Liquid purification or separation – Tangential flow or centrifugal fluid action
Patent
1989-10-11
1991-05-21
Nozick, Bernard
Liquid purification or separation
Tangential flow or centrifugal fluid action
209211, B01D 2126
Patent
active
050172883
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates generally to cyclone separators for separating multi-phase mixtures such as, for example, oil/water mixtures.
Cyclone separators have in recent times gained a wider acceptance in the oil industry for separating oil/water mixtures. There are two basic applications for cyclone separators in this particular field. In one application, a cyclone separator is used for removing oil from a mixture which contains a relatively large quantity of oil. In one type of application cyclone separators are used for removing a smaller volume of water (e.g. up to 45% by volume of the total) from a larger volume of oil with minimum contamination of the oil. Such cyclone separators are often referred to as dewatering cyclone separators or de-waterers. De-waterers are used for primary separation of the mixture. The other application is for cyclone separators which are used for removing a smaller volume of oil from a larger volume of water with minimum contamination of the water These cyclone separators are often referred to as de-oiling separators or de-oilers and are used for cleaning water after the primary separation process has been effected so that the water can, for example, be discharged in a non-contaminated state.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,237,006 (COLMAN et al) describes a cyclone separator of the de-oiling type having a separating chamber having first, second and third contiguous cylindrical portions arranged in that order. The first cylindrical portion is of greater diameter than the second cylindrical portion and the third cylindrical portion is of lesser diameter than the second cylindrical portion. The first cylindrical portion has an overflow outlet at the end thereof opposite to the second cylindrical portion and a plurality of tangentially directed feed inlets, the separator being adapted to separate liquids one from the other in a mixture when infed into said separating chamber via the feed inlet, one liquid emerging from the overflow outlet and the other passing through the third cylindrical portion in the direction away from the second cylindrical portion to emerge from an underflow outlet of the separator at the end of the separating chamber remote from said first cylindrical portion.
The above separator is intended specifically, but not exclusively, for separating oil from water, the oil in use emerging from the overflow outlet and the water from the third cylindrical portion.
The aforementioned cylindrical portions may not be truly cylindrical, in the sense that they do not need in all cases to present a side surface which is linear in cross-section and parallel to the axis thereof. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,237,006 describes arrangements wherein the first cylindrical portion has a frustoconical section adjacent the second cylindrical portion and which provides a taper between the largest diameter of the first cylindrical portion and the diameter of the second cylindrical portion where this meets the first cylindrical portion. Likewise, the aforementioned patent specification describes arrangements wherein a similar section of frustoconical form is provided to cause a tapering in the diameter of the second cylindrical portion from a largest diameter of the second cylindrical portion to the diameter of the third cylindrical portion. There is also described an arrangement wherein the second cylindrical portion exhibits a constant taper over its whole length.
In the Australian Patent Application 12421/83, various modifications of cyclone separators of the above de-oiling type are described, and these modifications may be incorporated into separators of this general kind. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,237,006 the described cyclone separator is said to comply with a number of dimensional restrictions insofar as the relative proportions of various components thereof are concerned. These constraints are:- ##EQU1## wherein d.sub.0 is the internal diameter of the overflow outlet, d.sub.1 is the diameter of the first portion, d.sub.2 is the diameter of the second portion and d.sub.3 is the diamcter of the thir
REFERENCES:
patent: 2756878 (1956-07-01), Herkenhoff
patent: 4237006 (1980-12-01), Colman et al.
patent: 4544486 (1985-10-01), Carroll
patent: 4683061 (1987-07-01), Carroll
patent: 4710299 (1987-12-01), Prendergast
patent: 4721565 (1988-01-01), Carroll
WO85/00990 published 3/14/85 (209-211).
Carroll Noel
Smyth Ian C.
Thew Martin T.
Conoco Specialty Products
Holder John E.
Nozick Bernard
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