Featuring a pipe segment of standard pipe code dimension which acts as a long, slender separator, the PipeSeparator is especially suited for efficient oil-water separation in subsea applications. This innovative technology does much the same job as a conventional separator vessel for separating oil and water, but since the smaller pipe size withstands the external water pressure far better than a large vessel it can also be used in very deep waters. The PipeSeparator has proved to be very robust towards varying gas loads and slugging. For high gas load applications, a device may also be used at the inlet of the PipeSeparator to dampen slugs and remove bulk free gas from the liquid stream. By itself or in combination with a water polishing solution, the PipeSeparator can supply high quality water that is suitable to be routed directly for re-injection into the reservoir. The technology has been developed in cooperation Statoil and can handle a wide range of liquid and gas loads, oil API’s and water cuts. The concept has been extensively tested with live crude oil at real field temperature and pressure conditions, and is currently being designed and built for installation at the Petrobras Marlim field in Brazil.
For separation purposes, the PipeSeparator has a number of advantages over a conventional multiphase separator vessel:
- The small diameter leads to a much shorter droplet sedimentation distance
- The relatively high bulk velocity gives increased shear forces across the emulsion layer which helps break the emulsion layer down
- The small diameter gives a relatively much larger interfacial area for the phases to pass through, increasing separation efficiency