Technology

HiPer desanders and HiPer desander hydrocyclones can be used to remove sand and solids at several stages in the typical oil and gas processing facility, for instance upstream of main production separators or at the entry to produced water treatment system deoiling hydrocyclones. Their continuous outlet slurry stream is typically fed to a sand handling and cleaning system, prior to batch disposal.

The compact inlet HiPer desander can achieve bulk separation of larger particles at a much lower flow pressure drop than typically found on existing desanding equipment. Due to its compactness, the HiPer desander can be installed in existing processing systems when limited space is available. The additional benefit of compactness is that the overall hardware and installation costs are very attractive compared to conventional solutions.

Sand and solid particles not separated by HiPer desanders and HiPer desander hydrocyclones may accumulate in separators and other processing equipment. In order to remove these settled particles, our sand jetting system and / or our HiPer™ sand removal cyclones can be applied.

The operating principle of the sand jetting system is based on fluidization of the settled particles by means of a motive fluid introduced into the separator through banks of parallel spraying nozzles installed before the slurry is drained out from the separator bottom by gravity. The operating principle of the HiPer sand removal cyclones is also based on fluidization of these particles by means of a motive fluid but in this case introduced into the individual cyclone heads in which a low pressure zone is created by centrifugal forces which acts as active slurry extraction zone.

Design

These inline separators are typically constructed according to standard process piping specifications, minimizing weight and space requirements. Because of the geometry and operating performance of the HiPer sand removal cyclones, they are less prone to fouling / plugging and consume less motive fluid and pressure drop than the nozzle-based sand jetting system. As with the HiPer desander and HiPer desander hydrocyclones, these outlet slurry streams are typically fed to a sand handling, cleaning and disposal system, but usually on a periodic basis resulting from the use of these nozzle- and cyclone-based units during regular intervals.