Heavy Oil Processing

Thermo Design is committed to supplying comprehensive oil processing products with the best technology available. To meet our customers needs in heavy oil and bitumen processing Thermo Design has combined our expertise with ProSep Technologies design and fabricate horizontal flow treaters for heavy oil and bitumen production.

A horizontal flow treater offers several advantages over a conventional upflow treater in heavy oil applications. As the process fluid flows through the vessel and the water droplets suspended in the oil phase coalesce into larger droplets until they reach the a critical diameter where Stokes’ Law applies. Stokes Law defines the terminal settling velocity of a particle as it falls through a fluid. In a horizontal flow treater the settling velocity is perpendicular to the process flow velocity whereas the upflow treater design has a process flow velocity that opposes the settling velocity as defined in Stokes Law. The result is that if the parameters in Stokes Law are fixed, a horizontal flow regime can remove a smaller droplet size then a conventional upflow treater, which results in a more efficient system.

A horizontal flow treater uses a vertical electrostatic grid system. As the oil phase progresses through the vessel it can be exposed to several stages of electrostatic fields of varying potentials. Built-in adjustability allows these fields to match the water content remaining in the oil phase, thus ensuring complete dehydration.

One further advantage is the ability to incorporate mechanical coalescers in combination with the electrostatic grids. These coalescers can be placed in the process stream to provide either bulk or polished coalescence which further enhances the dehydration capability of the treater.

TDE & ProSept Alliance Announcement