POL

Petroleum Open Learning

Produced Water
Treatment
Part of the
Petroleum Processing Technology Series

OPITO
THE OIL & GAS ACADEMY
 Petroleum Open Learning

Designed, Produced and Published by OPITO Ltd., Petroleum Open Learning, Minerva House, Bruntland Road, Portlethen, Aberdeen AB12 4QL

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© OPITO 1993 (rev.2002) ISBN 1 872041 85 X

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 Petroleum Open Learning

Produced Water Treatment Petroleum Open Learning

(Part of the Petroleum Processing Technology Series)

Contents Page Visual Cues

* Training Targets 4 training targets for you to

achieve by the end of the unit
* Introduction 5
test yourself questions
* Section 1 - The Problems Associated with Produced Water 6 to see how much you
understand
The Mechanics of Water Production
Corrosion Problems
Scale Problems
Transportation Problems check yourself answers to
Disposal Problems let you see if you have been
thinking along the right lines
* Section 2 - The Basics of Produced Water Treatment 15
Primary Separation activities for you to apply
Gravity Separation your new knowledge
Coalescence
Short Distance Gravity Separation
Gas Flotation
Centrifugal Force Separation
Chemical Treatment summaries for you to recap
on the major steps in your
progress

1
Petroleum Open Learning
 Petroleum Open Learning

Produced Water Treatment Petroleum Open Learning

(Part of the Petroleum Processing Technology Series)

Contents (cont’d) Page Visual Cues

training targets for you to

* Section 3 - Produced Water Cleaning Equipment 23 achieve by the end of the unit

API Separators
Plate Interceptors (or Separators)
Oil / Water Filters Coalescers test yourself questions
Gas Flotation Units to see how much you
Hydrocyclones understand
Use of Chemical Additives

* Section 4 - A Typical Produced Water System 36 check yourself answers to

let you see if you have been
Tilting Plate Separators thinking along the right lines
The Flotation Unit
Chemical Dosing Package
Produced Water Caisson
activities for you to apply
your new knowledge
* Test Yourself - Answers 47

summaries for you to recap

on the major steps in your
progress

3
 Petroleum Open Learning

Training Targets

When you have completed this unit on Produced Water Treatment you will be able to :

• List the sources of produced water

• Describe the mechanics of water production

• Explain what problems can arise from the production of water

• Explain the basic principles which govern the separation of oil from produced water

• Describe the construction and operation of 5 types of oily water clean up facility

• Explain the requirement for chemical injection in a produced water treatment system

• Describe the flow of water and separated oil through a typical produced water treatment facility

Tick the box when you have met each target.

4
Produced Water Treatment
Introduction
In the vast majority of oil fields, water production
becomes a problem as the field gets older. Towards
the end of their useful lives some oil wells may be
producing 95% of their total liquid as water. This
produced water may be extremely salty and likely to
be of little value to the operator. It is removed from
the oil stream during primary separation and by
other facilities, and has then to be disposed of.
However, we are talking of a great deal of water in
some cases. How do we dispose of it, and where do
we put it?
Offshore, the obvious place would be into the sea.
Dumping this produced water directly from
separators into the sea, would however, soon have
the operator in trouble with the authorities. Even
after initial separation the water still contains oil in
small amounts. Serious environmental pollution
would build up if oil contaminated water were to be
dumped directly to the sea.
Onshore, disposal wells may have to be drilled, into
which the produced water can be injected for
disposal. This also may have its problems. Oil in
the water, or fine solids, could plug the injection
wells in a very short time.
So the water which is produced with, and separated
from, the oil in an oilfield must be cleaned prior to
disposal. This is what this unit is all about. In the
Petroleum Open Learning
unit, we will be looking at the produced water
handling system of an oil production facility. Before
we examine a typical system, however, I think we
should look at where the water comes from and the
problems it poses in a little more detail. So, I have
split the unit into four sections as follows:
• In Section 1 we will look at the sources of
produced water and the problems which may
be encountered if we fail to treat it.
• Section 2 will cover the basic principles
involved in the treatment and clean-up of
produced water.
• In Section 3 we will examine the construction
and operation of produced water clean-up
equipment.
• Finally, in Section 4, I will take you through a
typical produced water handling facility which
may be found on an offshore production
platform.
Although produced water treatment applies to both
onshore and offshore locations, I will be
concentrating on the offshore situation in this unit.
However, most of what I have to say would apply to
both.
5
Produced Water Treatment Petroleum Open Learning

Section 1 - The Problems Associated with Produced Water

Water is present in some form, in most oil reservoirs The Mechanics of Water Production
before any production takes place.
Look at Figure 1 which shows a cross section through a typical water drive reservoir.
There are however, many different types of
reservoir. In one very common one, the oil
accumulates above large volumes of water, which is
usually salty. This water is what remains of ancient
seas from an earlier period of Earths history.

This body of water is called an aquifer, and the

reservoir is known as a water drive reservoir.

In addition, a considerable amount of water may also

be found as small droplets distributed throughout the
oil (and gas) in a reservoir. For reservoir
engineering purposes this water is called connate
water or interstitial water. We will just call it
formation water.

During production, further injection water may

be pumped into the reservoir to assist in pressure
maintenance.

Any of these types of water may eventually find their

way into the oil wells and be produced to the surface
along with the oil. It is all then called produced
water.

Before we look at the problems which can be caused

by this produced water, let us first consider how the
water gets into the producing wells,

6

You can see that the oil lies above the aquifer and the
well is taking oil which is not contaminated with water.
The point at which the oil and water touch each other
is called the oil water contact.
The oil is able to flow through the reservoir rock
towards the well because the rock is porous and
permeable. These are probably the two most
important properties of reservoir rocks.
POROSITY
Porostiy is the property of the rock which enables it
to hold fluids within itself. The oil, gas and water are
contained in tiny holes in the rock called pores.
Sandstone is a common reservoir rock. It is made up
of grains of sand which are cemented together at the
points where they touch. Between the sand grains are
void spaces - the pores.
The ratio of the volume of the pores to total rock
volume expressed as a percentage is the rocks
porosity.
This means that, if you have a sandstone reservoir
with a porosity of 25%, for every 4m3 of reservoir rock,
1m3 consists of holes and 3m3 solid sand grains.
Another common reservoir rock is limestone. This is
a rather brittle rock which contains lots of tiny cracks
and fissures. These tiny cracks give the limestone its
porosity.
Petroleum Open Learning
The high pressure water in the aquifer,
PERMEABILITY
therefore, will tend to displace the oil
Permeability is a measure of the ability of a fluid to
towards the low pressure areas
flow through the rock from one pore to another. In
surrounding each well bore.
order for it to be able to do this, the pores must be
interconnected.
Permeability is measured in d’arcys- named after
a French engineer who studied the flow of liquids
through filters. He found that the flow increased in
proportion to the pressure increase. However he also Figure 2 on the next page, shows the
discovered that the flow was affected by the thickness, situation with just one producing well
or viscosity, of the fluid. and one water injection well.
Generally there is a wide spread of permeability in
reservoir rocks.
So, the rock properties of porosity and permeability
allow the oil to flow towards the producing wells. But
what causes the oil to flow through the reservoir?
Let’s look at that now.
You are probably aware that fluids always flow from
areas of high pressure to areas of low pressure:
• The oil producing wells create areas of low
pressure in the surrounding reservoir rock as
the well is opened at the surface and oil flows
into the well
• The aquifer is usually at a relatively high
pressure. In addition, the injection of
water into the aquifer is intended to maintain
the reservoir pressure
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 Petroleum Open Learning

If this situation remained constant there would be no

problem. However the situation does not remain
constant. Think about this and try to answer the
following Test Yourself question.

Test Yourself 1
As oil is removed from the reservoir what
will happen to the position of the oil water
contact ?

You will find the answer to Test Yourself 1 on

Page 47

8
 Petroleum Open Learning

Over a period of time, as the oil water contact

approaches the well intakes, the water will start to
flow preferentially to the oil wells. This occurs
because the water is much less viscous than the oil
and therefore flows more easily through the rock,
bypassing the oil.

The water is said to finger through the oil.

Figure 3 shows water starting to follow these

preferential routes through the reservoir rock.

9

Once water starts to break through to the
producing wells, it tends to be produced in ever
increasing amounts.
The ratio of water produced to total production is
called the water cut and is expressed as a
percentage. To make sure you understand this,
have a go at the following Test Yourself question.
Test Yourself 2
a) If a well produces 3975m /d of oil and
3 thickness of the reservoir
795m3/d of water, what is the water
cut.
b) A well produces a total of 875m3/d
liquids and the water cut is 20%. What
is the oil production from this well.
c) What is the water cut of a well if the
total production is 556m3/d., and the
oil production is 397m3/d
You will find the answers to Test Yourself 2
on Page 47
Petroleum Open Learning
The water cut from a particular well or field depends
on a large number of factors. These include:
• The geology and porosity of the reservoir rock
• The size and, particularly, the vertical
• The degree of fracturing of the oil field
• The position and depth of the producing wells
in relation to the oil water contact
• How long the reservoir has been producing oil
Actual water cuts vary tremendously, of course, but
can be as much as 99%. Imagine a field which
produces a total of 15,900m3 of liquid per day with a
water cut of 60 %. This means that 9540m3 of water
are produced every day.
This can pose significant operating problems and
these are what we will look at now.
10

Corrosion Problems
We said earlier that the aquifer water can be very
salty. Injection water, being in the main sea water, is
salty as well. It follows then that the produced water
will be salty also. In fact the saltiness, or salinity,
of produced water is usually considerably more than
that of normal sea water. To put it in perspective:
• fresh water from streams, lakes etc. usually
contains less than 0.2 % salt
• sea water has an average salt content
of 3.5%
• produced water can contain up to 15% salt
Pure water in itself is not particularly corrosive.
However, up to a point, the more saline it becomes
the more corrosive it is.
If the produced water is allowed to pass through all
the surface processing equipment to the oil
transportation system, it could cause considerable
corrosion damage to pipes, vessels and other
equipment.
In fact, corrosion costs the petroleum industry
millions of pounds annually. It makes sense to try to
reduce this expense.
One of the ways of reducing corrosion damage is to
separate the water from the oil at the earliest
opportunity and dispose of it. In fact this, together
with the separation of gas, is one of the first
processes in a production facility. This however
gives rise to another problem - one of disposal. We
will look at this shortly.
Scale Problems
Salts are initially dissolved in the water present in a
reservoir. As conditions change when this water is
produced, the salts may be precipitated as solids
and deposit as scale.
This can reduce pipe diameters, plug vessels and
equipment which in turn can lead to lost production.
Once again, removal and disposal of produced water
can help prevent the problems of scaling.
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Transportation Problems
The produced oil may have to be transported from an
offshore location to a shore based refinery or tanker
terminal. There are two ways of doing this. If the field
is large and the economics justify it, the best way is by
pipeline to shore. However, some fields are too small
to justify the expense of a pipeline or are too far from
shore. In this case the oil is loaded into a tanker at
the point of production via a tanker loading facility.
Either way, water in the oil to be transported can
cause problems:
• The obvious one we have looked at already,
that of corrosion. Salt water in pipelines or
tanker loading units can corrode facilities
rapidly. I don’t think I need to elaborate on that
at this time.
• If the oil is going down a pipeline, excess water
reduces the efficiency of the line, leaving less
space for oil.
• Water being sent to a refinery with the oil can
cause serious upsets in the distillation process.
Refinery operators usually limit the amount of
salt and water which they will accept.
• When loading oil to a tanker there are laid
down limits of water in oil which it is permitted
to take. If more than, say, 0.5 % of the cargo
loaded is water, then the producing company
can face severe penalties.
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It would seem from the foregoing that one of the
first things which we must do on a production facility
is get rid of the water. This is of course what
happens. On most installations water is separated
from the produced oil in the first process system.
The separated water has no value and has to be
disposed of. But how? This brings us to our final
problem, that of produced water disposal.
Disposal Problems
When trying to decide how to get rid of the water we
must consider first of all the location of the
production facility.
Think for a moment and try to decide how you
would dispose of 1590m3 per day of produced water
from a site on land.
You may have come up with one of the following:
• Dump the water into lakes or rivers
• Dump the water into sewers
Both of these solutions would be totally
unacceptable.
In the first case, pollution of the fresh water by the
Salts in the produced water would cause damage to
the environment and could destroy wildlife. Drops of
oil in the water would also cause considerable
environmental pollution.
Sewers are not built for these amounts of water and
would be overloaded, in addition to suffering
pollution problems at the outfalls.
You may have thought of drilling wells and injecting
the water back into a reservoir. This is in fact done.
But the water has usually to be treated before it can
be injected. It may have to be filtered and dosed
with chemicals to make it suitable for injection.
If the production facilities are located offshore the
problem of disposal may seem easier. Why not just
dump it into the sea? Unfortunately it is not quite
that simple.
After initial separation, the produced water is still
likely to contain a considerable amount of oil in the
form of small droplets. The actual amount will vary
from installation to installation but could be of the
order of 150 ppm.
(The unit ppm means parts per million. In other
words, in every million drops of liquid 150 of them
would be oil, the rest water.)
This may not seem very much, but if those
quantities were dumped into the sea, an oil slick
would soon form and pollution would occur.
In most countries the removal of oil from produced
water before dumping it into the sea is a legal
requirement. The quality of produced water
disposed of in this way is subject to strict control.
Petroleum Open Learning
For instance, discharging produced water into the
sea in the UK sector of the North Sea is subject to
compliance with the following conditions at present:
• On average, discharged water must not
contain more than 30 ppm by weight of oil.
• An oil content of up to 100 ppm is allowed in
individual monitoring samples
• For a normal month of sampling, not
more than three samples (4% a month) may
exceed the limit of 100 ppm.
• Regular monitoring of effluent discharged
from each platform to the sea is a stipulated
requirement
• Samples should be taken at 0700 and 1700
hrs each day
The figures of 30 ppm is the one currently in force and
is constantly under review. It is not inconceivable that
it could be reduced even further at some future date.
So, bearing in mind that I said that we would
concentrate on an offshore location, it would seem
that our biggest problem is getting the oil-in-water
concentration down to acceptable limits.
This is what we will concentrate on for the rest of this
unit.
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 Petroleum Open Learning

Before going through the summary of this section,

try the following Test Yourself question,

Test Yourself 3
Are the following statements true or false?

True False
a) Permeability is a measure of the ability of a rock to
allow fluids to pass through it.

b) The oil water contact within a reservoir tends to move

down as the production from the field proceeds.

c) Seawater usually has a greater salt content than

produced water.

d) Produced water can cause loss of efficiency in

pipelines.

e) In the UK sector of the North Sea discharged water

must not contain more than 130ppm by weight of oil.

You will find the answers to Test Yourself 3 on Page 47

13

Summary of Section 1
During this section I have tried to introduce you to
the problems arising from the production of water
with oil.
We started by looking at the sources of produced
water and you saw that it can be from the aquifer,
formation water or the injection water which is
used to maintain reservoir pressure.
We then looked at the mechanics of water
production and considered the rock properties of
porosity and permeability which allow fluids to flow
through a rock.
You saw that the relatively high pressured water
underlying the oil pushes the oil towards the
wellbores. However the water may eventually
start to finger through the oil and be produced in
ever increasing quantities. You discovered that
very large quantities of water may be produced
and I defined the ratios of oil and water production
as the water cut.
Petroleum Open Learning
We then moved onto the problems of water
production and saw that they could be
classified as :
• corrosion problems
• scale problems
• transportation problems
• disposal problems
We concentrated on disposal problems offshore
and I indicated that dumping water into the sea is
the easiest option but this is often governed by
legislation. I gave as an example that the
average oil in water content permitted to be
discharged into the UK sector of the north sea
must not exceed 30 ppm.
In the next section we will go on to look at some
of the basic theory behind produced water
treatment. In particular we will concentrate on the
removal of oil.
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Produced Water Treatment Petroleum Open Learning

Section 2 - The Basics of Produced Water Treatment

In this section we are going to look at some of the
methods which could be used to treat produced
water. The water can contain dissolved gases and
solids and also some suspended solid particles such
as sand.

However, we are going to concentrate on the

removal of oil from water, so that it can be dumped
to the sea. Let’s start with the separation of water
from the main oil stream. That is, after all, the first
part of the treatment programme.

Primary Separation
The total production from an oil field flows from the
wells to the primary separation system. The function
of this system is to separate the production into its
individual phases of oil, gas and water. The process
is carried out in large vessels - the separators. A
typical 3-phase separator is shown in Figure 4.

15

The vessel is called a 3-phase separator because it
separates the total flow stream into the three
individual streams of oil, water and gas. A 2-phase
vessel would separate the stream into the liquid and
gas streams.
I don’t intend to go through the construction and
operation of a separator at this point. A programme
on Oil and Gas Separation is also available in the
Petroleum Processing Technology Series.
Briefly, however, the oil, water and gas stream
enters the vessel at the inlet and is deflected by the
inlet deflector. The gas passes towards the gas
outlet via straightening vanes and mist extractor and
the liquids fall into the liquid accumulation section.
This is where the separation of oil and water takes
place. But how does it occur? Think about it for a
moment then answer the following Test Yourself
question.
Test Yourself 4
If you shake a mixture of oil and water in
a beaker and allow it to stand for a period
of time, what will happen to the two
substances ?
Can you explain your answer?
You will find the answer to Test Yourself 4 on
Page 47
Petroleum Open Learning
What you have read in the answer to Test Yourself 4
is exactly what happens in the separator. The water
and oil separate due to a difference in their densities.
Providing the oil and water stay in the vessel for a
sufficient period of time, the bulk of the water can be
separated from the oil. This water is the produced
water which has now to be disposed of.
Although primary separation is quite efficient, oil may
remain in the water as small droplets. These have
also to be removed. We can now look at some ways
of doing that.
16

Gravity Separation
The primary separation we have just looked at is an
example of gravity separation. Oil and water
separate because of the difference in their density or
specific gravity. Most crude oils are less dense than
water so they tend to float on top of water.
Even where the amount of oil in the water is
minimal, given sufficient time and under the right
conditions, the crude oil will float to the surface of the
water where it can be removed.
There is, however, a theoretical lower limit to the
size of crude oil droplets which will rise freely
through the water. Oil droplets which have a
diameter of less than, say, 5 microns will not rise
through the water, but will stay in suspension
indefinitely. A micron is one millionth of a metre.
In practical terms, the limiting droplet size in an oil/
water gravity separator is much higher, and in the
range of 50 to 150 microns. This is because of such
factors as turbulence, limited retention time, and
so on.
It would appear then that a certain amount of
produced water clean up can be done in a simple
tank where the water stays long enough for the oil
droplets to rise to the surface and be removed.
Petroleum Open Learning
However, if the smaller droplets will not rise,
something else must be done to remove them. Why
not try to combine them into larger drops, which will
then rise? This is indeed done by using various
types of coalescer.
Coalescence
To coalesce simply means to join together or unite.
Entrained oil droplets in the water which are too
small to rise rapidly by gravity, can be coalesced in a
number of ways. One way is to pass the oily water
through a specially developed cartridge. This is
made of a porous plastic medium such as
polypropylene or polyurethane foam. When in use
the oily water flows to the centre of the cartridge and
out through the walls, where coalescence takes
place.
The larger oil droplets then rise to the surface of the
water by gravity as before,
Figure 5 shows the cartridge coalescer principle.
17

Short Distance Gravity Separation
Under constant conditions, a drop of oil
suspended in water tends to rise at a fixed
rate. This rate is called the terminal
velocity. The time required for separation
therefore depends on the distance the drop
has to rise to reach the surface.
In order to speed up this process, various
types of equipment have been developed
which reduce the distance the particles
have to travel.
This type of equipment provides closely
stacked parallel plates or tubes through
which the water flows without
turbulence. As the oil droplets rise
within these confined spaces they have
only a short distance to travel before
reaching a solid surface. where they
concentrate and coalesce.
Figure 6 shows an end view of a simple
plate pack.
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Gas Flotation
Flotation is a process which has long been
used for cleaning industrial waste water.
The operating principle depends on
increasing the buoyancy of entrained oil or
solid particles, enabling them to rise more
freely through the water. This increase in
buoyancy is achieved by attaching gas
bubbles to the suspended particles.
The gas bubbles are generated by :
• dissolving gas in the water under
pressure and then releasing the
pressure prior to entering the
cleaning unit
• mechanically introducing the gas into
the water.
It is the second of these methods which is
more commonly used in the oil industry.
18

Figure 7 shows oil droplets with gas bubbles
attached rising through water.
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In a flotation cell, the oil and gas mixture accumulates on the surface of the water
as a layer of oily froth. This is skimmed from the top of the water to a channel which
directs the oil to a recovered oil system. The skimming may be over a simple
adjustable weir. Alternatively a system of paddles may be used to sweep the oily
froth continuously from the surface of the water.
Figure 8 shows a much simplified version of a flotation cell. I will describe this in
much more detail in Section 3.
19

Centrifugal Force Separation
You are probably familiar with the principle of
centrifugal force, but let’s just remind ourselves of it in
a rather simple way.
Imagine a spinning disc, similar say to a record on a
record player. If you dropped a liquid onto the disc
near the centre it would be flung to the outer rim of the
disc. The force which causes this to happen is
centrifugal force.
If the liquid was pumped into a container, in such a
way that it was made to swirl within that container, the
centrifugal force would cause a vortex to be formed.
(A familiar example of a vortex is the cone-shaped
whirlpool which forms above the plug hole when water
runs out of a bath).
If a mixture of two liquids, of different densities, was
pumped into the container, centrifugal forces would
tend to separate the two liquids:
• the liquid having the lower density would
migrate towards the middle of the vortex
• the liquid with the higher density would migrate
towards the outside of the vortex
If the two liquids are water and oil, it would be the oil
which would migrate towards the centre of the
container.
This is the principle of a hydrocyclone, another
piece of equipment used in the separation of oil from
water.
Figure 9 illustrates this principle.
The oily water is introduced continuously to the unit.
A low pressure outlet is connected to the centre.
Through this outlet the oil is continuously removed.
Clean water is thrown towards the outside wall of the
unit, where it leaves by a separate outlet.
Petroleum Open Learning
Chemical Treatment
Sometimes emulsions form in the produced water
which are very difficult to break down.
An emulsion is a stable mixture of two or more
immiscible liquids, one dispersed in another, in the
form of very small droplets. There are two distinct
types of emulsion. They are:
• Water-in-oil emulsions where a small amount
of water is dispersed in a larger amount of oil
• Oil-in-water emulsions where a small amount
of oil is dispersed in a larger amount of water
The first type is the more common, but oil in water
emulsions can occur and may be a problem in the
treatment of produced water.
In order to break down this type of stable emulsion,
chemicals are injected. These chemicals, called
demulsifiers, help the oil droplets to coalesce and
separate from the water.
Demulsifiers are usually used in conjunction with
some other form of water clean up facility.
Before summarising Section 2, try Test Yourself 5,
which will help you bring together the basic
principles of water treatment we have covered in
this section,
20
 Petroleum Open Learning

Test Yourself 5
In the first column of the table below I have listed the following terms: porous medium, plate pack, oil droplets rising,
demulsifier, finely dispersed bubbles, vortex. Each is associated with one or more methods of oil removal from
produced water. Put a tick in the appropriate column (s) to show which one(s).

Short Distance Centrifugal

Gravity Coalescence Gravity Gas Force
Separation Separation Flotation Separation

porous medium

plate pack

oil droplets rising

demulsifier

finely dispersed bubbles

vortex

You will find the answers to Test Yourself 5 on Page 48

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Summary of Section 2
In this section we have been looking at some of the basic principles which govern the separation
of oil from water in a water clean up facility.

First of all we considered the primary separation of the water from the main oil stream. You saw
that this was a simple gravity separation process. You also saw that gravity separation is the
basis of most produced water treatment facilities.

However, in order to speed up the process or make it more efficient you saw that other types of
treatment could be undertaken.

We considered:

• coalescence

• short distance gravity separation

• gas flotation

• centrifugal force separation

You also saw that chemicals may have to be injected into the produced water to assist in
separation, particularly if an oil-in-water emulsion has formed.

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Produced Water Treatment Petroleum Open Learning

Section 3 - Produced Water Cleaning Equipment

In this section we are going to have a look at the
construction and operation of equipment which can
be used to clean up produced water. A variety of
such equipment is available, but we will concentrate
on the most common:
• API Separators
• Plate Interceptors (or separators)
• Filter Coalescers
However, the time available on an offshore production
facility is very limited and residence times are
extremely short. As API Separators require relatively
long residence times, there are very few of them found
offshore. I have included the API Separator because
they are very common in land installations and
contain features which are found in other devices.
The API Separator is basically a very large open tank
or pond which permits a long residence time for the oil
to separate from the water.
The produced water enters the unit on the left
hand side. As it enters the chamber it hits a small
stilling plate. The stilling plate distributes the
incoming liquids evenly over the width of the
separator and reduces turbulence and mixing.
Underneath the stilling plate is a sludge/debris
trap which will catch small solids as they sink. The
sludge outlet is normally designed so that it can
easily be freed if it should become blocked.

• Gas Flotation Units Figure 10 is an illustration of a typical API Separator.

• Hydrocyclones

The simplest of the above pieces of equipment is the

first on the list so let us start with this.

API Separators
As we have seen, the most common way of
separating oil and water is by the use of gravity
acting on the density difference between the two
liquids.

Time is also required for this process to work

effectively. Each separator is designed to retain the
liquid mixture within it until separation has been
accomplished. This time is known as the residence
time or retention time.

23

The water flows:
• from the stilling plate
• above and below an intermediate baffle
(water with oil in it will rise above the baffle skimmer to remove as much of the oil as possible,
water with no oil in it will fall under the baffle)
• under the final baffle
• over the outlet weir
• out of the separator via the water outlet.
The level in the separator is controlled by adjusting
the height of the outlet weir.
The oil flows:
• from the stilling plate
• above the intermediate baffle
• to the surface where it forms a layer of oil on
top of the water
• into an adjustable oil skimmer
• out of the oil skimmer via the oil outlet
The adjustable oil skimmer is normally set at
between 1/4th to 1/8th of an inch above the level of
the water.
API Separators require careful adjustment of the
but without removing any water. Slight changes in
flow will raise or lower the height of water falling over
the weir and, if the oil/ water interface is disturbed,
water could slop over with the oil.
As I said earlier, API Separators are not suitable for
offshore applications. There, more efficient means
of oil and water separation are necessary. Facilities
are needed which are designed to reduce the
residence time required for efficient oil/water
separation to take place.
This reduction in residence time is important. For a
given flow rate of fluid the residence time can only
be extended by increasing the volume of the
separator. Offshore, where space is at a premium,
this is extremely difficult.
One way of reducing the required residence time is
to include some form of coalescing device in the
water cleaning unit.
Petroleum Open Learning
Coalescing devices provide a solid surface which
can be contacted by small oil droplets. An
accumulation of these oil droplets creates a thick oil
film which becomes a source of large drops.
Eventually enlarged drops of oil break loose from the
solid surface. These large drops separate from the
water phase much faster than the original small
droplets.
Coalescing surfaces come in two basic forms:
• Plate interceptors
• Cylindrical cartridges (called “fixed media”
cartridges)
Let’s look at a couple of plate interceptors first.
Two main types are in use, the parallel plate and
the corrugated plate interceptor.
24
 Petroleum Open Learning

Plate Interceptors (or Separators) Now follow the flow with me with reference to
Figure 11.
Figure 11 shows a typical parallel plate interceptor. Plate interceptors work on the
principle of short distance gravity separation, which we looked at in Section 2. • The produced water flows into an inlet
Have a look at the figure now and try to visualise the flow through the unit. chamber which is equipped with a sludge/
debris trap.

• Any gas in the produced water stream then

rises, and leaves the separator by a vent.

• The produced water then flows through the

parallel plate pack.

The pack consists of a number of parallel steel or

plastic plates connected together with small gaps
between them. It is set at an angle of about 45˚ to
the horizontal and the produced water flows
downwards, towards the right of the illustration.

Flow between the plates is far more streamlined than

in the inlet chamber. In addition, the distance
through which oil droplets have to rise before
reaching a surface is much smaller.

Oil droplets coalesce on the underside of the plates

and slide upwards and backwards against the flow of
the water. The oil then breaks free and rises to the
surface where it forms a layer on top of the water.
The oil is removed from the surface by a skimmer.

The water carries on towards the outlet chamber,

then doubles back over the outlet weir which
controls the height of the liquids in the separator.

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 Petroleum Open Learning

The water then flows away, under gravity, out of the

separator.

A parallel plate separator will often reduce the amount

of oil in the produced water from 5 000 ppm to :

• 100 ppm of oil (with a residence time of,

say, 10 minutes)

or

• 50 ppm (With a residence time of 30 minutes)

Their main disadvantage is that frequent cleaning is

required to remove solids which stick to the plates.

A variation of the parallel plate separator is the

corrugated plate interceptor which we can look at
now.

The plate pack is installed in the same manner as the

parallel plate interceptor pack, at an angle of 45°, and
the oil and water flows are identical.

Figure 12 illustrates the major difference between the

two types of separator - in this type the plates are
corrugated. In the tops of the corrugations are slots
which enhance the oil removal process.

Oil coalesces on the underside of the plates, and

accumulates beneath each corrugation. From there it
migrates backwards and upwards until, eventually, it
forms a layer of oil on the surface, as before.

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 Petroleum Open Learning

A corrugated plate separator will often reduce the
amount of oil in the produced water from 5 000 ppm
to 30 ppm oil with a residence time of 5 to 10
minutes.
This type of separator has been adapted for use on
offshore systems and has even been tried in high
pressure systems at the wellhead so as to separate
production water before dissolved gas is released.
Oil/Water Filter Coalescers
In an oil / water filter coalescer the oil / water
separation is achieved by coalescence of dispersed
oil droplets within specially designed coalescer
cartridges.
In our example in Figure 13, a set of cartridges
would be mounted on a deck-plate within a vertical
pressure vessel. Note that, for simplicity, I have only
shown one cartridge in the vessel, and omitted the
deck-plate.

The corrugated plates can be made of

polypropylene, polyvinyl chloride, stainless steel or
carbon steel.

As we have seen, both the parallel plate separator

and the corrugated plate separator have their
plates tilted at an angle of 45°. Because of this,
both types are often referred to as tilting plate
separators.

When you are satisfied that you understand the

construction and principle of operation of the plate
interceptors, we can move on to another type of
coalescer unit.

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 Petroleum Open Learning

The flow through the unit is as follows: Before moving on to the next part of this section,
have a go at the following Test Yourself question.
• oily water enters the base of the vessel

• is distributed to the cartridges

• flows radially outwards, through each

cartridge into the main part of the vessel
Test Yourself 6
As the fluid passes through the cartridges, the oil Fill in the missing word or words from the following sentences.
droplets are forced into close contact with each other.
They coalesce within the cartridge wall and rise from a) In an A.P.I. separator the produced water enters the unit and hits a small ................... .......................
the outer cartridge surface to the top of the vessel. which distributes the incoming liquids.
These droplets then form an oil layer which is
discharged through the oil outlet. (Have another look b) In a plate interceptor the inlet chamber is equipped with a ...............or ...................trap.
at Figure 5 on Page 13.)
c) The outlet ..................... controls the height of the liquids in the unit.
An oil/water interface level is maintained in the
vessel by a level controller (LC), which controls flow d) The pack consists of a number of ......................plates.
from the oil outlet.
e) Tilting plate separators may have .....................or .......................plates.
An oil/water filter coalescer will often reduce the
amount of oil in the produced water from 5 000 ppm f) The oily water flows radially outwards through the ..................... where the oil droplets .......................
to between 2 and 15 ppm.

Under severe operating conditions, the cartridges

may not last very long.

However cartridge life can be improved by : You will find the answer to Test Yourself 6 on Page 49

• pre-filtering the oily water

We can now take a look at a produced water clean-up facility which has a
• steady state operation somewhat different operating mechanism. This is the gas flotation unit.

• scale inhibition, where required 28

 Petroleum Open Learning

Gas Flotation Units

Let us first of all take a look at the flow
You will remember from Section 2 that the principle of operation of a gas flotation unit (also called a depurator) of produced water through the unit.
is that the oil droplets, and any suspended solids, are assisted to the surface by small gas bubbles. The oil and
suspended solids are then skimmed off as a froth. The produced water:

Part of a typical flotation unit is illustrated in Figure 14. Study the illustration carefully. • enters the inlet chamber

• flows out of the inlet chamber,

under a baffle, and enters the first
flotation cell where most of the oil
is removed from the water

• flows over the top of an internal

baffle and enters the second
flotation cell where the rest of the
oil is removed from the water

• flows out of the second flotation

cell, under a baffle, and enters
the exit chamber as clean water

• flows out of the exit chamber into

the suction of the recirculation
pump

• leaves the recirculation pump and

goes to the water outlet or back
into the two flotation cells

Make sure you can follow the flow of the

water before proceeding.
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 Petroleum Open Learning

We will now look at how the water is aerated.
You can see in Figure 14 that the recirculation pump
takes water from the exit chamber. The water can
go in one of two directions:
• water outlet
• back to the flotation unit
The level in the exit chamber is controlled by a level
controller (LC) which opens and closes the valve in
the water outlet.
The oil and gas then form a layer of foam on top of
the water.
In the type of unit we have been looking at, a venturi
was used to create the gas bubbles. As you saw in
Section 2, other methods of creating the bubbles
may be used.
But what happens to the oil ?
Take a look at Figure 15. This shows a side view of
the flotation cells. You can see the layer of oily foam
on top of the water.
To the side of the unit is a collecting box called a
launder. The oily foam spills over a weir into the
launder where it separates into oil and gas.
The gas flows back into the flotation cells and the oil
collects at the bottom of the launder. The oil level is
controlled by a level controller (LC) which opens
and closes a valve on the oil outlet line.

If the level rises the valve will open and allow water
to leave the system. If the level falls, the valve will
close and retain water in the system.

The bulk of the water (up to 70% of the design

throughput) is recirculated back to the two flotation
cells.

As the water enters each cell it passes through a

venturi. This is a device which uses the flow of
water to create a low pressure area. Gas, from the
area above the water, is sucked into the venturi and
mixes with the water. The gas and water mixture is
then discharged at the outlet at the bottom of each
cell.

The gas drawn into the venturi results in millions of

tiny bubbles being released at the bottom of the
flotation cell. These bubbles attach themselves to oil
droplets in the water, and carry them to the surface.
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 Petroleum Open Learning

In general:

• In some large units there maybe as many as

ten flotation cells
Test Yourself 7
• The residence time in a flotation unit may be
as low as three minutes Correct the following sentences, which all refer to a flotation unit.

• A flotation unit may reduce the amount of oil in

the produced water to around 10 ppm a) Oil spills over a weir into the exit chamber.

• Flotation units may also remove most of the b) Water flows under the middle (internal) baffle, in a two cell unit
solids suspended in the produced water
c) The recirculation pump takes its suction from the launder.

A problem associated with flotation units is that they
are difficult to control. The size of the bubbles
affects the efficiency of the unit and it may take
many hours to set up each venturi to give the
optimum operating conditions.
d) Gas is introduced to the top of the cells as finely dispersed bubbles.
e) Gas from the area above the water is sucked into a venturi and mixed with the oil.
f) In the launder, oil and water separate and the oil level is controlled by a level controller.

If you are happy with the construction and operation

of flotation units, try the following Test Yourself
question.

You will find the answers to Test Yourself 7 on Page 49

31

Hydrocyclones
The most important development in oil / water treatment in recent years is the
hydrocyclone. This is a unit which uses centrifugal force to separate oil and water.
Figure 16 is an illustration of a hydrocyclone.
Petroleum Open Learning
The hydrocyclone has a cone shaped liner within a
pressure shell. The cone shaped liner of the unit is
fabricated as a thin walled vessel.
Oily water enters the unit through an inlet into the
liner. The inlet is designed to spin the water as it
enters the swirl chamber. Inside the swirl chamber
the flow forms a vortex which passes along the
length of the liner.
32

The water / oil mixture is accelerated to high velocity
and strong centrifugal forces develop. This
promotes oil / water separation. The more dense
water phase moves to the wall of the liner and
displaces the lighter oil phase towards the centre of
the vortex.
The water continues to flow to the water outlet along
the sides of the liner. The oil flows in the opposite
direction, via the low pressure central core, to be
removed at the oil outlet. The oil stream is called the
reject oil stream.
Total residence time of the liquid in the hydrocyclone
is about two seconds. Hence the equipment can
be compact.
The capacity of a hydrocyclone is dependent on the
pressure drop between inlet pressure and reject oil
stream pressure.
Hydrocyclones are usually mounted as groups in
parallel to increase capacity. Each unit can be
opened up or closed in. This enables the operator to
maintain optimum conditions during varying flow
rates.
In addition, units can be installed in series to
increase oil removal. The water leaving one
hydrocyclone enters the next, and so on. Using this
system oil concentrations as low as 5 ppm can often
be achieved.
The major factors influencing the performance of a
hydrocyclone are:
• The specific gravity difference between the oil
and water. The greater the difference, the
greater the potential for rapid separation.
• The oil droplet size. Larger droplets move
more rapidly towards the central core.
• Temperature. This affects both density and
viscosity. Higher temperatures increase the
potential for easy separation and therefore
hydrocyclones are most often installed
upstream of any produced water coolers.
• Higher flow rates. These increase the intensity
of the centrifugal separation forces.
The reject oil stream will not be 100% oil. It will be a
mixture of oil and water. This mixture is then fed
back into the main process, where the oil is
recovered.
Hydrocyclones have a weight / efficiency ratio which
makes them attractive for use offshore.
Petroleum Open Learning
Use of Chemical Additives
Chemicals are increasingly used in produced water
treatment facilities. I don’t intend to go into the
chemistry of the way that they work. However, I
think that you should be aware of the main types of
chemical used and what their function is.
Emulsion breakers or demulsifiers. These
chemicals assist in separating oil/water emulsions.
They break down the mechanisms which cause the
emulsion to form.
Flocculation and flotation agents. These
chemicals act as seeds around which small solid
particles or oil droplets may collect. The increased
size assists in the separation process.
Corrosion Inhibitors. These chemicals help
prevent corrosion of the vessels and pipework of the
produced water system.
Biocides. These chemicals kill bacteria in the
water. They are used to prevent the formation of
slimes.
Oxygen scavengers. These chemicals are used to
remove residual oxygen in water. This also helps to
prevent corrosion.
Scale inhibitors. These chemicals prevent
dissolved solids coming out of solution and being
deposited on pipework, etc., as scale.
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 Petroleum Open Learning

In all instances, great care is needed to ensure that:

• the chemicals used are harmless to the

environment
Summary of Section 3
• one chemical will not counteract the effects of
another chemical used in the process In this section we have looked at different types of oil/water
separators which may be found on an oil production facility.
• the chemicals used will not affect downstream
processing We have looked at the construction and operation of :

In all cases chemicals should be introduced to the • API separators

system at the correct dosage rates. Too high a
dosage rate is often worse than no dosage at all. • parallel plate separators

• corrugated plate separators

• oil / water filter coalescers

• gas flotation units

• hydrocyclones

We have also taken a brief look at chemicals which may be used in a Produced Water System.

In the final section of this unit we will consider a typical produced water handling system.
Before you move on to that however have a go at the following Test Yourself question.

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 Petroleum Open Learning

Test Yourself 8
State whether the components listed on the right are part of :

a) An A.P.I. separator List of components

b) A tilting plate separator 1. swirl chamber

c) An oil / water filter coalescer 2. adjustable oil skimmer

d) A flotation unit 3. baffle

e) A hydrocyclone 4. weir

5. cartridge

6. level controller
Note: some of the components are found in
more than one type of unit. 7. sludge trap

8. cone shaped liner

9. venturi

10. recirculation pump

You will find the answers to Test Yourself 8 on Page 49

35
Produced Water Treatment Petroleum Open Learning

Section 4 - A Typical Produced Water System

In this final section, we are going to look at a complete
produced water system.

The system I will use as an illustration includes two

tilting plate separators, a flotation unit and a produced
water caisson. It is fairly typical of produced water
handling systems which you might find offshore.

In our example, the function of the system is to

remove:

• oil

• entrained gas

• fine solids

from the produced water streams. This is achieved by

short distance gravity separation and flotation.

Take a look at Figures 17. This is a simple block

diagram of the overall system. Study this for a moment
and get a general idea of the relationship between the
various subsystems.

As we work through the system in detail, however, we

will need a more complex drawing. This is Figure 18,
entitled “A Typical Produced Water System”. In order to
allow easy reference to this drawing, I have included it
as a separate sheet in your pack.

Take this out now and study it for a few minutes.

In order to help you, I have also included a symbol key,

which includes those symbols used in the drawing. 36
 Petroleum Open Learning

Look at Figure 18. You should be able to identify
four separate parts of the system. They are:
• the two tilting plate separators (TP-01 and
TP·02) in the upper left hand corner of the
figure
• the flotation unit (DP-01) in the upper right
hand corner
• the chemical dosing system in the bottom
left hand corner
Tilting Plate Separators The diagram indicates that the chemical enters the
produced water line via an injection quill.
The produced water enters the system from the
main oil, gas and water separation facilities. Find Figure 19 is an illustration of an injection quill. It is
the entry point in Figure 18 and follow the flow. designed to ensure that the chemicals are efficiently
mixed with the water flow.
The first thing you will see is that a chemical is
injected at this point. The chemical being injected is
a demulsifier which assists in the separation of the
oil and water. You will remember we discussed the
use of demulsifiers in Section 2.

• the circulation and recycle pumps in the

bottom right hand corner

We will look at each of these sections in turn as I

guide you through the flow diagram. Because the
pumps are part of the flotation unit equipment we will
study these two sections together.

Not shown in Figure 18 is the produced water

caisson where the treated water enters the sea.
We will look at that later as a separate item.

37

The chemical injection line is protected from any
back flow by a non-return valve (Figure 18).
Downstream of the injection quill, oily water from the
platform drains system joins with the produced
water.
Just after this connection is a sample point. In
order to obtain a true sample, this connection
is placed after the point at which the two
streams combine.
Beyond the sample point another line enters the
produced water line. It is protected from back-flow
by a non-return valve. This line is the discharge line
from the float recycle pumps P-02A and P-02B.
We will be looking at these two pumps later.
The produced water then splits into two individual
lines, one to each of the two tilting plate
separators. Each line is fitted with a butterfly valve
which is indicated as being LO. This means that the
valves are normally locked open to make sure that
TP-01 and TP-02 are not accidentally isolated.
The tilting plate separators are identical, so we will
just look at TP-01.
In our example, TP-01 has three sets of corrugated
tilted plates. The produced water enters the side of
TP-01 via three separate connections. This ensures
that turbulence is reduced at these points by
reducing the produced water flow rate.
Any gas which is released from the produced water
is vented off to the vent header. Note that in our
example, there is no valve on the vent line. There
are no pressure relief valves on TP-01 so, to prevent
an accidental over-pressure situation, the vent line is
fitted without an isolation valve.
TP-01 is also fitted with a nitrogen purge
connection. If TP-01 is shut down, the vessel can be
purged with nitrogen. The nitrogen ensures that an
air/gas flammable mixture cannot occur, by
sweeping out any flammable gases before the
vessel is opened for maintenance.
TP-01 is fitted with a level gauge (LG-01) so that
the operator can check the liquid level in this
separator. Connected to the level gauge is a level
switch high (LSH-01). If LSH-01 is activated it will :
• sound an alarm in the Control Room via level
alarm high (LAH-01)
• cause a shutdown of the produced water
system via the E.S.D. system
Petroleum Open Learning
At this point. let me say a few words about
shutdown systems.
All offshore production facilities are protected
by a safety shutdown system. This comprises
dedicated sensors, actuators, valves,
pipework, etc. They are installed to enable a
safe and effective shutdown of plant and
equipment in a controlled manner. The whole
system is called an emergency shutdown
system (E.S.D. system).
Levels of shutdown may be designated.
These depend on the degree of hazard 10
personnel, plant and the environment. Less
serious hazards may only require the
shutdown of individual items of plant or
equipment. Severe hazards, however, may
necessitate a total platform shutdown.
If our platform had four designated levels of
shutdown, with level 1 being the most severe
hazard level, then the produced water
shutdown would probably be a level 3. This is
indicated in Figure 18.
You will appreciate that E.S.D. systems are
very complex and I do not intend to talk about
them any further here. Other units in the
Petroleum Processing Technology Series
will describe these systems in much more
detail.
38

Now back to the tilting plate separators. You will
notice that a water jetting hose connection is
fitted. This allows a high pressure water hose to be
connected into the system for washing out any
sludge which collects in the sludge trap of TP-01.
Each trap is also fitted with a connection to allow the
liquidised sludge to drain away to disposal.
You will remember from Sections 2 and 3 that
separation of oil from the produced water takes
place in the tilting plate separator. These two liquid
phases are discharged via separate lines.
The recovered oil flows from TP-01 and joins with
the oil line from TP-02. The combined oil stream
then flows to a slop oil tank. The oil from the slop
oil tank will be pumped back into the primary
separation system.
The water from TP-01 passes through a butterfly
valve before joining with the water line from TP-02.
The combined water line then takes the water
towards the flotation unit DP-01
That completes our look at the tilting plate
separators. Before you move on to look at the
flotation unit however, have a go at the following
Test Yourself question.
Test Yourself 9
With reference to the tilting plate separators
in our typical system, see if you can answer
the following questions.
a) What is the function of an injection
quill ?
b) Why is the sample point downstream
of the connection for the oily drains
system?
c) What system is used to ensure that
the tilting plate separators are not
accidentally isolated?
d) What is the nitrogen purge
connection used for?
You will find the answers to
Test Yourself 9 on Page 50
Petroleum Open Learning
The Flotation Unit
The water which leaves the tilting plate separators
should have a fairly low oil content - say 60-80 ppm.
We now have to polish the water to reduce the oil
content to less than 30 ppm (the standard for our
system). This is done in the flotation unit.
You should remember the principle of operation of
such a unit from Section 3. If you need to refresh
your memory, do that now before continuing.
Referring back to Figure 18, you will see that, from
the tilting plate separators the water can be routed
either:
• to flotation unit (DP-01)
• to a by-pass round DP-01
The reason for the by-pass is to allow the flotation
unit to be taken out of service for maintenance etc.
If you look at the system you can see that there are
two tilting plate separators, but only one flotation
unit. Normally both separators are in use.
We can, however, keep one separator on line whilst
we clean and maintain the other one. Any loss of
efficiency would be taken care of by the flotation unit.
39

But what happens if we have to clean or maintain the
flotation unit?
We have already seen that corrugated plate
separators, (The type we have selected), can reduce
the oil content of produced water to 30 ppm. So, if
both tilting plate separators are on line, it would be
possible to by-pass the flotation unit, temporarily, so
that it, too, could be maintained.
Under normal conditions the water from the
separators flows through a butterfly valve towards
the flotation unit. Downstream of the butterfly valve
is a second chemical injection point where
demulsifier can be injected from the chemical
dosing package.
The chemically treated water enters the inlet
chamber of the flotation unit and from there into each
aeration cell in turn. Our unit has four separate
aeration cells. Within each cell oil foam accumulates
on top of the water. A motor (M) is indicated on the
left hand side of the unit. This motor drives a set of
paddles which skim the oil foam from the surface of
each cell into the launder.
The launder is fitted with a level gauge (LG-03) to
allow the operator to check the level of oil in the
launder. Connected to the gauge is :
• a Level Switch High (LSH-03)
• a Level Switch Low (LSL-03)
If LSH-03 is activated it will start float recycle pump
P-02A or P-02B. The pump running light (XL-03 or
XL-04) will light in the control room to alert the
operator that the pump is running.
The oil is pumped back into the inlet line to the tilting
plate separators. From there it is recovered again
and discharged to the slop oil tank.
If LSL-03 is activated it will stop P-02A or P-02B.
The pump running light (XL-03 or XL-04) will
extinguish in the control room to alert the operator
that the pump has stopped.
The oil leaving the launder is filtered before it enters
the suction of the float recycle pumps. Each pump is
fitted with a discharge pressure relief valve
(PSV-01 and PSV-02). The PSV is fitted on the
pump side of the discharge Isolation valve.
If the discharge pressure exceeds a pre-set value,
say 30 psi, then PSV-01 or PSV-02 will lift. This will
relieve the discharge pressure by circulating oil back
to the suction of the pump.
Petroleum Open Learning
The oil from the float re-cycle pumps is fed into the
produced water line downstream of the chemical
injection point and downstream of the sample point.
If it was fed into the line upstream of :
• the chemical injection point - it would get a
second dose of chemicals
• the sample point - it would affect the amount
of oil being measured as entering the system
for treatment
Neither of these conditions are desirable.
The exit chamber of the flotation unit is fitted with a
level gauge (LG-04) to allow the operator to check
the level of water in the exit chamber. Connected to
the level gauge is :
• a Level Switch High (LSH-04)
• a Level Switch Low (LSL-04)
If LSH-04 is activated it will :
• sound an alarm in the Control Room via Level
Alarm High (LAH-04)
• will cause a level 3 shutdown
A level 3 shutdown generated by LSH-04 would shut
down the flow of produced water which is leaving the
primary separation system.
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 Petroleum Open Learning

If LSL-04 is activated it will stop the hydraulic

circulation pumps (P-01 A or P-01 B). The pump
running light (XL-01 or XL-02) will extinguish in the
Control Room to alert the operator that the pump has
stopped.

The exit chamber of the flotation unit is also fitted

Test Yourself 10
with a level transmitter (LT-05) which feeds a
signal to a level controller (LC-05). The level Which of the following components are not part of the flotation unit.
controller opens and closes a level control valve
(LV-05) to maintain a constant level in the exit
chamber. skimmer motor

float recycle pumps

The water which flows through LV-05 is the treated
water leaving the system. There is a sample point plate pack
just downstream of LV-05. This is the position where
the final water quality is checked. launder

pump running light

filter cartridge

hydraulic circulation pumps

level gauge

discharge pressure relief valve

exit chamber level switch low

chemical injection point

inner liner
At this point I think that you should go back over
what we have looked at up to now in this section,
then have a go at Test Yourself 10.
You will find the answers to Test Yourself 10 on Page 50

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Lets now continue with the flotation unit by looking
at the gas aeration of the water.
Water is fed into the gas aeration side of the flotation
unit by either hydraulic circulation pump P-01A or
P-01B. These pumps take their water supply from
the exit chamber of DP-01, and the water is then
filtered before being recirculated to DP-01.
The combined discharge of P-01A and P-01B splits
into four separate lines, one for each of the flotation
cells. The operator can balance the flow of water to
each cell, by adjusting the opening or closing of the
individual inlet butterfly valves.
A fuel gas line provides the gas required for
aeration via PCV-01. PCV-01 is a forward
pressure control valve. This means that it controls
the pressure downstream of where it is installed.
PCV-01 maintains a blanket of gas on the flotation
unit with a constant pressure of a few inches water
gauge.
The water flowing through a venturi causes the gas
to be sucked into the water. It is then released as
tiny bubbles. (If you are having difficulty visualising
this, go back to the description of flotation units in
Section 3 and refresh your memory.)
If there is a problem in the fuel gas system the
pressure of the gas blanket could fall and affect the
operation of the produced water handling system.
However, tied into the fuel gas line, downstream of
PCV-01 is an automatic nitrogen back-up system.
The nitrogen back-up facility is activated
automatically if the fuel gas pressure fails below
a pre-set value.
The system comprises:
• flow orifice (FO-01) - a flow orifice is a small
plate with a precision drilled hole in the centre
-the size of the hole determines the amount
of flow through the orifice
• emergency shutdown valve (XV-01) - this
has an FO indication underneath. This means
that the valve will fall open if the instrument
air pressure is lost.
• solenoid valve (XV-01) - a solenoid valve is
a valve which is opened or closed by an
electro-magnet
• limit switches (ZSH-01 and ZSL-01)
Solenoid valve XY-01 is fitted into the instrument air
supply to XV-01. This valve is a three-way valve.
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In normal operation:
• the electrical signal to the solenoid of XY-01
is live
• the air flows through XY-01 and maintains
pressure on the actuator of XV-01
• the valve stays closed
• limit switch ZSL-01 is activated and the
signal valve closed is indicated in the
Control Room.
If the low fuel gas pressure condition is activated
then the electrical signal to the solenoid is made
dead.
When this occurs:
• XY-01 changes position
• the air supply to XV-01 is cut off
• the air supply to XY-01 is vented to
atmosphere
The result of these actions is that XV-01 will open.
When this occurs the movement of the valve will
activate ZSH-01 which will signal to the control room
that the valve has opened.
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Nitrogen will then be supplied to DP-01. The amount
of nitrogen will be regulated by the orifice size of
FO-01.
There is another connection to DP-01 which we
have not yet mentioned. This is a third chemical
injection point positioned on the top of the unit. It
enables demulsifier to be injected into the main body
of DP-01.
We have completed our look at the flotation unit.
By the time the water leaves the unit it should have
an oil content down to specification. To achieve this,
we have injected demulsifier into:
• the tilting plate separators
• the flotation unit
We will now take a look at the chemical injection
dosing package, which is the final part of Figure 18.
Chemical Dosing Package
This package consists of :
• demulsifier drum D-01
• chemical dosing pumps P-03A and P-03B
Demulsifying chemicals are pumped into D-01 from
drums with a small hand pump via the hose
connection. A level indicator (LI-06) allows the
operator to stop filling the drum when the correct
level is reached and to monitor the level of
demulsifier in the drum during normal operations.
If the operator fails to re-fill the drum when a low
level is reached, a level switch low (LSL-07) will
activate.
This will ;
• activate a low level alarm (LAL-07) in the
control room to warn the operator
• shut down the chemical dosing pumps
The chemical dosing pumps are reciprocating /
positive displacement / variable stroke pumps. (In a
reciprocating pump a piston moves backwards and
forwards inside a cylinder. In a variable stroke
reciprocating pump the amount of liquid pumped is
controlled by changing the length of the stroke of the
pump cylinder.)
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These pumps are fitted with discharge pressure
relief valves PSV-03 and PSV-04. The PSV’s are
fitted on the pump side of the discharge isolation
valves.
If the discharge pressure exceeds say, 30 psi, then
PSY-03 or PSY-04 will lift. This will relieve the
discharge pressure by circulating chemical back to
the demulsifier drum.
Chemical dosing pump P-03A supplies the
demulsifier to the tilting plate separators. Pump
P-03B supplies the demulsifier to the flotation unit.
The flow of demulsifier leaving the pumps is
monitored by a sight glass (SG) in each of the lines.
That completes our look at the chemical dosing
package.
The treated water has finally to be disposed of to the
sea. This brings us to the final part of this section,
the produced water caisson.
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Produced Water Caisson

Basically, the produced water caisson is a long
residence time vertical separator. It is designed to
remove any traces of oil which may be left in the
produced water when it leaves the flotation unit.

Figure 20 is an illustration of the produced water

caisson.

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The caisson is a pipe of about 1.2m diameter which
hangs from the lower deck level of the platform into
the sea. The bottom of the caisson may be 30m or
so below sea level. The actual length of the caisson
will depend on water depth and the height of the
lower deck above sea level,
The bottom of the caisson is open to the sea and
the level of water inside the caisson will go up and
down with the rise and fall of the tide.
The produced water line from the flotation unit
enters the top of the caisson at deck level. This line
extends down into the caisson to a point where its
end is under the level of the water, even at low tide.
The produced water discharges into the caisson at
this point.
The produced water may stay in the caisson for
upwards of 30 minutes, This is a much longer
residence time than anywhere else in the system
and traces of oil will be able to float to the surface,
where they can accumulate.
Inside the caisson is a small sump with a weir set
at a level which is just above the highest high tide
level. The oil which has accumulated on top of the
water can then spill over the weir into the sump.
When the oil in the sump reaches a pre-set high
level it will activate a level switch high (LSH-09).
When activated LSH-09 will start the oil sump
pump. The oil is pumped to the slop oil system,
from where it will be returned to the primary
separation system.
When the oil in the sump reaches a pre-set low
level it will activate a level switch low (LSL-09).
When activated, LSL-09 will stop the oil sump
pump.
You have now completed the section on a typical
produced water system. Have a go at the final Test
Yourself question before going through the section
summary.
Petroleum Open Learning
Test Yourself 11
With reference to the system you
have been following in Section 4, answer the
following questions,
a) In the automatic nitrogen purge system
on the flotation unit, what controls the
flow of gas?
b) What is used to skim the oil from the
surface of the water into the launder?
c) Where does the separated oil from the
tilting plate separators go to?
d) Why is there a by-pass around the
flotation unit?
e) Where does the oil accumulate in the
produced water caisson?
You will find the answers to Test Yourself 11
on Page 50.
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 Petroleum Open Learning

Summary of Section 4
In this section we have looked at how a typical produced water system operates,

I have described a system which includes:

• tilting plate separators

• flotation unit

• chemical dosing

• produced water caisson

and which combine to treat produced water for dumping to the sea.

As you worked through the section you followed the main flow lines and
traced the path of the water and oil. I pointed out the points where chemical
is injected into the system and where sampling takes place.
You also discovered the function and operation of the instrumentation
associated with such a system and the safety features involved.
Although the system I described is similar to many you would come
across offshore, it is a hypothetical one. You must remember that, if
you are working on a produced water system you should become familiar
with the layout and operating procedures of that particular system.

Now go back to the training targets for this unit and make sure that you
have met those targets,

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 Petroleum Open Learning

Check Yourself - Answers

Check Yourself 1 Check Yourself 3

a) True
The water underlying the oil pushes the oil towards the
producing wells. The aquifer expands to fill the space left by the
b) False
oil which has been removed. The oil water contact therefore will
rise up the reservoir towards the producing well intakes.
c) False (produced water can contain up to 5 times
the amount of salt present in sea water.)

d) True

Check Yourself 2 e) False (the current figure is 30 ppm)

a) total production = 4770m3/d (3975+ 795)

Therefore water cut = 795 x 100% = 16.67%

4770

b) oil production is 80% ( 100 - 20) 875m3/d

Check Yourself 4

Oil and water have different densities. Water is the most
Therefore oil production = 875 x 80 = 700m3/d
dense, and would sink, allowing the oil to float on top.
100
The two liquids would separate from each other and the oil
c) water production = 159m3/d (556 - 3971)
would tend to float on top of the water.

Therefore water cut = 159 x 100% = 28.6%
556

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 Petroleum Open Learning

Check Yourself 5
Your answer should look like the following:

Short Distance Centrifugal

Gravity Coalescence Gravity Gas Force
Separation Separation Flotation Separation

porous medium √

plate pack √

oil droplets rising √ √ √ √

demulsifier √ √ √ √ √

finely dispersed bubbles √

vortex √

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 Petroleum Open Learning

Check Yourself 6 Check Yourself 7 Check Yourself 8

1. e
a) stilling plate a) Oil spills over a weir into the launder.
2. a
b) sludge debris b) Water flows over the middle (internal) baffle in
a two cell unit.
3. a-d
c) weir
c) The recirculation pump takes its suction from
4. a-b-d
d) parallel the exit chamber.
5. c
e) flat or corrugated d) Gas is introduced to the bottom of the cellsas
finely dispersed bubbles.
6. c-d
f) cartridge, coalesce
e) Gas from the area above the water is sucked
7. a-b
into a venturi and mixed with the water.
8. e
f) In the launder, oil and gas separate and the
oil level is controlled by a level controller.
9. d

10. d

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Check Yourself 9
a) The injection quill is designed to ensure that
the chemicals are efficiently mixed with the
main water flow.
b) In order to ensure that a true sample is
obtained, i.e. after the two streams have
mixed together.
c) The inlet valves have a lock open facility.
d) In order that nitrogen can be introduced to
sweep out any flammable gases before the
vessels are opened for maintenance. This
ensures that an explosive air gas mixture
cannot form.
Petroleum Open Learning
Check Yourself 10 Check Yourself 11
plate pack a) The size of the hole in the flow
orifice.
filter cartridge
b) A motor driven set of paddles.
inner liner
c) To a slop oil tank and from there to
the main separation system.
d) To allow the unit to be taken out of
service for maintenance whilst the
plate separators are still working.
e) On top of the sea water from where it
spills over a weir into a sump.
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