Gas Gathering Systems and Oil Production Facilities by EN-FAB Inc
EN-FAB Inc delivers gas gathering systems and oil production facilities with expert design, fabrication, and installation to improve efficiency, reliability, and field performance.

The most important objective of any oil production facility is the separation of water from produced crude. The quick and efficient breaking of these emulsions is essential to meet tight downstream crude oil specifications. In general, crude oil is produced as a water-in-oil emulsion and demulsifiers are necessary for breaking such emulsions.

The factors involved in treating emulsions include breaking the film surrounding the small water droplets and coalescing the droplets to produce larger drops. Finally, the water drops settle during or after their coalescence

Demulsifiers can also perform the functions of a free water knockout, an electrostatic treater, a coalescer, a desalter, and a heater treater. Produced gas is taken out of the liquid and discharged at the top of the vessel.

Water Knockout Section

The vessel is divided into two sections. In the first section the free water can be knocked out using coalescer plates. A Coalescer is a device that allows the discontinuous phase of a liquid to attach itself and thus be separated out.

If there is very little free water and a tight emulsion the coalescer plates on the entrance to the vessel can be replaced with heater tubes to heat the liquid.

Oil and gas production and petroleum refining unavoidably generate large volumes of oily wastewater. Produced water packages ensure oily wastewater is disposed of in an environmentally satisfactory and efficient manner. Following the separation process, produced water still contains some suspended solids, oils and dissolved organic base which must be treated prior to disposal or re-use.

Produced water can be disposed of in a disposal wells, re-used (steam generator or water flood), or returned to the surface environment