Topic: Design of Separators

Course: Petroleum Engineering Design

Prof. Ashutosh Kumar

Indian Institute of Technology (ISM) Dhanbad
2016-17
 Petroleum Engineering Design (PEC 18101)
Topics:
1. Development of Oil & Gas Fields;
2. Design of Oil and Gas Separation System;
3. Design of Heater Treaters;
4. Basic Principles and Descriptions of Artificial Lift Techniques;
Design of Continuous Gas Lift;
Design of Intermittent Gas Lift System;
Design of Sucker Rod Pumping System;
Characteristics and Selection of ESP/PCP Systems.

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 Petroleum Engineering Design (PEC 18101)
Text Books:
1. Development of Oil & Gas Fields;
Development of Oil & Gas Fields by Sant Kumar
2. Design of Oil and Gas Separation System;
Surface Production System Vol-1 by Ken Arnold and Maurice Stewart
3. Design of Heater Treaters;
Oil Feed Processing Vol-2 by Francis S. Manning and Richard E. Thompsosn
4. Basic Principles and Descriptions of Artificial Lift Techniques;
Petroleum Production Engineering by Boyun Guo, William C. Lyons,
and Ali Ghalambor
Petroleum Production Systems by Michael J. Economides, A. Daniel
Hill, and Christine Ehlig-Economides

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2.2 Design of Horizontal Separator
Typical Three-Phase Separator

Horizontal Separator with Bucket and Weir Liquid Separator

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 2.2 Design of Horizontal Separator
Role of Diverter and Bucket and Weir System
1. Diverter has role of primary separation of liquid and gas phases.
2. Diverter is usually connected with the downcomer which guides
the liquid to the water section at the bottom. Water droplets in the
oil phases while entering the water phase and in the process of
vertical movement get coalesced and separated. This is called
water-washing.
3. Designing of the separator allows sufficient retention time for
settling of oil, oil emulsion and water. The layer of oil and oil
emulsion i.e. oil pad is on top of water layer.
4. The purpose of weir is to maintain level of the upstream liquid
determined by weir height. Level of liquid downstream of the weir
is controlled by the level control valve.
5. Oil flows over oil weir into oil bucket and water flows over water
weir. Level of oil in oil bucket and level of water are controlled by
respective level control valves.

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2.2 Design of Horizontal Separator
What should be respective levels of weirs?

Three Phase Separator

Equations under limiting condition (no inflow):
gh gh gh

h=h +h h

h=h Eq. 1

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 2.2 Design of Horizontal Separator
What should heights of weirs?
Three Phase Separator

h is not dependent on inflow rate of liquids. How does it impact

the weir design?
Situation 1: When oil inflow is high.
Oil pad height will be high and it may
underflow the bucket and escape
separation.
Situation 2: When water inflow is high
Water level will be high and it will increase
the oil flow over the weir into bucket; this
will destabilize h, ho, and hw.

Bucket should be deep and weir height should be high enough.

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 2.2 Design of Horizontal Separator
Theoretical Development of Horizontal Separator Design
Part -1: Gas Phase Separation
We have covered this in two-phase separator design.
TZQ C
dL = 420 Eq. 2
P d
d = Vessel internal diameter, inches.
Leff = Effective length of the vessel where separation occurs, ft.
Qg = Gas flow rate, MMSCFD
T = Operating temperature, oR
P = Operating pressure, psia
Z = Gas compressibility
CD = Drag coefficient
dm = Diameter of liquid droplets to be separated, micron
g l = Densities of gas and liquid phases respectively in lb/ft3.

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 2.2 Design of Horizontal Separator
Theoretical Development of Horizontal Separator Design
Part -2: Oil Water Separation
Terminal settling velocity from Stokes Law for Laminar Flow:
Water droplets settling in continuous oil phase or oil droplets
settling in continuous water phase.
1.78X10 d Eq. 3
V =
where Vt = terminal settling velocity, ft/s
= specific gravity difference between the oil and the water
phases Hint:
dm = drop size, micron 4
rv = r g
= viscosity of continuous phase, cp 3

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 2.2 Design of Horizontal Separator
Theoretical Development of Horizontal Separator Design
Part -3: Oil Water Separation
Retention time for oil and water phases provides second criteria for
selection of acceptable d and Leff values.

Retention time as design criteria for separation of three phases:

1) Oil phase should get sufficient time for (1) dissolved gas to come out
and reach to gaseous phase as we saw in case of two-phase separator,
(2) water droplets to settle down and reach to water phase.
2) Water phase should have sufficient retention time for coalescing and
separating from the water phase and reach to oil-water interface.

How much should be retention time?

For both phases, the retention time may range from 3 min to 30 min.
In absence of laboratory, 10 min retention time is taken.

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 2.2 Design of Horizontal Separator
Theoretical Development of Horizontal Separator Design
Part -3: Oil Water Separation
Calculation of Retention Time:
Eq. 4
d L = 1.42 Q t , + Q t ,
Q and Q are flow rates in barrel/day (bpd) for water and oil
respectively,
t , and t , are retention times in min for water and oil
respectively.

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 2.2 Design of Horizontal Separator
Theoretical Development of Horizontal Separator Design
Part -3: Oil Water Separation
Calculation of Retention Time:
Volume of Liquid in the three-phase separator:
1 D 1 d
V =V +V = L = L Eq. 5
2 4 2 4X144
= 2.73X10 d L ft
D is in feet and d is in inches.
If Ao, Aw, and Al be the cross sectional area of the volume
occupied by oil, water and liquid phase, then Ao + Aw = Al and
oil volume Vo = (Ao/Al)Vl and water volume Vw = (Aw/Al)Vl

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 2.2 Design of Horizontal Separator
Theoretical Development of Horizontal Separator Design
Part -3: Oil Water Separation
Calculation of Retention Time:
tr,o in min = (Volume of oil in separator in ft3/ flow rate of oil in
ft3/sec)/60.

t = = 0.7 min

A
t Q = 0.7d L Eq. 5
A

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 2.2 Design of Horizontal Separator
Theoretical Development of Horizontal Separator Design
Part -3: Oil Water Separation
Calculation of Retention Time:
tr,w in min = (Volume of water in separator in ft3/ flow rate of
water in ft3/sec)/60.

t = = 0.7 min

A
t Q = 0.7d L Eq. 6
A

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 2.2 Design of Horizontal Separator
Theoretical Development of Horizontal Separator Design
Part -3: Oil Water Separation
Calculation of Retention Time:
A
t Q = 0.7d L
A
A
t Q = 0.7d L
A
t Q +t Q
d L = = 1.4286 t Q +t Q Eq. 4
0.7

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 2.2 Design of Horizontal Separator
Theoretical Development of Horizontal Separator Design
Part -3: Oil Water Separation
Maximum Thickness of Oil Pad Allowed :
Condition: Within the retention time for oil, entrained water droplets must travel
vertical distance of ho (i.e. maximum thickness of oil pad) with terminal settling
velocity.
Eq. 1
V =
60 sec ft
h = t min XV
min sec
60 sec 1.78X10 d ft
h = t min X
min sec
t d t d
h = 0.0001068 ft = 0.001282 inches Eq. 7

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 2.2 Design of Horizontal Separator
Theoretical Development of Horizontal Separator Design
Part -3: Oil Water Separation
Maximum Thickness of Oil Pad Allowed:
Condition: Unless the minimum size of water droplets to be removed from
the oil phases is known from laboratory or field data, based on requirement
of 5 to 10% water in emulsion for efficient treating by emulsion treater,
minimum water droplet size of 500 micron is recommended for
consideration while designing. With that size of water droplet, height of oil
pad will be
t
h = 320.5 inches Eq. 8

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 2.2 Design of Horizontal Separator
Theoretical Development of Horizontal Separator Design
Part -3: Oil Water Separation
Maximum Diameter of Separator Allowed:
Step 1: Calculate maximum thickness of oil pad allowed.
Step 2: Calculate fraction of vessel cross-section (A) area
occupied by water phase i.e. Aw/A
Assuming vessel is half filled with liquid A = 2(Ao + Aw)
By definition of retention time Qw X tr,w = Aw X Leff
Similarly Qo X tr,o = Ao X Leff
= = 0.5 Eq. 9

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 2.2 Design of Horizontal Separator
Theoretical Development of Horizontal Separator Design
Part -3: Oil Water Separation
Maximum Diameter of Separator Allowed:
Step 3: Determine i.e. ho/d from the figure.
Step 4: Calculate dmax using .
d = Eq. 10

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 2.2 Design of Horizontal Separator
Theoretical Development of Horizontal Separator Design
Summary
In designing our objective is to find a combination of d i.e.
vessel diameter and effective length i.e. Leff which satisfy
following equations:

(1) dL = 420 Eq. 2

(2) d L = 1.42 Q t ,
+Q t ,
Eq. 4

(3) h = 0.001282 inches Eq. 7

or h = 320.5 inches Equation 7 at dm = 500 micron

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 2.2 Design of Horizontal Separator
Theoretical Development of Horizontal Separator Design
Seem to seem length and Slenderness Ratio

Seem to seem length is calculated as it was done for two-phase

separator.
Three-phase horizontal separators have slenderness ratio
between 3 and 5. Recommended default value is less than 4.

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 2.2 Design of Horizontal Separator
Theoretical Development of Horizontal Separator Design
Steps for Design:
Step 1: Select tr,o, tr,w values.
Step 2: Calculate maximum thickens of oil pad i.e. ho,max
h = 0.001282 inches
If value of dm is not given choose dm = 500 micron
h = 320.5 inches
Step 3: Calculate Aw/A
= 0.5
Step 4: Calculate = ho/d from curve

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 2.2 Design of Horizontal Separator
Theoretical Development of Horizontal Separator Design
Steps for Design:
Step 5: Calculate dmax. d =
Step 6: Select values of d less than dmax (in multiples of 6) and
calculate Leff using gas capacity equation. If no value of
dm is given choose 100 micron.

TZQ C
dL = 420
P d

Step 7: Select values of d less than dmax (in multiples of 6) and

calculate Leff using liquid capacity equation
d L = 1.42 Q t ,
+Q t ,

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 2.2 Design of Horizontal Separator
Theoretical Development of Horizontal Separator Design
Steps for Design:
Step 8: Estimate seem to seem length
For gas capacity Lss = Leff + (d/12)
For liquid capacity Lss = (4/3) Leff
Step 9: Based on slenderness ratio (i.e. 12Lss/d) criteria (i.e.
between 3 to 5) select suitable length and diameter of
the separator.

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