Abstract
To reduce the cost of oil exploitation, it is necessary to promote the development of cyclones for oil-water separation due to the increase of the water content in produced fluids. However, there are some limitations and disadvantages for the conventional separation device including bulky settling tanks and hydrocyclones. In this paper, a new axial inlet separator with two reverse flow outlets and a downstream flow outlet is introduced. In addition, an experimental system was designed and fabricated to investigate the effects of inlet flow rate, oil fraction, and a controlled split ratio on separation performance. The separator maintains high separation efficiency within the experimental range, namely water flow rate (4–7 m3/h), and oil fraction (1%–10%). Furthermore, the results show that a higher water flow rate and oil fraction will affect the separation efficiency. The change of a pressure drop in the separator was analyzed as well. Moreover, the controlled split ratio is a serious operating parameter, and a larger controlled split ratio is conducive to the separation performance.
Highlights
With the increase of the water content in produced fluids, the cost of oil exploitation will rise as well
The effect of the inlet flow rate was investigated with an oil fraction of 10% under different water flow rates, when keeping the opening of valves at the outlets unchanged
When the inlet oil fraction is up to 10%, the oil core covers the hub of the strengthened swirler
Summary
With the increase of the water content in produced fluids, the cost of oil exploitation will rise as well. The device used for oil-water separation should receive more attention. The potential separation methods for immiscible liquids include settling by gravity and centrifugal technology. The former is based on the principle that the mixture will be separated into two layers during enough resident time in a large settling tank, which is a robust and bulky process. It is expensive and limited in downhole conditions. The latter called a cyclone separator, takes advantage of compact geometry, low maintenance costs, and large capacity (Zeng et al, 2020a)
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