Upgrading Petroleum Terminal Separators Using Coalescing Plates

摘要

In 1999, a project was instituted to replace two oil-water separators at Mobil de Colombia’srnterminal facilities in Cartagena, Colombia to bring the facility into compliance withrnenvironmental law.rnThe separators are concrete in-ground pits equipped with rudimentary baffles and skimmers asrnwell as built-in tanks for accumulation of separated oil. They process water from equipmentrnwashing as well as from rainwater runoff. Inlet to the separators is by gravity flow sewers.rnIt was suggested that it might be possible to inexpensively upgrade the performance of thernexisting separators using multiple-angle coalescing plates instead of providing above-groundrnsteel separators. This would also avoid the additional cost of pumps and utilities to pump thernoily water into the proposed new separators.rnThe existing pit separators were evaluated using a proprietary computer program and it wasrndetermined that the existing pits were large enough to meet the national environmentalrnregulations for effluent oil content if fitted with multiple-angle coalescing plates.rnThe paper will present information on legal requirements, a discussion of how the operatingrnconditions were determined, the new internals designed, and a discussion of how the newrninternals will affect the quality of the water exiting the facility.