Development of a centrifugal downhold separator with in-situ recycle of produced water (initial tests with 34.1 API gravity crude)

摘要

Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is currently developing a Centrifugal Downhole Separator (CDHS) which will extend the application of remotely operated separations equipment developed for the nuclear industry to in-well recovery of oil with in-situ recycle of the produced water. These units have been successfully used for surface treatment of produced water and wastewater generated during environmental clean-up operations. Performance data has shown that centrifugal units are capable of separating stable emulsions into ''single- phase'' streams with generally less than 1% cross-phase contamination. Initial testing will be conducted with a bench-scale separator to determine the separation efficiency of various crude oils and to provide information necessary to scale up the separator. Information from the bench-scale unit will be used in the design of a larger prototype, which will have a much larger height/diameter ratio and will incorporate some of the components necessary for down-hole operations. The prototype separator will be operated in the lab to verify scale-up parameters and separation efficiencies, as well as to provide information necessary to design a full-scale system. The full-scale system will be fabricated, installed in the field, and operated to demonstrate the technology. This paper discusses the initial testing of the bench-scale separator with a crude oil having an API gravity of 34.06(degrees).