Upstream
Crude oil
There’s no oil without water: Not just crude oil, but also large quantities of gas, water and particulate matter are produced during the life of an oilfield. Before the oil can be sold and transported to a refinery for further processing, it must first meet a quality standard (“basic sediment and water”, or BS&W) that requires crude to be largely free of entrained water and particles.
Crude oil is dewatered (dehydrated) using GEA high-speed centrifuges, which also remove salts dissolved in the water phase, plus fine solid particles. GEA tailored and packaged centrifuge solutions handle these tasks reliably and efficiently.
Powerful separators offshore and onshore
Key features of GEA centrifuges for dewatering crude oil are:
- Efficient and reliable drives, either direct-drive or belt-drive.
- High centrifugal forces and large clarification areas reliably separate entrained water and particles.
- High throughputs.
- Robust, compact, weight-saving and energy-efficient designs.
- Ease of installation and operation means effective and user-friendly systems.
- Comprehensive monitoring of process conditions.
- Insensitive to motion, for instance on floating facilities.
- Flexible in terms of oil/water ratio.
Addressing the challenges of processing heavy crude oils
GEA centrifuges are not limited to oils of low and medium densities as well as viscosities. They also efficiently dewater and desalinate heavy crudes (20° API down to 13° API, or specific gravities of 0.93–0.98), which experience has shown are hard to treat using conventional gravity and electrostatic methods.
The small density difference between oil and water at these API gravities can only be utilized efficiently using high g forces created through centrifugal acceleration, which is precisely the advantage of GEA separators. Centrifugal technology also minimizes operational requirements for heating, dilution, wash water and chemical additives. All this means a significant reduction in operating costs.
Optimized crude oil processing: GEA's high-performance centrifuges
GEA centrifuges are manufactured from high-quality materials, such as duplex and super duplex steels. As a result, our machines can withstand the harsh process conditions during oil production and the high loads during operation. This allows them to meet our customers’ demands for long and efficient operating lives. GEA's optimized designs are able to handle variations in both feed conditions and oil characteristics with ease. With their combination of high separation efficiency and small footprint GEA separators are ideal for use offshore, where space is always key, though they are equally effective in onshore applications.
Depending on the product characteristics, GEA offers either nozzle-type separators or self-ejecting disk-type centrifuges. For dewatering of crude oil we can supply either stand-alone machines or complete “plug & play” installations including pumps, filters, control systems and supervisory equipment. For installations that require gas-tight and explosion-protected systems, GEA also supplies complete Ex packages to ATEX/ISO standards with nitrogen blanketing.
Maximizing efficiency: Flexible centrifuges for oil & water
During the long life of a reservoir, the proportion of water to oil generally increases. This can upset the performance of conventional dewatering equipment and ultimately require additional investment in water treatment, while leaving oil treatment systems with spare capacity.
GEA disk-stack centrifuges are so flexible that they can easily handle with changing feed conditions, thus reducing investment costs to a minimum. It is even possible to convert a GEA centrifuge from oil dewatering to oily water cleaning. This requires minimal changes to the machine and can be done quickly using a conversion kit supplied by GEA.
GEA Crude Oil Treatment Systems – Dehydration and Desalting with Centrifuges
Products & Technologies
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Centrifugal Separator
GEA separators are designed for liquid-based applications. Using centrifugal force, they are used for separating suspensions consisting of two or more phases of different densities, i.e. they can be used for liquid-liquid separation, for liquid-liquid-solid separation or for liquid-solid separation. They are equally as effective at separating liq...
Clarifying Decanter
Clarifying decanters are designed for the continuous separation of suspensions into solids and clarified liquid, without interrupting the feed of the suspension.
Decanter Centrifuge
The decanter’s hour has come as soon as the solids content in the suspension to be processed is particularly high. These machines provide the benefits of high clarifying efficiency and maximum dewatering as well as the separation of liquids with the simultaneous removal of solids. The main requirements in this respect include a high bowl speed, a...
Jet pumps
Jet pumps, also referred to as ejectors, are devices for the conveyance, compression or mixing of gases, vapors, liquids or solids and for the production of vacuum in which a gaseous or liquid medium serves as the motive force.
