transport the unit is of paramount importance.

Caltec have developed an in-line cyclonic separator to separate the bulk produced water from a water continuous
oil-water mixture. The devices are capable of recovering up to 60% of the total water at a quality of 1000ppm or
better from typical North Sea crude oils.
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They are designed to pipeline or process pipework code depending on location; they can be installed in-line; have
a large turn-down ratio; can handle free gas; can separate the fluids at full pipe line pressure and are a fraction of
the size and weight of the conventional gravity separators. This compact inline separator is given the trade name of
Wx unit, short for water extraction duty. The development of this device follows the development of Caltec
compact separator known as “I-SEP” which has enjoyed numerous field applications and has a number of
applications including gas-liquid separation, sand separation and multiphase metering

This paper describes the Wx technology and explains some of the development work that has been undertaken for
oil-water separation technology. This paper also describes some of the possible applications where the Wx
technology may be used.

2 Benefits of Compact Separation Technology

Compact separators, such as I-SEP or Wx, offer the following benefits

• Compactness with a small footprint

• No active level control is required
• No moving parts
• Can be rated to high pressures and temperatures
• Very low fluid inventory, with increased safety
• Low weight
• Not sensitive to the motion of floating platforms or vessels
• Tolerant to flow fluctuations and turn-down
• Ability to handle free gas
• Could help the existing gravity separators to improve their performance
• A wide range of applications
• Key components can be easily replaced if required

3 Wx Technology

The Wx technology makes use of Caltec’s patented I-SEP technology in order to develop a bulk oil-water
separation system. The Wx technology uses a novel cyclonic separation system in order to take fluids with inlet
water cuts of 50% or more (so long as the fluid is in the water continuous phase) and produce separated water
containing approximately 500 to 1000ppm or less of oil in water for typical North Sea hydrocarbons.

Generation of high “g” forces to separate fluids of different densities and to generate efficient separation is not new
and dates back to the late 19th century, although the main part of the development work has been carried out
since the 1950s.

The patented I-SEP [1] consists primarily of a compact dual involute and a specially designed separation chamber
between the two involutes, Figure 1. The function of the first involute is to generate a spin and high “g” forces as
the fluids enter the separator. The generated high “g” forces help the fluid droplets with different densities to
coalesce and be separated. The denser phase is migrated towards the wall of the separation chamber and the
lighter phase gathers within the centre core. The fluids maintain their spin and tangential velocities along their path,
which helps to continue the separation of phases with different densities.

Key design features, which becomes part of the know-how and the confidential information held by the designers
and suppliers of these units contribute to the performance and efficiency of each unit in different applications. A
significant amount of development work has been carried out to investigate the operation of such equipment and to
improve their performance. The majority of work has, however, been carried out on reverse flow cyclones;
particularly in applications where the flow fluctuations are minimal; the flow rate of one phase is very small
compared to the main fluid phase; and the operating pressures are low [2,3].

4 Wx Testing

The performance of I-SEP has been extensively investigated, particularly in gas-liquid separation duties.
Separating gas and liquid phases is a relatively easy task because of the significant difference between the
densities of the two phases. There is, however, a complex feature of gas-liquid mixtures known as flow regime,
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which poses problems and challenges for achieving efficient phase separation. The key features of multiphase flow
regimes are the fluctuations in the instantaneous flowrates, pressure, fluid velocities and gas-liquid ratios. The
severity of these changes depends primarily on the average gas-liquid distributions, superficial velocities of each
phase and characteristics of the flow path. Any separator which receives flow under such conditions should be
able to cope with such fluctuations.

Conventional gravity separators are generally designed with the additional large storage capacity to cope with such
conditions. Selection of size and some of the internals also help to improve their performance, although there have
been many cases where even bulky separators suffer from poor performance by generating excessive liquid carry-
over in the separated gas phase, gas carry-under in the liquid phase, and poor oil-water separation efficiency.
Such bulky separators have limitations on their maximum design pressure, because of the issue of large wall
thickness for the shell.

Due to their nature compact separators do not have the spare storage capacity to handle major changes in the
flowrate of each phase. Compared to the relative ease that gas and liquid phases can be separated in large
vessels, the use of compact separators for bulk oil-water separation has been strictly limited. The differences in
density of the two phase is much smaller than those for gas-liquid applications, this relatively small difference in
densities, coupled with problems associated with the fluid viscosity and the formation of emulsions, makes the use
of centrifugal compact separators more difficult for this application.

Figure 1: I-SEP Cyclonic Separator

A major part of the development work by CALTEC over the past few years has been concentrated on improving
the design of the compact separator (I-SEP) and the Wx system to cope with significant fluctuations in the flow and
the effect of other factors such as density and viscosity of the fluids involved.

4.1 Onshore/Offshore Tests

Figure 2 shows the unit designed for 4000bpd that was designed and tested in Norway, both onshore and offshore,
using real crude oil, the system was given a trade name of Wx- technology

The oil-water separator was manufactured to pipeline code B31.3, ANSI Class 600, using 316L stainless steel, the
design and mechanical calculations were reviewed and approved by Bureau VERITAS, (B.V.), and the unit was CE
marked and had PED approval undertaken by B.V.
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Figure 2: Wx-4 System Tested in Norway

The testing was performed with a Norwegian partner, the results from these trials are still confidential, and cannot
be fully published yet. However, based on these very successful results, Caltec proceeded to design a standard
oil-water separator based around a 6,250bpd system, named Wx-6.

However, one conclusion of the testing that can be shared is that the offshore trials proved that the technology
gave better separation results with offshore real life crude oils rather than the ‘dead’ oil tested in the onshore trials.
In practice the levels of oil in water obtained in the offshore trials were lower than those seen in the onshore trials
and the levels of water able to be recovered by the Wx system was also increased in the offshore trials.

Caltec developed three basic designs, a Wx-6, Wx-12 and Wx-25; these systems can process 6,250, 12,500 and
25,000bpd of fluids respectively. Figure 3 shows a General Assembly drawing for the Wx-12 unit designed and
tested at TUV NEL in the UK.

Based on these standard designs Caltec also has designs for larger flows; by making use of several Wx-25
systems manifolded together, it is possible to handle very large volumes of water if required. Figure 4 shows the
general arrangement of a 100,000bpd system that has been developed by Caltec.

In order to examine the flow within the larger standard systems CFD was used to look at the single phase flow in a
Wx-25 MK I separator, before any physical testing of the large units were undertaken. The aim of this work was to
examine whether any flow maldistribution within the single unit could be identified. Figure 5 shows a CFD plot
looking at streamlines within the Wx-25 separator, this work showed that no flow maldistribution was identified,
when multiple units were bundled together in the same body.

In order to prove these standardised systems perform as expected it was necessary to undertake further testing by
an independent organisation. The tests were performed at TUV NEL’s Multiphase test facility in Glasgow and the
results of these tests are described in the next section.
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Figure 3: GA of Wx-12 Oil-Water Unit

Figure 4: GA of Proposed 100,000bpd Wx System

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Figure 5: Single Phase CFD analysis of Flows within Wx-25 Separator

4.2 Wx-12 Standard System Testing

In order to test the standard Wx system a series of trials were undertaken at TUV NEL on their Multiphase test
facility. Figure 6 shows the Wx-12 Separator installed in the test facility.

The TUV NEL test facility is constructed around a full scale three phase separator, which separates and stores the
oil and water phases, with the gas phase being supplied on demand. Each phase is pumped and measured
separately before being mixed into a multiphase flow and transported to the test unit in the facility. The liquid flows
exiting the Wx system were monitored using coriolis flow meters.

The fluids used during the tests were; a lubrication oil, Exxsol D80 which had a viscosity of 1.48cP and a density of
3
784 kg/m at a temperature of 41 ºC; water with magnesium sulphate added was used which had a density of
1,047 kg/m3 and a viscosity of 1.002cP at a temperature of 41 ºC; Nitrogen gas was also used during the testing.

Figure 6: Wx-12 Installed at TUV NEL

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In order to determine the separation performance of the Wx unit, a series of samples were taken from the test
facility and the oil in water contents of the samples were measured chemically. Figure 7 shows an example of a
sample taken from the clean water outlet of the Wx technology and a sample taken from the inlet to the separator.

Inlet Sample
Clean Water Outlet Sample

Figure 7: Samples Taken During Testing

Figures 8 to 10 show some of the results obtained from the testing of the full scale Wx-12 unit.

Figure 8 shows the effect of the inlet flow ratio versus the pressure drop of the Wx unit. The flow ratio is the actual
flow through the unit divided by its theoretical maximum design flow rate. From the graph it can be seen that the
pressure loss over the unit under design condition is ~ 1.6bar.

Figure 9 shows the effect of inlet flow ratio on the oil in water content of the separated clean water outlet of the
separator. The results show that as the total inlet flow rate is reduced the performance of the separator improves
for a wide range of flow turn-down; therefore this gives the Wx unit a very good turn-down ratio. Based on the
information contained in Figures 8 and 9 it is possible to operate the Wx system at flows 25% of the design, at
these levels the pressure loss of te hsystem will be as low as 0.5bar.

Figure 10 shows the effect of the inlet water cut on the water quality. The graph shows that a large increase in oil
in water content occurs around 60% inlet water cut, the reason for this is that the inversion point of this oil water
mixture was around the 55% water cut point, therefore as the fluid starts to change from being water continuous to
oil continuous the performance of the separator starts to deteriorate, therefore for this separator to work effectively
the fluids always have to be in the water continuous regime.

Figure 11 shows the effect of gas on the oil in water content of the separated water outlet of the separator. The
results show that the inlet gas GVF can be increased up to 70% with only a small increase in the amount of oil in
8 SPE 147163

the clean water phase. However as the amount of gas increases the pressure drop across the separator also
increases such that, at a GVF of 70% the pressure drop across the unit would be in excess of 6bar. Therefore
when gas levels are higher than about 10% to 15% GVF Caltec usually recommends that the gas is removed prior
to the oil-water separation using Caltec’s patented I-SEP gas liquid separator. This has the advantage of reducing
the overall pressure drop of the process from 6bar, or higher, down to 1.5 to 2bar.

Figure 8: Pressure Loss Through Separator

Figure 9: Effect of Inlet Flow ratio on Water Quality

SPE 147163 9

Figure 10: Effect of Inlet Water Cut on Water Quality

Figure 11: Effect of Inlet GVF on Water Quality

The following conclusions were drawn from the various test programmes:

• The separator was capable of recovering up to 55-60% of the total water with a water quality approximately
500 to 1000ppm oil in water.
• By adding a small amount of gas, it is possible to increase the water recovery to ~ 65% whilst still
maintaining 500 to 1000ppm or less oil in water.
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• The separator was not affected by the inlet oil droplet size of the fluids entering the system, over the range
of conditions tested.
• The effect of the inlet water cut on the separator performance is small. This is true as long as the fluids are
in a water continuous phase.
• The turndown ratio of the separator has been shown to be large, with the unit able to operate with high
separation efficiency at flow rates between 25% and 120% of the design flowrate.
• Gas can be injected into the system with up to 70% GVF having little effect on the separator performance.
However at very high levels of gas the pressure drop of the equipment can be high, therefore it is usually
recommended to include a gas-liquid separator such as I-SEP upstream of the oil-water separation to
reduce the overall pressure loss through the system.
• The pressure drop experienced by the separator under the design flow conditions was identified as being
close to1.6bar

5 Potential Applications of Wx Technology

The following section gives an example of the main applications where the Wx technology may be used.

5.1 Wx Technology De-bottlenecking Existing Equipment

Caltec currently see the main use for the Wx technology as a system capable of de-bottlenecking the existing
separation equipment. As oil fields become mature, the amount of water that is produced can increase
significantly, therefore any existing separation equipment and pipeline must be able to handle the increased water
inflows, this often means that wells have to be choked back, i.e. production decreased, in order to reduce the
amounts of fluids passing through the separators.

By making use of the Wx technology, it is possible to reduce the amount of water passing through the existing
separation train, thus allowing the wells to be ‘opened up’, hence increasing production. Figure 12 shows an
example of such a system, whilst Figure 13 shows a simple example of how much extra production can be
generated by making use of a Wx system in order to de-bottleneck an existing separator.

Figure 13 simulates a theoretical pipeline/separation train that has a capacity of 25,000bpd of fluids. By
introducing a Wx-25 into the system it is possible to divert 25,000bpd of fluids out of the main line/separator thus
allowing more fluids to be produced. As the Wx system recovers ~60% of the total water entering the separator
this means that ~ 13,500bpd of fluids are recovered by the Wx system, these fluids can be further processed in
order to meet discharge/re-injection limits. Approximately 11,500bpd of fluids are sent back into the
pipeline/separator, therefore as this has a capacity of 25,000bpd this means that a further 13,500bpd of fluids can
be produced. If the inlet water cut of the fluids is 90% water this means that an additional 1,350bpd of oil can be
produced by making use of the Wx system, at $100 per barrel this would result in an extra $135,000 per day of
increased production.

Figure 12: De-bottlenecking Existing Equipment Using Wx Technology

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Figure 13: Example of Increased Production

5.2 Wx Technology Replacing Existing Equipment

The Wx technology can be used to replace aging and large expensive topsides separation equipment as the field
becomes mature. Figure 14 shows an example of this in practice.

Figure 14: Wx Technology Replacing Existing Topsides Equipment

Making use of the Wx technology in this manner has the following benefits:

• Improved safety and integrity of the production systems

• Improved economics of late field development
• Reduced operating costs
• Increased production
• Better use of space
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• Reduced fluid inventory

• Reduced maintenance costs
• Reduced weight
• Flexibility to increase water handling capacity.

5.3 Wx Technology Subsea Applications

With the move to reduced topsides platforms and reduced deck space availability, the prospect of compact
separation (such as Wx) and subsea processing is becoming increasingly more attractive to offshore operators.
Therefore a system that could perform a complete subsea production boosting and separation processing would
likely be highly attractive.

In order to develop a complete subsea production boosting system, it will be necessary to be able to perform gas-
liquid, oil-water and solid liquid separation with compact systems which are highly reliable and easy to operate.
The Wx technology developed and shown here will form part of this complete subsea processing system in the role
of bulk oil-water separation.

Figure 15 shows an example of how Caltec would envisage such a complete subsea processing package being
performed. This package also incorporates its jet pump technology for subsea pressure a production boosting [4].

Due to their limited control, lack of moving parts and little or no maintenance requirements, this makes Caltec’s
batch of compact separation and boosting equipment ideal for use in a subsea environment. Funding is currently
sort in order to be able to develop this conceptual idea into reality.

6 Future Work

The Wx technology has been extensively tested at full scale in various laboratories using syenthic/dead crude oils.
Caltec are now looking for field locations where the Wx technology can be used in an offshore application. This
approach would enable Caltec to extend the operating range of the Wx technology and verify its performance.
From the knowledge that was gained from the initial offshore trials with the small scale unit, Caltec are confident
that the full scale systems will operate smoothly in real life applications.

Figure 15: Subsea Applications of Compact Separation Technology

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7 References

[1] The Applications and Performance of a Novel Compact Separator in the Oil and AGs Industry, MM (Sacha)
Sarshar, Dr N A Beg, UK 2nd GCC – EU Advanced Oil and Gas Technology Conference, Abu Dhabi, UAE,
May 21 -22 2001

[2] Hydrocyclones, Analysis and Applications, L Svarsky, M T Thew, Kluwear Academic Publishers.

[3] 3rd International Conference on Hydrocyclones – Oxford, Editor P. Wood, BHRA, The Fluid Engineering
Centre, 30th Sep – 2nd Oct 1987.

[4] A cost effective way to boost production and recovery from the oil and gas fields. Sacha Sarshar & N. Beg,
Caltec Ltd,U.K. Multiphase Flow 2006 Conference, 27th to 28th March06, The Marcliffe at Pitfodels,
Aberdeen, UK