• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
• /
• v.49 no.6
• /
• pp.823-828
• /
• 2011

Characteristics of water separation in a FWKO(Free Water Knok Out) vessel was investigated to remove water from oil-water mixture. Decane, toluene, and asphalt were used as model oils. Preliminary experiments were carried out for decane in a prototype FWKO vessel. Based on the results of preliminary experiments, the prototype vessel was modified and its performance was evaluated by using toluene. The effects of experimental variables on the separation of oil-water mixture were evaluated in terms of separation efficiency. The experimental variables include water cut(water ratio), number of baffles, residence times, and operation temperatures. The optimum conditions of water separation were found to be 0.8 water cut, 3 baffles, 1,200 sec, and $45^{\circ}C$.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
• /
• v.41 no.9
• /
• pp.571-577
• /
• 2017

In this numerical study, the separation efficiency of three-phase separator in an oil-sand plant was studied with various inlet head configurations. The free water knockout (FWKO) vessel was designed with a flow rate of $15.89m^3/day$ (100 bbl/day) and the SOR(stream-to-oil ratio)=3.5 was derived using Stokes' law. For modularization, optimization of the design of the inlet head configuration was performed with parallel-connected dual FWKO vessels. The feed condition of bitumen emulsion was API=17, $T_{in}=150^{\circ}C$ and $P_{in}=50bar$. A mean residence time was determined the time when 95% of the oil and water in FWKO vessel was separated. The combination between the volume of fluid (VOF) and the discrete phase model (DPM) was used to simulate the phase separation phenomenon in a multi-phase separator. Furthermore, in order to calculate multi-phase flow the pseudo-transient method was adopted.