Everyone agrees that the best way to deal with sand is to keep it in the formation, but when sand eludes our best efforts to contain it, it must be dealt with. Sand and solids are often produced with the valuable hydrocarbon resources. Sand or solids, once entering the production train, will cause erosion of flow lines, manifolds, pipework, choke valves, control valves, vessel internals and will collect in areas of low flow stream velocity. The sand and solids will, over time, accumulate in vessels such as production separators, degassers, desalters, knockout drums, etc. and cause a loss of performance due to the reduced volume available for fluid separation. This article highlights some of the process equipment options for topsides sand management including removal of sand from process streams and sand handling/cleaning. Several of these technologies are being developed for application downhole or subsea.
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