SPE-174763-MS

Novel use of Electro Coalescence to Enhance, Optimize and Debottleneck

Oil Separation Trains
Morad Amarzguioui, and Per Christian Jacobsen, Wärtsilä Oil & Gas Systems

Copyright 2015, Society of Petroleum Engineers

This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition held in Houston, Texas, USA, 28 –30 September 2015.

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
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Abstract
Many challenges are encountered when separating oil and water in onshore and offshore production trains.
The challenges include presence of stable emulsions, increased water cuts, small water droplets due to
high shear or pressure drops, and/or high crude viscosities. These issues can have a significant negative
impact on the separation efficiency if not addressed properly. The conventional way of addressing these
issues usually involves a combination of high process temperatures, high chemical dosages, large vessels
and/or increased number of separation stages. Conventional solutions often demand increased energy
consumption, higher material costs, larger operating costs, more weight and/or larger space requirement
for the production facility. Furthermore, conventional solutions are not always practically feasible, due to
restricted energy availability or space restrictions.
Early stage implementation of electrocoalescence through VIEC (Vessel Internal Electrostatic Co-
alescer) technology allows for a much more efficient and cost effective means of resolving the challenges
in the separation train. The VIEC technology was the OTC “Spotlight on new Technology” award winner
in 2004 and has since then been implemented in several major projects.
The VIEC technology applies high voltage electrical fields to promote droplet-droplet coalesce, thus
greatly speeding up and enhancing separation efficiency. VIEC technology combines fully insulated
electrodes with a low voltage feed and distribution inside the separator shell. Due to these characteristic
features, the VIEC technology can tolerate any water cut and presence of gas, as opposed to conventional
electrocoalescers. Consequently, the technology enables use of the powerful mechanism of electrocoales-
cence in any three-phase separator to speed up separation efficiency and resolve emulsion problems.
VIEC Technology will reduce the BS&W out of a given separator, increase capacity of an existing
separator or enable a more compact separation solution for a given throughput of crude. Additional
benefits include production at higher viscosities and at lower temperatures and improved level control due
to reduced emulsions layers. Furthermore, consumption of demulsifier is often seen to be reduce
significantly, when electrocoalescence is applied compared to conventional separation.
The paper will give a detailed presentation of the mechanism of electrocoalescence and how it is
implemented in the VIEC technology. The paper will focus on how to predict electrostatically enhanced
separation performance by combining laboratory testing with separation modelling, to give representative
predictions of separation benefits and allow for designing solutions custom-fitted to specific separation
2 SPE-174763-MS

challenges. A specific case from the Gulf of Mexico will be presented, where an existing TLP was
retrofitted with VIEC technology to increase its capacity and enable a tie back from a nearby reservoir.
Introduction
It is seen quite often in the industry that oil separation trains fail to perform as designed, due to challenges
with separating water from oil. Presence of stable emulsions can severely hinder the dehydration process,
affecting the integrity of the whole separation facilities. Typically, the separation trains produce oil to
specification in the early life of the field. Nevertheless, as the water cut increases, emulsions with high
water content start to affect the performance gradually, until some sort of debottlenecking solution has to
be implemented to sustain the production. Typical conventional measures to address these issues are for
example to apply more potent and larger dosages of demulsifier and/or to apply a lot of heat to help break
the emulsions. Unfortunately, these conventional measures usually have a high impact on the operating
costs. Often they also require significant capital cost investments.
Tie-ins to existing facilities is also becoming more and more important for a maturing offshore oil and
gas industry where most of the large and self-sustainable field developments are developed. New
discoveries are usually smaller and cannot financially support a standalone development. Standalone
developments are therefore not viable. Tying such fields into existing facilities will save huge field
development costs, rendering a larger amount of these small discoveries viable for development.
One of the biggest challenges tying in new fields to existing facilities is usually increased separation
capacity requirement for the existing process plant. New tie-ins will increase the production rate, often
beyond the capacity of the existing separation vessels. In addition, the fluids from new reservoirs may
have different properties than the original reservoir fluids. The differing fluid properties could potentially
require different process conditions and methods, such as longer settling time, higher process temperature
and/or different chemicals. Finally, mixing the new production fluids with the existing can also cause
unexpected separation issues due to tighter and more stable emulsions.
Existing separation trains often fail to meet the required design capacity when implementing new
tie-ins to the exsisting facility. Conventional measures to address this bottleneck are to apply more potent
and larger dosages of demulsifier, increase process temperature and or even replacing existing separators
leading to major modifications of the existing facility.
These conventional measures could have a high impact on the operating costs and or require significant
capital cost investments. In some cases conventional measures do not provide a sustainable solution for
the bottleneck issue with the result of postponing or even abandoning the development of the field.
In this paper, we present a more effective and cost-efficient solution to the separation challenges. The
solution is based on the VIEC (Vessel Internal Electrostatic Coalescer) technology [1–6, 12] The VIEC
technology applies high voltage electrostatic fields in the same way as conventional electrostatic
coalescers to separate out the water by making use of the principle of electrocoalescence. However,
several inventive steps make it especially well suited for resolving emulsion problems early in the
separation train and to provide optimal conditions for separation.
The paper also discusses how separation performance can be predicted in a consistent and represen-
tative way by combining detailed laboratory analyses with separation tests and in-house developed scaling
laws. The principle of electrocoalescence, which lies at the heart of the VIEC technology, will be
described. We present the VIEC technology and how it can be used to optimize and debottleneck oil
production trains together with a developed framework for predicting separation performance.
Electrocoalescence
Electrocoalescence is the process where droplets of a liquid dispersed in a second continuous liquid are
forced to coalesce by application of an external electrostatic field. This is a principle that has been applied
very successfully in the oil industry for many years to separate produced water from crude oil. The
SPE-174763-MS 3

electrostatic forces that act on the droplets can be categorized into three different types, depending on the
characteristics of the external electrostatic field:
1. Electrophoretic forces. These are forces that cause motion due to a net charge of the droplets.
Since droplets of produced water are normally electrically neutral, the droplets would have to be
charged by an external source for this force to take effect. The force is a directional driving force
that causes the charged droplets to move either parallel or anti-parallel to the imposed electrical
field, depending on the sign of the charge. The force does not cause direct attraction between
droplets.
2. Dielectrophoretic forces. These are forces that act on electrically neutral droplets of a polarizable
liquid due to an external non-uniform electrical field. Spatial variation in the electrical field over
the droplets results in a non-uniform polarization of the droplets, thus setting up a net force in the
direction of the field gradient. As for the electrophoretic forces, the result is a directional driving
force that moves all droplets in a given direction, depending on the field gradient. The force does
not cause direct attraction between droplets.
3. Electrical dipole-dipole forces. These are forces that act on electrically neutral droplets of a
polarizable liquid due to an external uniform electrical field. The external field polarizes the
droplets so that one side of the droplets has a positive surface charge while the opposite side has
a negative surface charge. Note that the net charge of the whole droplet remains zero. This gives
rise to attractive dipole-dipole forces between droplets, where the positively and negatively
charged sides of a droplet attract the oppositely charged sides of neighboring droplets. As opposed
to the first two types of forces, this force acts directly between droplets, causing adjacent particles
to attract to each other thereby greatly facilitating droplet growth.
Since the electrical dipole-dipole forces give rise to direct droplet-droplet interactions, they are the
primary driving forces behind electrostatic coalescence.
Assuming that the distance s between neighboring droplets is larger than the droplet radii r, the induced
attractive dipole-dipole force between the droplets can be calculated using a point dipole approximation.
Figure 1 shows an illustration of the induced dipoles in the droplets and force components. The forces can
be written as [1, 2]
(1)

(2)

Figure 1—Force components of induced dipole-dipole forces between two neighboring droplets of radii r1 and r2 separated by a
distance s forming and angle ! relative to the external electrostatic field E.
4 SPE-174763-MS

where the dielectric force factor ! is defined as

(3)

and "d and "c are the relative electrical permittivities of the dispersed and continuous phases, "0 is the
electrical permittivity of vacuum, E0 is the average value of the external electrostatic field, r1 and r2 are
the radii of two neighboring droplets, and s is the distance between the droplets. The axis between the
droplets forms an angle of # relative to the electrostatic field. Fr and F# are the radial and tangential
components of the induced electrostatic forces.
From these expressions we see that a pre-requisite for erecting an effective electrostatic force between
the droplets is that the electric permittivity of the dispersed phase is significantly higher than for the
continuous phase. This requirement is fulfilled for a dispersion of water-in-oil, since crude oils have a
relative permittivity in the range of 2-3, while water has a relative permittivity in the range of 55-80
depending on temperature.
The attractive forces will be opposed by drag forces Fd acting on the droplets due to the viscosity of
the continuous phase. The drag force is described by Stokes’ drag law:
(4)

where $ is the viscosity of the continuous phase and v is the velocity of the droplets.
Assuming balance between the forces we can calculate the time it takes to bring two droplets with
identical radii together under the influence of an electric field. We define this as the mean electrostatic
collision time Tc
(5)

where %0 is the initial fraction of emulsified water. To arrive at this expression we have assumed that
the droplets are aligned with the external electrical field.
Inserting typical values for the constants, we can get an idea of the typical electrostatic collision time
scale. We assume water cut of 40%, viscosity of 20 cP, relative oil permittivity of 2.3, relative water
permittivity of 60 and electrical field strength of 2.0 kV/cm. Eq. (5) gives a collision time of approxi-
mately 0.9 milliseconds. This corresponds to approximately 1000 droplet-droplet collisions per second.
The greatly enhanced collision frequency due to the electrical field increases the likelihood of
droplet-droplet coalescence considerably compared to normal gravity separation.
An additional advantage of applying electrostatic dipole-dipole forces is that they also facilitate binary
coalescence once the droplets are brought together. The force expressions Eq. (1) and (2) show that the
magnitude of the force increases very strongly when the droplets are close to each other. This causes
stretching of the droplets, which destabilizes the surface films surrounding them, making coalescence
much more likely than in a conventional process.
According to Stokes’ sedimentation law,
(6)

the dispersed water droplets sediment with a terminal velocity that is proportional to the square of the
droplet diameter d. Thus, the greatly enhanced droplet growth provided by electrostatic treatment will lead
to significantly faster sedimentation and ultimately to faster separation.
SPE-174763-MS 5

VIEC Technology
Electrocoalescence has been used in the industry for many years to separate water from oil [9, 10].
However, the conventional application of electrocoalescence has been mostly limited to the very last
stages of the process train, where they act as either a dehydrator and/or desalter. The reason for this is that
conventional electrocoalescers have limited tolerance for water content in the inlet stream and zero
tolerance for presence of gas. These limitations are because conventional electrocoalescers use bare or
partially bare electrodes and high voltage internal power distribution. Consequently, conventional elec-
trocoalescer technology is not suitable for use in the early stages of separation trains, where high levels
of water and gas will be present.
This was why a Vessel Internal Electrostatic Coalescer (VIEC) technology was developed, a technol-
ogy that overcomes these limitations due to two characteristic innovative features. Firstly, the VIEC
technology uses fully insulated electrodes, which effectively prevents short-circuiting from occurring.
Secondly, high voltage is confined to the volume enclosed by the electrodes by use of internal
transformers dedicated to each energized electrode. With this, the power distribution system inside the
separator can be low voltage (220V), thus preventing arching in the gas phase. Because of these
characteristic features, the VIEC technology tolerates any water cut and presence of gas. This means that
by using the VIEC technology, the benefits of electrostatic coalescence can be implemented in any
three-phase separator.
The VIEC system is made up of elements consisting of single vertical electrodes cast in a specialized
insulating material (see Figure 2). The elements are installed inside a production separator in a modular
manner in one or several walls of modules mounted in cassettes. The VIEC elements are energized by a
low voltage feed penetrating through the separator shell. The low voltage feed is transformed to high
voltage in transformers molded inside each element. Normally, the elements are installed between normal
interface level (NIL) and normal liquid level (NLL), where oil-continuous emulsion is expected. The
VIEC system can be installed in any conventional three-phase separator, both as a new-build and as a
retrofit.

Figure 2—A single VIEC element consisting of an active electrode and an internal transformer inside a single continuous mold.

Figure 3 and Figure 4 show a typical VIEC wall inside a three-phase separator. Also visible in the
figures is a cable conduit system, which distributes a low voltage power feed to each individual element.
The VIEC elements are supplied with a low-voltage high-frequency AC field by external VIEC frequency
converter cards. Each VIEC frequency converter card supplies two VIEC elements.
6 SPE-174763-MS

Figure 3—VIEC wall inside a separator.

Figure 4 —Three-phase separator with VIEC system installed.

Oil production with VIEC technology

Traditional oil separation trains consist typically of a first high pressure stage gravity separator, a second
stage low-pressure gravity separator and a conventional electrostatic coalescer unit (see Figure 5).
Normally the separation train is designed so that most of the free gas and free water is removed in the first
and second stages. The first stage gravity separator targets to remove most of the free water. This is
especially important for fields where the water cut is starting to get high, meaning that presence of free
water is very likely. Any carry-over of free water from the first stage is removed in the second stage
gravity separator. Free gas is removed from the crude oil phase in both stages. Normally, the two stages
of gravity separation are sufficient to remove all free water and free gas. The first two stages are normally
not designed to remove emulsified water; they remove only free water.

Figure 5—Typical separation train for processing crude oil.

SPE-174763-MS 7

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 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 previously,
conventional electrostatic coalescers do not tolerate presence of gas in the inlet stream and they have a
limited tolerance for water content. Typically, the limit is around 15-20% water in oil. This places strict
demands on the gravity separators upstream to achieve optimal operation of the separation train: They
have to evacuate all gas and remove enough water so that the conventional electrostatic coalescers
downstream can work as designed.
However, even if the gravity separators are successful in removing all free water, there can still be
significant amounts of water present in the outlet streams in the form of emulsified water. This is water
that is dispersed in tiny droplets in the oil continuous phase, making them much more difficult to separate
out. The heavier the crude oil, the more difficult it is to separate water emulsified in an oil-continuous
phase.
Crude oils have an inversion point ranging from typically 40% up to 60%. This means that an
oil-continuous phase can contain emulsified water with water cuts of up to 40-60%. Since gravity
separators do not normally separate out emulsified water, this means that the oil outlet stream from the
gravity separators can contain as much as 40-60% water in the form of an emulsion (depending on inlet
water cut and crude oil properties). This is a considerably higher water content than conventional
electrostatic coalescers can handle. 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.
By applying VIEC technology, the risks can be mitigated by ensuring that any residual emulsions are
treated and resolved as early as possible in the separation train. In addition, several operational benefits
are provided. Typical use of VIEC technology in an oil separation train sees it installed in the first and/or
second stage three-phase separators (See Figure 6 for illustration). Since the VIEC system tolerates any
water cut and presence of gas, this allows to bring the principle of 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 specifi-
cation. For light to medium crudes, the VIEC technology can potentially have an added major benefit that
the crude is dehydrated sufficiently well so that one or more dehydration or desalting stages can be
removed downstream.

Figure 6 —Typical application of VIEC technology is in either the first and/or second stage three-phase separators, where it will resolve
emulsions and separate out as much water as possible early in the process.

In addition to resolving emulsion problems and providing optimal conditions for processing crude oils,
the VIEC technology can also offer additional operational and economic benefits:
8 SPE-174763-MS

● The significantly increased droplet growth rates provided by the VIEC technology means that the
emulsions can often be treated efficiently at higher viscosities than conventionally. This allows for
reduction in process temperature, with corresponding savings in heating energy. Note that since
water has a heat capacity that is twice as high as crude oil, the energy savings can be especially
high by applying VIEC in the first stages where the water content is high.
● Demulsifier dosages are often reduced significantly when VIEC technology is applied. However,
the need for a demulsifier is usually not removed completely. Although the electrostatic forces
give rise to frequent droplet-droplet collisions and they help destabilize the interfaces of the
droplets, a small dosage of a suitable demulsifier is often required to clean the interfaces
sufficiently of surfactants to allow direct contact between the droplets.
● Separator sizes can be reduced compared to conventionally sized separators. According to Stokes’
sedimentation law, the time required for droplets to sediment out of an emulsion is inversely
proportional to the square of the size of the droplets in the emulsion. Since the main function of
VIEC is to increase water droplet sizes, the required retention time of the oil phase will be reduced
accordingly. Thus, the separator size can be reduced without compromising the oil quality.
● The production rate can be increased without increasing the size of the production train due to the
increased separation efficiency offered by the VIEC technology.
● Level control can be improved by reducing or removing emulsion bands (see Figure 7)

Figure 7—Screenshots showing level profile readings without VIEC (left panel) and with VIEC (right panel). A significant improvement
in interface development is visible with VIEC compared to without VIEC.

Utilization Electrocoalescence for Tie-Ins

All reservoirs have different properties, such as pressure, temperature, and hydrocarbon composition. The
process plant design on existing facilities is based on the reservoir production profile, and the design
includes parameters such as flowrates, fluids retention time, heating requirement, and chemical injection.
A tie-in to an existing facility will alter the production profile and fluids composition from the original
design, potentially requiring a change in process temperature and fluid retention time. The processing
plant may therefore no longer be suitable and modifications have to be performed.
The most obvious change in design basis is the increased flowrate requiring increased capacity of both
separation vessels and utility equipment. Increased flowrate of oil will result in lower retention time for
the oil phase. As discussed above in section Electrocoalescence, electrostatic destabilization will greatly
enhance the collision frequency of dispersed water droplets in the oil, increasing the coalescence
probability. Higher coalescence rate will increase droplet size distribution and reduce required settling
time for the water droplets. Therefore, installing electrocoalescence in the 3-phase separators will reduce
the required retention time for the oil phase, thus increasing production capacity.
Increased flowrate can be any combination of increased crude oil, water and/or gas flowrates. In the
cases of increased water and/or gas flowrates, electrocoalescence cannot directly affect separation of these
phases. However, as the crude oil requires shorter retention time in the separator when implementing
SPE-174763-MS 9

electrocoalescence, the treatment volume for the oil phase can be reduced, leaving more room for
increased amount of gas and/or longer retention time for the water phase. Thus, for all cases of increased
flowrates, implementation of electrocoalescence in the 3-phase separators will provide an efficient way of
increasing the capacity of the existing separators.
Another important change is the difference in crude oil properties. New fields tend to have heavier and
more viscous crude oil. Based on Stokes’ sedimentation law, Eq. (6), crude oil with higher viscosity
requires longer settling time to achieve required BS&W; that means they require larger separation vessels.
A conventional way to counteract this is to reduce viscosity by adding heat. However, for existing
facilities this may cause complications. The facilities may not have heaters or at least not the required
heating capacity resulting in modifications to the facilities. Adding more heat will also increase the
operational cost, especially if the facilities are not self-sustained with gas. Increasing the temperature may
also increase the material grade requirement. Further, heavy crude oils have an inversion point ranging
from typically 40% up to 50%. This means that an oil-continuous phase can contain emulsified water with
water cuts of up to 40-50%. 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 with
traditional electrostatic coalescers fails to produce to the required specifications, due to overloading of the
coalescers.
The electrocoalescence technology VIEC for 3-phase separators will not trip and will work for any
water cuts dispersed in the oil-continuous phase. In addition, since implementation of electrocoalescence
in 3-phase separators will drastically increase droplet growth and therefore reduce the required settling
time it is an efficient solution for cases where introducing viscous crude oils to existing facilities will
cause production issues.
Mixing in the new crude oil with the existing production fluid can result in tight or even stable
emulsions, especially if the new crude is a heavy crude. 3-phase gravity based separators do not normally
separate out emulsified water. Even if they are successful in removing all free water, there can still be
significant amounts of water present in the outlet streams in the form of emulsified water. The heavier the
crude oil, the more difficult it is to separate water emulsified in an oil-continuous phase.
Tight emulsions are notoriously difficult to separate by gravity-based separation alone and will require
very long settling times. Stable emulsions will not separate using gravity based separation alone.
Electrocoalescence will greatly enhance the coalescences probability in water in oil emulsions and
therefore improve destabilization of tight and stable emulsions.
In some cases, the tight emulsions may be broken by applying extremely high dosages of demulsifiers.
This is a very OPEX intensive solution and it may reduce the produced water quality, as large amounts
of demulsifier will be mixed into the water. In some cases, the excessive use is so large that it requires
additional, and costly, logistics support in order to transport the required demulsifier to site offshore. Use
of electrocoalescence in the 3-phase separator will reduce the required demulsifier dosage giving OPEX
savings and reduce logistics.
With the demulsifier dosage reduced to a minimum and the oil separation performance optimized, the
chemical treatment can be focused on the produced water. Thus, the produced water quality may be
improved.
Normally, a combination of some or all of these issues will occur when tying in new fields. As
described above implementation of electrocoalescence in the 3-phase separators can counteract all these
issues. It is a cost effective way to increase the capacity of any 3-phase separator on an existing process
plant and therefore contributing to a more efficient tie-in, requiring less modifications and/or operational
cost.
10 SPE-174763-MS

Predicting Separation Performance

When optimizing or debottlenecking a separation process it is important for the operator to have
confidence that the proposed measures will yield the required benefits. A framework has been developed
for consistent and representative predictions of separation performance with VIEC technology. The
framework involves comprehensive crude specific laboratory tests combined with in-house scale-up laws
for predicting separation performance at full scale. This allows us to propose solutions that are custom-
fitted to the challenges encountered in the specific field. Furthermore, it will enable a guarantee to be
provided for the separation efficiency even with presence of stable emulsions.
The laboratory scope of the framework consists of three stages. The stages address different aspects of
the separation process. By combining these, more consistent and representative prediction of the sepa-
ration performance of the crude can be obtained.
The first stage is crude oil characterization, which quantifies physical and chemical parameters relevant
to emulsion stability and separation efficiency. These include viscosity, density and dielectric parameters
as a function of temperature. Emulsions are analyzed in microscope and propensity of the crude towards
forming stable emulsions is investigated qualitatively by generating synthetic emulsions with different
shear rates.
In the next stage, small-scale batch separation tests are performed. Synthetic emulsions are generated
by mixing dry crude oil with produced water using a high-shear stator-rotor mixer. The shear rate is
adjusted to obtain 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 then tested at different relevant process
conditions. Important parameters that are varied in the batch separation tests are temperature, water cut,
demulsifier type, dosage, and electrostatic treatment time. By varying said parameters, sensitivity of the
performance with respect to changes in process conditions can be evaluated. Figure 8 shows some of the
equipment used for the batch tests

Figure 8 —Setup for performing batch tests, including a fixture for subjecting emulsions to an electrostatic treatment (left) and devices
for generating emulsions and measuring droplet size distributions (right)

Due to the static nature of the batch tests, the results obtained from these cannot be extrapolated directly
to a full-size separator. The reason for this is that there are several important dynamic effects that are
absent in a static test. These include presence of turbulence, shear and flow re-entrainment of the smallest
droplets. The results from these tests are therefore only used for qualitative considerations and serve as
input to the next stage of the testing.
SPE-174763-MS 11

The final stage consists of flow loop tests. Figure 9 shows some of the equipment used for the flow loop
tests. The most relevant conditions identified based on the characterization and batch separation tests are
tested under more representative flowing conditions. The tests are performed both with and without
application of VIEC in order to compare and quantify the separation benefits of the technology. Since flow
loop tests allow for dynamic development of the flow in a similar fashion to a field separator, the results
can be used for scale-up to the full separator size.

Figure 9 —Flow loop test set up consisting of a reservoir for mixing oil and water and a separation cell equipped with VIEC technology.

Figure 10 illustrates the difference in coalescence efficiency with and without VIEC by NIR images
taken through a microscope of a stable water-in-oil emulsion. The left panel shows a water-in-oil emulsion
with tiny water droplets dispersed in the oil-continuous phase without any chemical or VIEC treatment.
The median droplet size is less than 10 micon. The middle panel shows the same emulsion treated with
a high dosage of demulsifier. The right panel show the emulsion treated with both demulsifier and VIEC.
The NIR images show a significant growth in droplet size when VIEC is applied. Furthermore, we see that
the droplet become highly irregular in shape, which will greatly facilitate destabilization and further
coalescence.
12 SPE-174763-MS

Figure 10 —NIR images of water-in-oil emulsions magnified through a microscope. The left panel shows an emulsion with no treatment.
The emulsion remains stable for several weeks when left untreated. The middle panel shows the emulsion treated with a high
demulsifier dosage, while the right panel shows the same initial emulsion after treatment with both demulsifier and VIEC. Significant
increase in coalescence efficiency is seen when VIEC is applied, with the droplets having grown several order of magnitude.

To scale up the test results from the flow loop tests in a consistent way we must first identify the
relevant physical processes governing separation efficiency. Next, we express these in scale-invariant
forms by defining appropriate dimensionless groups of the relevant physical parameters. Then separation
performance in a full size separator can be inferred from flow loop tests by designing the loop tests so that
the values of the dimensionless parameters match with the full size separator.
The two main physical processes that dictate separation performance are coalescence and sedimenta-
tion. The process of coalescence is generally quite complicated and cannot generally be described by a
simple force expression. However, when electrostatic fields are applied the forces erected by the field will
dominate over the other droplet-droplet forces. Thus, assuming that an appropriate demulsifier treatment
has been used together with the electrostatic treatment, so that mechanical barriers towards coalescence
have been sufficiently 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 &, as a quantitative
measure of electrostatic coalescence efficiency:
(7)

For the process of sedimentation we can consider Stokes’ 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 obtain an average sedimentation time. Dividing this expression
again with total retention time available in the separator tR, we obtain a second dimensionless parameter
' as a quantitative measure for sedimentation efficiency:
(8)

Invariance with respect to the parameters & and ' means that the BS&W value at the oil outlet will
remain the same for any two dynamic separation processes regardless of scale, as long as the values of
the parameters are kept the same. As discussed above, the invariance assumes that the emulsions are
treated with a sufficiently strong electrostatic field and that a suitable demulsifier treatment is used.
Figure 11 illustrates the scale invariance of the two parameters. The figure shows plots of the ratio of
the water cut at the oil outlet to the water cut at the inlet as a function of the parameter & for tests with
with a crude oil where variation in ' can be neglected. Data from tests at two different scales are
SPE-174763-MS 13

superimposed in chart. One set of tests is performed in an in house laboratory flow loop, while the other
is performed in a larger test separator on the same crude. The behavior of the two different data sets as
a function of & is statistically indistinguishable, which is consistent with invariance.

Figure 11—Relative separation for tests at two different scales is shown as a function of the parameter ". The behavior is consistent
with scale invariance. The relative separation is quantified as the ratio of water cut at the oil outlet to the water cut at the inlet.

Case Studies
In the following, we describe case studies where laboratory tests have been conducted to optimize oil
separation trains with VIEC technology and an implemented reference case from the Gulf of Mexico
where VIEC was used to increase the capacity of an existing separator in order to enable tie-ins from a
new field.

Case I: API 20 crude – Energy savings and size reductions

The first case relates to development of a heavy oil offshore field located in Canada. The field will be
processed in a stand-alone platform. The operator evaluated the VIEC technology in the pre-FEED stage
as a means of reducing the process temperature at the intermediate stage of the separation train as well
as reducing the size of the separator. Both energy consumption and size requirements were considered to
an issue due to lack of gas in the reservoir and cost of space in a platform.
Two studies were performed to evaluate the benefits of VIEC. One study was performed in collabo-
ration with a major chemicals vendor at a local laboratory close to the field. The other study was
performed in a laboratory in Norway. Oil available from drilling of a previous well was used for both
studies.
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% BS&W. The temperatures
initially considered during pre-FEED stage were in the range of 80-90 °C. Furthermore, the length of the
separator was reduced from 29m to 21.5m, allowing for considerable space savings. Figure 12 shows the
separator.
14 SPE-174763-MS

Figure 12—VIEC implemented in the design of the new separator with size of 5.4 m x 21.5 m.

An additional important conclusion of the study was that the separation efficiency was much less
dependent on type of demulsifier used when VIEC was applied compared to without VIEC. This gave the
operator additional confidence concerning the robustness of the separation process as the characteristics
of the crude can change over the production life of the field.
Figure 13 illustrates the significant improvements in separation efficiency at 60 °C when VIEC is
applied with respectively 8 and 15 seconds of exposure time. The displayed results are from batch tests
and the values are therefore only indicative.
SPE-174763-MS 15

Figure 13—Chart displaying separation results of batch tests of API 20 crude with and without VIEC at 60 °C.

Case II: Increase separator capacity for a GoM Tie In.

The second reference case relates to a field discovered in 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico. The field had an
estimated production capacity of 55 MBOPD. This production rate was too low to carry an investment for
a dedicated production facility. A nearby TLP was identified as a good match for a tie-in of the new field.
The TLP was originally installed in the early 90’s and over the years, several projects added equipment
to increase production capacity in order to handle new tie-ins. By the time this field was discovered the
TLP hull support capacity was reached. No further weight could be added to the TLP. Every new kilogram
brought onto the platform meant another kilogram had to come off.
The existing separator, 2.6 m in diameter and 6.1 m tan/tan distance, on the TLP had a nameplate
capacity of 30 MBOPD. The operators design guideline defines a separator size of 3 m in diameter and
10 m tan/tan distance to handle the nearly double required capacity of 55 MBOPD. Upgrading the capacity
by conventional means would require major modifications and considering the weight limitations, it could
prove to be very difficult to realize. The solution was to install VIEC in the existing separator to increase
the capacity to the required 55 MBOPD. The VIEC installation added a weight of only 2 metric tons.
Figure 14 shows the VIEC internals installed in the separator.
16 SPE-174763-MS

Figure 14 —VIEC internals retrofitted inside a production separator on a TLP in the Gulf of Mexico.

As part of the project execution, an oil feasibility screening was conducted in order to verify the
performance and provide the operator with a performance guarantee. The testing was performed on a
representative crude oil sample. The design case was determined to be a combination of the well mixing
with highest viscosity and the highest expected production rate of 55 MBOPD with a water cut of 50%
at the inlet.
The VIEC installation was commissioned and started-up late 2014. As part of the start-up, initial
testing of the VIEC performance was performed. These tests were conducted at an initial limited flow rate
of 28 MBOPD with an inlet water cut of 2.7%. Separation performance (outlet BS&W) was measured for
VIEC off and VIEC on keeping the inlet conditions stable and injection rate of 26 ppm of demulsifier.
With VIEC off the performance was 1.6% BS&W at the outlet and with VIEC on the performance was
0.6% BS&W at the outlet.
Further testing also found that the demulsifier rate could be reduced by approximately 70% before the
performance was back at the initial 1.6% BS&W. Comparing these test results with the testing in the
Wärtsilä laboratory, using the scale up laws defined in section Predicting separation performance, showed
that the performance on field is slightly better than predicted.
This confirms that the required performance of 5% BS&W at 55 MBOPD will be achieved, and shows
that the VIEC installation contributed to a more efficient tie-in and reuse of the exsisting separator.
Conclusions
The use of high-voltage electrostatic fields is a very effective method for separating water-in-oil
emulsions. An electrostatic field polarize water droplets causing them to attract to each other and coalesce.
The process happens very quickly, allowing for a rapid and effective droplet growth.
For oil, separation trains there are significant benefits of applying electrocoalescence at an early stage
in the separation train. This is due to high crude oil viscosities and potential presence of stable emulsions.
By applying electrocoalescence in the first and or second stage separator, most of the water can be
separated out efficiently at significantly lower temperatures than with gravity separation only. Further-
more, electrocoalescence is highly efficient at breaking emulsions, thus significantly reducing the risk of
excessive water carry-over due to presence of stable emulsions. The enhanced separation efficiency
provided by electrocoalescence can also be used to reduce the size of three-phase separators or increase
production rate.
SPE-174763-MS 17

Early stage application of electrocoalescence requires electrostatic technology that can tolerate and
function with high water cuts and presence of gas. Conventional electrostatic coalescers utilize bare or
partially bare electrodes and can therefore not be used for this purpose. The VIEC technology utilizes fully
insulated electrodes with low-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.
To predict separation performance and quantify benefits of VIEC technology, crude specific laboratory
studies are performed. The laboratory studies combine characterization with static batch separation tests
and dynamic flow loop tests to evaluate and quantify the separation performance of the crude under
various process conditions. Scaling laws are then applied to infer separation performance at field
conditions from the laboratory tests. The scaling laws are based on the two dimensionless parameters &
and ' formulated by us [12]. These two parameters represent scale invariant measures of the separation
effect of electrostatic droplet growth and sedimentation. The scaling laws are only applied on separation
results obtained from flow loop tests. This is to take into account important dynamic effects when
predicting separation performance.
The case studies presented in this paper demonstrate the benefits of applying VIEC technology in oil
production trains. The case studies are based on laboratory studies as described. The results show
significant savings for both cases.
In summary, the VIEC technology represents an important tool for resolving emulsion problems and
optimizing oil separation trains. In addition, by performing appropriate laboratory studies and combining
these with scale-up laws, the separation benefits can be quantified in advance and a performance guarantee
including emulsified water can be given.

Nomenclature
& ! Invariant electrostatic droplet growth parameter
' ! Invariant sedimentation rate parameter
"c ! Relative electrical permittivity of continuous phase
"d ! Relative electrical permittivity of dispersed phase
"0 ! Electrical permittivity of vacuum (8.854E-12 F/m)
! ! Dielectric force factor
$ ! Viscosity of continuous phase (oil)
%0 ! Ratio of water emulsified in oil
g ! Gravitational acceleration constant
d ! Diameter of dispersed water droplets
r ! Radius of dispersed water droplets
tE ! Electrostatic exposure time
tR ! Total retention time
vs ! Sedimentation velocity
AC ! Alternating current
BS&W ! Basic Sediment and Water
E ! Electrical field strength
Fr ! Radial component of electrostatic force
F# ! Tangential component of electrostatic force
Fd ! Drag force on droplets
H ! Settling height of emulsion
ID ! Internal diameter of separator
T/T ! TAN to TAN length of separator
18 SPE-174763-MS

Tc ! Electrostatic collision time

VIEC ! Vessel Internal Electrostatic Coalescer®

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12. http://www.wartsila.com; www.VIEC.no