Flow field analysis and performance evaluation of a hydrocyclone coalescer

ABSTRACT

Hydrocyclones are extensively applied in oil-water separation for fluid purification. However, it is difficult for a hydrocyclone to separate tiny oil droplets. Therefore, the coalescence of oil droplets plays an important role in enhancing the separation performance of hydrocyclone. In this study, an innovative hydrocyclone coalescer (HCC) was designed to enhance the separation of de-oiling hydrocyclone. The population balance model was carried out to simulate the distribution characteristic of oil droplet size in the HCC. High speed video was utilized to study the coalescence process qualitatively. Furthermore, an improved particle size analysis experimental system was designed to evaluate the coalescence performance quantitatively. The effects of inlet flow rate, oil concentration and water viscosity on the coalescence of oil droplets in HCC were analyzed. Results show that the optimum inlet flow is 3.9 m³/h, and the oil droplets with mean diameter 0–200 μm at the inlet of HCC can be enlarged to 502.54 μm at the outlet. When the viscosity of water increases from 1.03 mPa·s to 5.56 mPa·s, the mean diameter decreases from 502.5 μm to 382.4 μm. The HCC shows obvious coalescence performance under different operation and fluid parameters, which can contribute to enhancing the separation precision of hydrocyclones.

KEYWORDS:

• Hydrocyclone coalescer
• PBM
• mean diameter
• oil droplet
• coalescence performance

Nomenclature

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the [Key Projects of Regional Innovation and Development Joint Fund of the National Natural Science Foundation, China] under Grant [U21A20104]; [Key Project of Natural Science Foundation of Heilongjiang Province] under Grant [number ZD2020E001]; [Project supported by the key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education for improving Oil and Gas recovery] under Grant [number NEPU-EOR-2021-004]; and [Cultivation foundation of Northeast Petroleum University for NSFC] under Grant [number 2021-GPL-10].

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Key Project of Natural Science Foundation of Heilongjiang Province [ZD2020E001]; Key Projects of Regional Innovation and Development Joint Fund of the National Natural Science Foundation, China [U21A20104]; Project supported by the key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education for improving Oil and Gas recovery [NEPU-EOR-2021-004].