Flow treater offers several advantages over a conventional upflow treater in heavy oil applications. As the process fluid flows through the vessel, the water droplets suspended in the oil phase coalesce into larger droplets. Eventually they reach a critical diameter where Stokes’ Law applies. In a horizontal flow treater the settling velocity is perpendicular to the process flow velocity whereas the upflow treater design has a process flow velocity that opposes the settling velocity. The result is that if the parameters in Stokes Law are fixed, a horizontal flow regime can remove a smaller droplet size than can a conventional upflow treater, which results in a more efficient system.
Heavy Oil Treating
Heavy Oil Treating
