Soran University

Faculty of Engineering
Petroleum Engineering Department

Separation project

Name of editor: 1-Jegr Abas

2-Muhamad Bahjat
3-Ramyar Babakr
Abstract
This report is prepared as a part of university model for designing a separation facility. the aim
of the report is to design the entire facility by using the HYSIS software program to evaluate
sluggish flow and steady state flow regimes in least cost.

Table of Contents
1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 5
1.1 Types of processes of a separation facility ................................................................................... 5
1.1.1 Main Processes .................................................................................................................. 5
1.1.2 Secondary .......................................................................................................................... 5
1.1.3 Auxiliary ............................................................................................................................. 5
1.2 Emulsion .......................................................................................................................................... 6
1.2.1 Oil treating ............................................................................................................................... 6
1.2.2 Water treating.......................................................................................................................... 7
2. Well specification.................................................................................................................................. 7
3. Facility specification ............................................................................................................................. 8
4. Facility plane specification ................................................................................................................ 17
5. Separators ........................................................................................................................................... 22
5.1 Type of separators ......................................................................................................................... 23
5.1.1 Three phase separator........................................................................................................... 23
5.1.2 Two phase separator ............................................................................................................. 23
5.1.3 Horizontal separators............................................................................................................ 24
5.1.4 Vertical separator .................................................................................................................. 25
5.1.5 Spherical Separators ............................................................................................................. 26
6. Heat exchanger ................................................................................................................................... 27
6.1 Type of the heat exchanger .......................................................................................................... 27
6.1.1 Double pipe heat exchanger.................................................................................................. 28
6.1.2 Shell-and-Tube Exchangers.................................................................................................. 28
6.1.3 Plate heat exchangers ............................................................................................................ 29
7. Valves................................................................................................................................................... 30
7.1 On-off service ................................................................................................................................ 30
7.1.1 Ball valves............................................................................................................................... 30
7.1.2 Gate valves ............................................................................................................................. 31
7.1.3 Plug valves .............................................................................................................................. 32
7.2. Throttling (regulation) service ................................................................................................... 32

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 7.2.1 Butterfly valves ...................................................................................................................... 32
7.2.2 Globe valves ........................................................................................................................... 33
7.2.3 Needle valve............................................................................................................................ 34
7.3 Prevention of back flow ............................................................................................................... 35
7.3.1 Swing check valves ................................................................................................................ 35
7.3.2 Ball check valve ..................................................................................................................... 35
7.3.3 Lift Check Valve .................................................................................................................... 36
7.3.4 Disc Check Valve ................................................................................................................... 37
7.4 Safety valve ................................................................................................................................... 37
7.4.1 Relief Valve ............................................................................................................................ 38
8. Safety system ....................................................................................................................................... 38
9. Results ................................................................................................................................................. 43
10. References ......................................................................................................................................... 44

List of Figure
Figure-1 Steady state facility…………………………………………………………………….8

Figure-2 Condition of steady flow………………………………………………………………9

Figure-3 Steady state composition………………………………………………………………9

Figure-4 Steady state facility…………………………………………………………………...10

Figure-5 Composition of oil 20…………………………………………………………………11

Figure-6 Steady state facility…………………………………………………………………...11

Figure-7 Composition of oil st1………………………………………………………………..12

Figure-8 Slug facility……………………………………………………………………….…..12

Figure-9 Condtion of slug catcher…..……………………………………………………….…13

Figure-10 Composition of slug catcher………………………………………………………...13

Figure-11 Slug facility………………………………………………………………………….14

Figure-12 Composition of oil 13………………………………………………………………..15

Figure-13 Slug facility………………………………………………………………………….15

Figure-14 Composition of oil slug 2…………………………………………………………….16

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Figure-15 Mixed slug and steady state facility………………………………………………….17

Figure-16 Composition of the oil mix 12………………………………………………………18

Figure-17 Transportation oil……………………………………………………………………18

Figure-18 Pipe segments……………………………………………………………………….19

Figure-19 Combining gases…………………………………………………………………….19

Figure-20 Combining gases…………………………………………………………………….20

Figure-21 Mixed gases…………………………………………………………………………20

Figure-22 Composition of mixed gases…………………………………………………….…..21

Figure-23 Separation facility…………………………………………………………………...22

Figure-24 Horizontal separator…………………………………………………………………24

Figure-25 Zone of the horizontal separator……………………………………………….…….25

Figure-26 Vertical separator……………………………………………………………………26

Figure-27 Spherical separator …………………………………………………………….……27

Figure-28 Double pipe heat exchanger………………………………………………………….28

Figure-29 Shall and tub heat exchanger………………………………………………………...29

Figure-30 Plate heat exchanger…………………………………………………………………30

Figure-31 Ball valve……………………………………………………………………………31

Figure-32 Gate valve……………………………………………………………………………31

Figure-33 Plug valve…..………………………………………………………………………. 32

Figure-34 Butterfly valve……………………………………………………………………….33

Figure-35 Globe valves…………………………………………………………………………33

Figure-36 Needle valves………………………………………………………………………..34

Figure-37 Swing cheek valve…………………………………………………………………...35

Figure-38 Disc cheek valve…………………………………………………………………….36

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Figure-39 Ball cheek valve……………………………………………………………………..36

Figure-40 Lift cheek valve………………………………………………………………….…..37

Figure-41 Safety valve………………………………………………………………………….37

Figure-42 Relief valve…………………………………………………………………………38

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1. Introduction
Fluids produced from oil and gas wells generally consist a mixtures of crude oil, natural gas, and
salt water.it necessary to separate each phase from another and treating them because these
mixtures are very difficult to handle, meter, or transport. This mixture usually unsafe and
uneconomical to ship or to transport these mixtures to refineries and marketing processing.
Further, hydrocarbon shipping tankers, oil refineries, and gas plants require certain specifications
for the fluids that each receive. Also, environmental constraints exist for the safe and acceptable
handling of hydrocarbon fluids and disposal of produced salt water. Before transporting or
disposal of any mixture must be separate each phase, Separation of crude oil into oil, gas and
water phases is achieved in mechanical devices called ‘separators’ where gas is flashed from oil
in the top of separator through mist extractor and free water is separated by gravity(King, C.
2013). Once separated, the three phases are further treated to an acceptable standard. Once
treated, valuable products (crude oil and gas) are discharged to refineries for further processing.
Water is either disposed in an environmental after treating or reinjection into the reservoir to
increase reservoir pressure to produce more crude oil. The benefit of separating the phases is to
make a crude oil safer for handling and storage purposes and when the Water produced from
reservoirs is a brine solution with considerable dissolved salt and as such necessitates removal to
overcome corrosion and problems in handling and refining equipment (Geankoplis, C 2003)
.

1.1 Types of processes of a separation facility

1.1.1 Main Processes
The separation process used primarily to separate a combined liquid-gas well stream into
components that are relatively free of each other and prepare an oil that is ready for sale and
export, the gas must be prepared for disposal or sales. Gas that can’t be transferred is always
compacted for reinjection into the reservoir. Gas treating may have only separation from the
liquids, or it may involve additional.

1.1.2 Secondary
In addition of the processing the oil and gas for sale, the produced gas and water should be
treated for disposal.

1.1.3 Auxiliary
In addition to process the systems, auxiliary process heating and cooling might require. Heat
processing is usually needed for treating of oil. The safety systems for all facility is contain Safety

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instrumentation and closed systems, fire and gas observation, such as life rafts and leaking out
capsules for offshore, other tools, depends on the place and difficulty of the facility and whether
it is manned.

1.1.3.1 Amine system

Amine system is a process to remove H2S and CO2 from crude oil during separation facility.CO2
and H2S are acid components present in natural gas recovered from wells in the underground. If
not removed from the gas they are a cause of corrosion in equipment. H2S is poisonous and if
leakage occurs, people in the surroundings can be harmed and die. Legislation is regulating the
content of H2S in natural gas. Over time, many methods for removing H2S have been tried out,
and the industry is aiming to perform better and more efficient sweetening all the time and to
minimize the expenses for the process. A lot of different processes have been investigated, but
the focus in modern time has been to develop a sweeting process using different kinds of
adsorption and absorption methods. There are two focus areas when developing gas sweetening
methods, dry adsorption and wet absorption. The dry adsorption is usually non regenerative
methods and consists of a filter where H2S is adsorbed. These filters have to be changed regularly
to obtain the necessary cleaning. The wet absorption is usually a regenerative process where a
liquid stream is lead to react with H2S in an absorption column to move it from the gas stream
to the liquid stream catalyzed by a chemical reaction. The liquid stream is usually recovered and
reused for the process (Kajitvichyanukul, P.2006)
.

1.2 Emulsion
An emulsion is a heterogeneous liquid system consisting of two immiscible liquids with
one of the liquids intimately dispersed in the form of droplets in the second liquid. When the oil
, gas and water is produced from the reservoir and passed through the separation facility and
each phase separated to oil, gas and water phase, sometime the oil phase contain some water
droplet or water phase contain some oil droplet that can caused by shear force in variation drop
size and stability and Because this droplets cannot be removed by conventional storage tank the
emulsion treating method must be used and their many methods like a chemical demolisher,
agitation, heating, coalescence plate .….etc. (Keller, J 1975).
1.2.1 Oil treating
Separation is not perfect, there is usually some water left in the oil. Usually water content can
range from less than 1% water to more than 20% water in the oil by volume. The lower the
American Petroleum Institute (API) gravity (i.e., the higher the molecular weight and the oil

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viscosity), the less efficient the separation. To get the last of the water out of the oil, the oil is
processed through an oil treating system. Treating systems usually gives heat to decrease the oil
viscosity and large settling sections to allow the water time to settle from the oil. The water
content in the oil can be reduced to less than 1%. High water content can make corrosion
problems worse in pipelines and other transportation systems and can cause problems with
downstream processing. When here is the water content there will be have salt
content(Geankoplis, C 2003).

1.2.2 Water treating

After the produced water path through separation facility it is no perfect, there is always some
oil left in the water phase, normally between 100 and 2000ppm by mas. This oil must be removed
to acceptable levels before the water can be disposed of, because have some problem when not
removed such as environmental problem or when injected to reservoir to pressure maintenance
(Keller, J 1975)
.

2. Well specification
The project task is to design a separation plant. The specifications are as follows: Task is to
produce 65200 barrels of oil per day (BOPD). Another specification is that 75 % of incoming
crude oil from nearby field in a rather steady flow (1), while the remaining 25% is coming from
a satellite field as a sluggish flow (2) with a typical period of 15 min, minimum and max/min
ratio of 3. The water inlet in the crude oil will be 50 % of the crude oil. Over a decay of 7years,
these numbers might be doubled due to increased water injection to the reservoir. Design a
suitable separation facility and pipeline with a length of 25 km and receiving pressure of 5 bar.
The given molar fractions are below in Table-1:

Components Molar friction n

Methane 0.15
Ethane 0.051
Propane 0.00979
I-butane 0.02313
N-butane 0.10371
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 N-pentane 0.01136
N-Hexane 0.02289
N-heptane 0.00486
I-pentane 0.12264
N-octane 0.00851
N-nonane 0.00241
N-decane 0.08181
N-C11 0.0605
N-C12 0.02086
N-C13 0.0457
N-C14 0.0004
N-C15 0.00031
N-C16 0.0002
H20 0.27703
N2 0.00217
CO2 0.00072

Table-1 Components of the streams entering the separators

3. Facility specification

Figure-1: steady state facility

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 Figure-2: condition of steady flow

At the figure-2 we have a stream contain (48900bbl/day) or (108) cubic meter per hour this flow have
(30c) temperature and (100 bar) pressure, flows to the separator and other equipment in facility.

Figure-3: steady state composition

When the crude oil is come from the well consist some of component in steady flow in our facility the
crude consists Methane, Ethane, propane, i-butane, and Co2 and H2O………etc., each component have

9
mole fraction and different from other component and the sum of all mole fraction is equal to 1.That
shown in the figure-3.

Figure-4: steady state facility

As shown on the fiuger-4, at the first step the crude oil passed through the heater (E-100) the
heater need energy to working this energy provided by (Q-100), heater to increase the
temperature of crude oil to produce the gas because on this crude oil the gas is solution gas. The
second step the crude oil passed into control valve(VLV-100) the valve in here to control the
flow and if have a problem in facility we can close the valve and control flow easily and the valve
reduce pressure by (10kpa), then the crude oil flow to the three face horizontal separator(V-
100),after crude oil passed through the separator the gas leave the separator from top of the
separator through mist extractor and the water leave the separator from bottom through water out
let and oil leave separator through the oil out, we used horizontal separator because the oil contain
less gas and have more water to separate more water from the crude oil, and three phase have
higher gas and oil and oil water contact. After the separator the oil passed through the control
valve (VLV-102).

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 Figure-5: composition of oil 20

As we seen in the figure-5, After the crude oil leave the first separator the gas is increased due to
we use heater and the water is reduced but both of water and gas is need to remove the oil because
its reduce the quality of oil. And if oil is in low quality it is not sale from marketing.

Figure-6: steady state facility

As we see in the figure-6, after the crude oil passed through the valve (VLV-102) the crude oil
pass through the another heater (E-102), the heater need energy and the energy is provided by

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(Q-102).using heater in here for same purpose in above and then pass through the another three
phase separator (V-102) this separator reduced (3000kpa) to separate gas and water. The gas
leave the separator from top of the separator through mist extractor and the water leave the
separator from bottom through water out let and oil leave separator through the oil out.

Figure-7: composition of oil st1

As we see in the figure-7, after the crude oil leave the separator the gas separate and reduced and
the water is separate and reduced and it is not perfect for crude oil we must separate more gas
and water but one thing is very important for us it is we use minimum coast.

Figure-8: slug facility

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 Figure-9 condtion of slug catcher

As we seen in figure 9,This facility have (16300bbl/day or 108 m3/h) and have temperature (30c)
and pressure (100bar) flowing to slug facility.

Figure-10 composition of slug catcher

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As we seen in figure 10, and As we discussed in steady facility in slug facility have crude oil
from the well and contain many component such as Methane, Ethane, butane and n-c13 and n-
c14 and H2O and nitrogen ……etchant each component have molar friction different from the
other. But because we have slug in this facility the flow is not continues and sum of all mole
fraction is equal 1.

Figure-11 slug facility

As we discussed in steady facility, at the first step the crude oil is passed into the heater (E-101)
and this heater need energy this energy is provided by (Q-101),this heater to heated the oil and
produce more gas and separate from the separators. The second step in slug facility the crude oil
is passed through the control valve (VLV-101) this valve reduced (10kpa) pressure from the
stream, the valve is very important because if have any problem in the facility or in after the
valve we close the valve to prevent any problem in before the valve, this valve reduce the pressure
(10kpa), and then the crude oil is flowed to the three phase separator (V-101) and this separator
can reduce (3000kpa) pressure from the stream. after crude oil passed through the separator the
gas leave the separator from top of the separator through mist extractor and the water leave the
separator from bottom through water out let and oil leave separator through the oil out, we used
horizontal separator because the oil contain less gas and have more water to separate more water
from the crude oil, and three phase have higher gas and oil and oil water contact. After the
separator the fluid flowed to another control valve (VLV-103) the valve can reduce (10kpa)
pressure from the stream. Figure 11 shown slug facility

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 Figure-12; composition of oil 13

As we seen the figure 12, after the separator the gas and water not separate totally must be passed
through another equipment to maximum separation and minimum coast. If we do not separate
we waste the produced oil from the reservoir.

Figure-13 slug facility

Because we cannot separate totally the oil and gas we must use d required equipment to separate
both gas and water, then the oil leave valve (VLV-103) it passed to another heater (E-103) and
energy to this heater permitted by (Q-103) and after this heater the oil passed in to three phase
separator (V-103) to separate both gas and water. This separator reduced (3000kpa) from the

15
stream. after crude oil passed through the separator the gas leave the separator from top of the
separator through mist extractor and the water leave the separator from bottom through water out
let and oil leave separator through the oil out, we used horizontal separator because the oil contain
less gas and have more water to separate more water from the crude oil, and three phase have
higher gas and oil and oil water contact. After this separator the oil is controlled by valve (VLV-
105) this valve reduced (10kpa) from the stream. This procedure shown in figure-13.

Figure-14: composition of oil slug 2

We can see in figure 14, the gas and water not reached for acceptable level in the oil and as this
level can produce more problem typically when we transport the oil for marketing but the gas
and water separate by three phase separator we chosen horizontal separator because less
expensive than vertical separator and less problem to stable.

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 Figure -15: mixed slug and steady state facility

Because the gas and water does not reach acceptable level we using another separator to separate
both of them, and we see the slug flow is cleaned from sluggish and have same pressure with
steady flow we can mixing this two stream by mixer (mix-100),and then we put anther heater (E-
107) to increase temperature to separate more gas and water after the heater the oil flowed into
control valve (VLV-106) and reduce (10kpa)pressure then flowed in three phases separator (V-
104) this separator reduced (3805kpa)pressure from stream. after crude oil passed through the
separator the gas leave the separator from top of the separator through mist extractor and the
water leave the separator from bottom through water out let and oil leave separator through the
oil out, we used horizontal separator because the oil contain less gas and have more water to
separate more water from the crude oil, and three phase have higher gas and oil and oil water
contact. After this separator the oil flowed into valve (VLV-107) and can reduce (10kpa) pressure
from the stream. This procedure shown in figure 15.

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 Figure-16: composition of the oil mix 12

As we seen in figure 16, after the last separator the liquid volume fraction for gas less than
(100ppm) and the liquid volume fraction for water zero, it is acceptable level for us and tend to
less problem. During transportation or in storage tank.

Figure-17: transportation oil

After we got acceptable level of gas and water in the oil we want to pumped the oil by using
pump to store in storage tank, but because pump is used for incompressible fluid and we used
heater before the separator we must using cooler to reduce the vapor in oil we used (E-104) to
cooling the oil and the energy for this cooler provided by (Q-105)then pump (P-100) used to
pumped oil this pump pumped oil by (500kpa) and the energy was provided by (Q-104) after

18
pump have valve (VLV-108) to control flow of fluid, then the oil is flowed through the pipe and
the energy of pipe provide by (Q-106) the next valve (VLV-109) before storage tank and then
the oil flowed and stored in storage tank by nearly (5000kpa). The procedure of transport shown
in figure 17.

Figure-18: pipe segments

The using the pipe need something, the length of pipe is (25000m) and the inner diameter is
(970mm) and the outer diameter is (1000mm), the evaluating change is (10m) and the heat loss
of this pipe (10000kJ/h) and made from asphalted iron. Because the length of pipe is high as a
safety and controlling fluid in (10000m) and in (20000m) we put gate valve open with (700mm)
outer diameter and (600mm) inner diameter and made from galvanized iron. We chose gate valve
because it used in industry, with the gate valve direct of flow does not change and it designed to
minimum pressure drop and can fully opened.as shown on the figure-18.

Figure-19: combining gases

When we started the separation process for the crude oil in each separator the gas is separated
and leave the vessel in different pressure and temperature and may be the gas contain water or

19
oil or condensate gas we must separate the condensate gas and liquid from other gases. We
mixing the (gas10) and (gas12) by (Mix-101) because equal in pressure and then passed through
the compressor (k-100) this compressor increase (1000kpa) in pressure and energy of this
separator was permitted by (Q-107) and then passed through (VLV-112) as a safety factor.
Because the gas compressed it increase in temperature needed to cool gas by using cooler in here
(E-105) was used and energy was provided by (Q-109) and put the valve (VLV-114) as a safety
factor. This procedure shown in figure 19.

Figure-20: combining gases

The figure 20, contain another two gases that are equal in pressure we mixed by (Mix-102) to
remove that liquid exist in gases and then passed through (VLV-111) this valve reduce (10kpa)
in pressure, then the gases went into the compressor (K-101) to increase pressure, this compressor
increase (4030kpa) in pressure and energy of this compressor provided by (Q-108),later the gases
passed through the (VLV-113) can reduce (10kpa) pressure because pressure increase the
temperature will be increase need cooler,(E-106) was used for cooling gas and then passed the
(VLV-115) as a safety factor.

Figure-21: mixed gases

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As we seen in figure 21, When we compressed and cooled the gas in two stream and equal in
pressure we can mixed but we cannot using expander for reducing pressure because the liquid
have in gases so we used two phase vertical separator (V-107) for separated liquid from gas and
this separator can reduced (7805kpa) pressure we chosen vertical separator for separating gas
from liquid because vertical separator can separate more gas than the horizontal separator. The
gas leave vessel at the top through mist extractor and liquid leave vessel at bottom through liquid
out it is problem having liquid in gas typically for flare. When the liquid was out of separator
contain some oil but it is very less and need to treat caused that reason we disposal this liquid.
The pressure of the gas out in vertical separator is equal with the gas in last separator in oil
streams so we can mixed by (Mix-104) and transported to flare or sale.

Figure-22: composition of the mixed gases

When we separated the liquid from gases in acceptable level by using some equipment and
facilities now we can send the gas to flare or transported to sale because this gas is very light
gases and have advantage for us. The composition of gas shown in figure 22.

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 Table 2: the cost of facility
We complete the design of facility by using (11390200) in capital cost and we need (9967570)
to continuous the facility it is very good capital cost for (65200 bbl/day) and have sluggish flow,
and this facility designed to (20years) can continues without any problem.

4. Facility plane specification

Figure-23: separation facility

5. Separators
An oil and gas separator is a pressure vessel used for separating a well stream into gaseous and
liquid components. They are installed either in an onshore processing station or on an offshore
platform. Based on the vessel configurations, the oil and gas separators can be divided into

22
horizontal, vertical, or spherical separators. In teams of fluids to be separated, the oil/gas
separators can be grouped into gas-liquid two-phase separator or oil-gas-water three-phase
separator. Based on separation function, the oil and gas separators can also classified into primary
phase separator, test separator, high-pressure separator,low-pressure separator, degasser, etc.
(Svrcek, W. 1993).

5.1 Type of separators

As we discussed above we have some type of separator, we can classified the separator, divided
in horizontal and vertical and spherical based on the shape. And divided in two phase and three
phase based on the function and divided in high pressure and low pressure based on the final
product.

5.1.1 Three phase separator

It is a pressure vessel used for separating a well stream into gaseous and liquid components.
Based on the vessel configurations. The liquid are leaving the vessel from the bottom through
different valves and the gas is leaving the vessel at the top through the mist extract.it is often
used on the manned installation. Three phase separator can be divided into horizontal or vertical
separators. The reduction in pressure assists in the removal of gas (flashing) whilst separation of
water from the oil is achieved by the force of gravity (Svrcek, W. 1993)
.

5.1.2 Two phase separator

It is also known as Low Pressure Production. In the two phase separator, the pressure is further
reduced (typically to 50 psig) so that any remaining gas in the crude oil will separate. The leaves
the vessel at the bottom through at level control or dump valve and the gas levels at the top
through a mist extractor.it is often used on the unmanned installation. The separation is based on
the principle of Flash distillation or Differential separation. Under flash distillation, gases
liberated from oil are kept in intimate contact (Svrcek, W. 1993)
.

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5.1.3 Horizontal separators
Horizontal separators are a vessel, with its cylindrical axes parallel to the ground. They are
always employed for higher gas oil ratio (GOR) wells, liquid-liquid separation and foamy
streams. Figure-24 represents 3-phase horizontal separator. The horizontal separator can be a
two-phase or three-phase separator. Fluid enters in to the separator and hits inlet diverter which
in effect reduce pressure and changes momentum. Change in momentum separates gas and liquid.
Mostly, diverter has a down comer that compels liquid to flow below the water-oil interface. This
forces Inlet mixture of water and oil to blend with continuous phase (water) in the base of vessel
and ascends through the water-oil interface. This procedure is called water washing which
promotes the coalescing of water drops in the continuous phase (oil).This type of separator has a
big capacity for oil volume, and horizontal separators are usually the first choice because of their
low costs. They have much greater gas–liquid interface because of a large, long, baffled gas
separation section (Svrcek, W. 1993)
.

Figure-24: horizontal separator

Furthermore, as represents in Figure-25 there are four zones in the 3-phase horizontal. Zone 1
between inlet and first baffle plate is the primary separation which separates water and oil from
gas. Zone 2 is the gravity settling zone which is employed to settle droplets of water and oil

24
because the density of water more than the oil, the water in the bottom and oil in above the water
when the gas go to mist extractor. Zone 3 is the droplet coalescing zone contains parallel plates,
mesh, vane packs and demisters to eliminate smallest droplets. Zone 4 is the liquid collection
point where we control the system by maintaining minimum liquid level.

Figure-25 zone of the horizontal separator

5.1.4 Vertical separator

It is removes more liquid from the gas. Vertical separator provides efficient flow and is working
in low to medium GOR wells. Same like horizontal separator it is available in 2-phase and 3-
phase. Liquid enter through inlet and then diverter separates the gas which further flows through
demister and flows out. Down comer is also required in vertical separator to transport collected
liquid by maintaining skimming. Vertical separators need less area, which is very important for
facility sites such as those on offshore platforms where space is limited, Because of the large
vertical distance between the liquid level and the gas outlet. Figure-26 is the vertical separator
(Svrcek, W. 1993).

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 Figure-26: vertical separator

5.1.5 Spherical Separators

Spherical separators are special case of a vertical separator where there is no cylindrical shell
between the two heads. This separator can be operated only as two –phase separator and it is
commonly used where no slug occure.it is the most expensive separator from these three type of
separator. Fluid enters the vessel through the inlet diverter where the flow stream is split into two
streams. Liquid falls to the liquid collection section, through openings in a horizontal plate
located slightly below the gas- liquid interface. The thin liquid layer across the plate makes it
easier for any entrained gases to separate and rise to the gravity settling section. Spherical
separator shown in figure-27.

26
 Figure-27: spherical separator

6. Heat exchanger
It is a device that is used to transfer thermal energy between two or more fluids, between a solid
surface and a fluid, or between solid particulates and a fluid, at different temperatures and in
thermal contact. In heat exchangers, there are usually no external heat and work interactions.
Typical applications involve heating or cooling of a fluid stream of concern and evaporation or
condensation of single- or multicomponent fluid streams. The most common type of heat
exchanger is one in which the heat or cooled fluid do not come in direct contact but separate by
tube wall or flag or cured surface(Shah, R 2003).

6.1 Type of the heat exchanger

The three most type of heat exchangers used in the separation facility:

1-Duble pipe heat exchanger

2-Shell and tube heat exchanger

3-Plate heat exchanger

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6.1.1 Double pipe heat exchanger
It is the simplest and most common type of heat exchanger used in the oil and gas industry. In a
double pipe heat exchanger, one fluid flows inside the inner pipe while the other fluid flows in
the space between the inner and outer pipe. The flow of fluids can be co-current or counter-
current. But this type of heat exchanger is low capacity and have more variation must be use high
heat capacity pipe to decrease variation and used in small flow rate. Usually water or steam is
used as the fluid which heats up the crude oil. Choice between co-current and counter-current
heat exchangers depends upon operating parameters and conditions. The basic function of the
heat exchanger is to heat the oil/water mixture exiting the three phase separator before it is fed
into the two-phase separator. The heating facilitates the separation of gas from oil. Double pipe
heat exchanger shown in figure-28 (Fraas, A.1989).

Figure-28: Double pipe heat exchanger

6.1.2 Shell-and-Tube Exchangers

This exchanger, shown in Fig. 29, is generally built of a bundle of round tubes mounted in a cylindrical
shell with the tube axis parallel to that of the shell. One fluid flows inside the tubes, the other flows across
and along the tubes. The major components of this exchanger are tubes (or tube bundle), shell, frontend
head, rear-end head, baffles, and tube sheets (Shah, R 2003)
.

28
 Figure-29: shall and tub heat exchanger

6.1.3 Plate heat exchangers

It is consist of a series of thin smooth formed metal plates. Each pair of plates forms a complex
passage in which the fluid flows. Each pair of plates are then set together to form a passage type
construction in which the second fluid flows in the spaces formed between successive pairs of
plates. This type of exchanger are attractive when mechanical coast is high and more suitable for
high viscus materials and low approach temperature can be used, extra plate can be add because
it is flexible. Because this type consist gasket not used for high temperature above 250C due to
the performance of the available gasket material and not used for pressure greater 30bar. These
types of heat exchangers provide for a compact and light weight heat transfer surface. As a result
of the small plate spacing and corrugated design, high heat transfer coefficients result along with
strong eddy formation which helps minimize fouling. Because of the simple construction, they
are easily cleaned. Figure-30 is a plate heat exchanger (Fraas, A.1989).

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 Figure-30: plate heat exchanger

7. Valves
Valves are essential parts of any piping system used to control the flow and pressure of contents,
whether that is oil, gas, liquid or vapors.

 On-off service
 Throttling(regulation) service
 Prevention of back flow
 Pressure control (control valve)

7.1 On-off service

7.1.1 Ball valves
A ball valve is a quarter-turn rotational motion valve that used a ball-shaped disk to control a
flow. If the valve is opened, the holes in the ball stay in line with the body inlet allowing contents
to pass (Doig, I.2010).

30
The balls are generally made out of several metallics whilst the seats are made from soft materials
like Teflon. The combination of materials means the ball valve can operate at temperatures as
low as -200 deg C and as high as 500 deg C.

Mainly used for air, gases and liquids, ball valves are quick to turn on and off and have a tight
sealing with low torque. The only downside to these valves are the lack of throttling properties
available.

Figure-31: Ball valve

7.1.2 Gate valves

Gate valves are primarily designed to start or stop a flow when a straight-line flow of fluid and
minimum flow restriction are needed. In service, these valves are pretty much kept either fully
open, or fully closed. When turned open, the disc of the gate is completely removed allowing
contents to pass. Although this gives the valve good shut-off properties and is bidirectional, they
cannot be quickly opened or closed and are sensitive to vibration when open.

Figure-32: gate valve

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7.1.3 Plug valves

A plug valve uses a tapered or cylindrical plug to stop or start a flow. In open position, the plug-
passage is in one line with the inlet and outlet ports. If the plugs rotated from the open position,
the solid part of the plug blocks the port and stops the flow. These are quick to turn off, smaller
in size compared to most valves and has minimal resistance flow. However, they do have a
reduced port due to tapered plugs and are quires a large force to actuate, due to high friction
(Larson, J 1987).

Figure-33: plug valve

7.2. Throttling (regulation) service

7.2.1 Butterfly valves

A quarter-turn rotational motion valve, the butterfly valves is used to stop, start and regulate
flow. Easy and fast to open, the valve usually comes equip with a gearbox where the hand wheel
by gear is connected to the stem. This simplifies the operation of the valve, but at the expense of
speed. These valves must also be installed a minimum of 6 pipe diameters away from other line
elements. As well as being lightweight, and quick to use, the butterfly valves are available in
large sizes and can cope with low-pressure drop and high-pressure recovery (Larson, J 1987).

32
 Figure-34: Butterfly valve

7.2.2 Globe valves

Typically used for cooling water systems, transporting fuel oil and turbine lube oil systems, a
globe valve is a linear motion valve used to stop, start and regulate flow. Conventionally used
for isolation and throttling services, the globe has become the world's most common types of
valves. With a good shut off ability, available in tee, wye and angle patterns and easy to machine
the valve seats - it’s easy to see why they are so popular. The slight disadvantages of the globe
are that they perform unfavorably when high pressure drops, and require greater force or
throttling flow under the seat to shut off valve.

Figure-35: Globe valves

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7.2.3 Needle valve
Needle valves are used in almost every industry where the flow rate is relatively at the lower
sides. They are used for steam, oil, gas, air and chemical metering is required when the valve is
used(Doig, I.2010). The following is a list of the industries where these valves are predominantly
used:
 Oil and gas in gas or liquid dispensation.
 Power generation.
 Instrumentation control.
 Cooling.

Needle valves are used when the flow of liquid or gas needs to be controlled and routed into
delicate gauges for measurement and metering purposes. These valves are also used when the
flow needs to be gradually stopped and where precise flow adjustments are necessary
(Doig, I.2010).
Below is the list of materials used for the manufacturing of needle valves:

 Stainless or alloy steels.

 Bronze.

Figure-36: needle valves

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7.3 Prevention of back flow

7.3.1 Swing check valves

Swing check valves are armatures (valves) for return flow prevention in piping systems. Easy
structures and short dimensions are the remarkable features of ZRK-ZRKF-swing check valves.
They are constructed to be mounted directly bet-ween flanges acc. to DIN. Swing check valves
of type ZRK-ZRKF are suitable for industrial employment in piping systems for transport of
liquid and gaseous fluids of group 1 (explosive, inflammable, toxic, incendiary) and group 2 (all
other) according to Pressure Equipment Directive 97/23/EC. They are not suitable for media with
solid components (Larson, J 1987).

Figure-37: swing cheek valve

7.3.2 Ball check valve

A ball check valve functions by means of a ball that moves up and down inside the valve. The
seat is machined to fit the ball, and the chamber is conically shaped to guide the ball into the seat
to seal and stop a reverse flow. If the pump capacity is not sufficient it is possible to choose a
lighter ball, and if water hammer occurs when the pump stops, it may be solved by selecting a
heavier ball. Ball check valves are often preferred for use in pumping stations that are rarely
attended, since they demand only limited maintenance, typically if the ball makes noise caused
by insufficient pump capacity or water hammer (Larson, J 1987).

35
 Figure-38: ball cheek valve

7.3.3 Lift Check Valve

The use of a lift check valve is to prevent back flow into a stream. The valve is used mainly in
water applications because of its design. The pressure of the media is what is used to open the
lift check valve, which starts off in a normally closed (NC) position. Furthermore a lift check
valve’s process is fully automated because it depends on gravity and the pressure of the media to
work. When the pressure increases and reaches its optimal rate, the disk will begin to lift off of
the seat, allowing flow to pass through the valve. As the pressure decreases, the cone (assisted
by gravity) will begin to return to its original position. As the cone reaches its original starting
position, the seal will close and flow won’t be able to pass through the orifice. Gravity is a large
factor in operating a lift check valve, due to this, the valve must be in a horizontal position when
in use.

Figure-39: lift cheek valve

36
7.3.4 Disc Check Valve
Disc Check Valve – A more complex check valve, it functions with a disc mounted on a spring.
Pressure from the inlet opens the disc by stretching the spring. When the flow stops, the spring
is compressed, and the disc returns to the closed position.

Figure-40: disc cheek valve

7.4 Safety valve

Safety valve is a valve that act as a protection of equipment from exploding or damaging and it
is mainly installed in pressure vessels such as chemical plants, electric power boilers and gas
storage tanks. Safety Valve is a type of valve that automatically actuates when the pressure of
inlet side of the valve increases to a predetermined pressure, to open the valve disc and discharge
the fluid (steam or gas); and when the pressure decreases to the prescribed value, to close the
valve disc again. Safety valve is so-called a final safety device which controls the pressure and
discharges certain amount of fluid by itself without any electric power support. Safety valve
support not only the safety of energy industry but also the safety and security of our life.

Figure-41: safety valve

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7.4.1 Relief Valve
Relief Valve – is the term used to describe relief device on a filled vessel. For such a valve the
opening is proportional to increase in the vessel pressure. Hence the opening of valve is not
sudden, but gradual if the pressure is increased gradually (Larson, J 1987).

Figure-42: relief valve

8. Safety system
Control system, means by which a variable quantity or set of variable quantities is made to
conform to a prescribed norm. It either holds the values of the controlled quantities constant or
causes them to vary in a prescribed way. A control system may be operated by electricity, by
mechanical means, by fluid pressure (liquid or gas), or by a combination of means. When a
computer is involved in the control circuit, it is usually more convenient to operate all of the
control systems electrically, although intermixtures are fairly common (Goodwin, G 2001).
.

38
8.1 Development of Control Systems
Control systems are intimately related to the concept of automation (q.v.), but the two
fundamental types of control systems, feedforward and feedback, have classic ancestry. The loom
invented by Joseph Jacquard of France in 1801 is an early example of feedforward; a set of
punched cards programmed the patterns woven by the loom; no information from the process
was used to correct the machine’s operation. Similar feedforward control was incorporated in a
number of machine tools invented in the 19th century, in which a cutting tool followed the shape
of a model. Feedback control, in which information from the process is used to correct a
machine’s operation, has an even older history. Roman engineers maintained water levels for
their aqueduct system by means of floating valves that opened and closed at appropriate levels.
The Dutch windmill of the 17th century was kept facing the wind by the action of an auxiliary
vane that moved the entire upper part of the mill. The most famous example from the Industrial
Revolution is James Watt’s fly ball governor of 1769, a device that regulated steam flow to a
steam engine to maintain constant engine speed despite a changing load (Kajitvichyanukul,
P.2006).
The first theoretical analysis of a control system, which presented a differential-equation model
of the Watt governor, was published by James Clerk Maxwell, the Scottish physicist, in the 19th
century. Maxwell’s work was soon generalized and control theory developed by a number of
contributions, including a notable study of the automatic steering system of the U.S. battleship
“New Mexico,” published in 1922. The 1930s saw the development of electrical feedback in
long-distance telephone amplifiers and of the general theory of the servomechanism, by which a
small amount of power controls a very large amount and makes automatic corrections. The
pneumatic controller, basic to the development of early automated systems in the chemical and
petroleum industries, and the analogue computer followed. All of these developments formed the
basis for elaboration of control-system theory and applications during World War II, such as anti-
aircraft batteries and fire-control systems. Most of the theoretical studies as well as the practical
systems up to World War II were single-loop—i.e., they involved merely feedback from a single
point and correction from a single point. In the 1950s the potential of multiple-loop systems came
under investigation. In these systems feedback could be initiated at more than one point in a
process and corrections made from more than one point. The introduction of analogue- and
digital-computing equipment opened the way for much greater complexity in automatic-control

39
theory, an advance since labelled “modern control” to distinguish it from the older, simpler,
“classical control (Goodwin, G 2001)
.

8.2 Basic Principles

With few and relatively unimportant exceptions, all the modern control systems have two
fundamental characteristics in common. These can be described as follows: (1) the value of the
controlled quantity is varied by a motor (this word being used in a generalized sense), which
draws its power from a local source rather than from an incoming signal. Thus there is available
a large amount of power to effect necessary variations of the controlled quantity and to ensure
that the operations of varying the controlled quantity do not load and distort the signals on which
the accuracy of the control depends. (2) The rate at which energy is fed to the motor to effect
variations in the value of the controlled quantity is determined more or less directly by some
function of the difference between the actual and desired values of the controlled quantity. Thus,
for example, in the case of a thermostatic heating system, the supply of fuel to the furnace is
determined by whether the actual temperature is higher or lower than the desired temperature. A
control system possessing these fundamental characteristics is called a closed-loop control
system, or a servomechanism. Open-loop control systems are feedforward systems.

The stability of a control system is determined to a large extent by its response to a suddenly
applied signal, or transient. If such a signal causes the system to overcorrect itself, a phenomenon
called hunting may occur in which the system first overcorrects itself in one direction and then
overcorrects itself in the opposite direction. Because hunting is undesirable, measures are usually
taken to correct it. The most common corrective measure is the addition of damping somewhere
in the system. Damping slows down system response and avoids excessive overshoots or
overcorrections. Damping can be in the form of electrical resistance in an electronic circuit, the
application of a brake in a mechanical circuit, or forcing oil through a small orifice as in shock-
absorber damping.

Another method of ascertaining the stability of a control system is to determine its frequency
response—i.e., its response to a continuously varying input signal at various frequencies. The
output of the control system is then compared to the input with respect to amplitude and to
phase—i.e., the degree with which the input and output signals are out of step. Frequency
response can be either determined experimentally—especially in electrical systems—or
calculated mathematically if the constants of the system are known. Mathematical calculations

40
are particularly useful for systems that can be described by ordinary linear differential equations.
Graphic shortcuts also help greatly in the study of system responses.

Several other techniques enter into the design of advanced control systems. Adaptive control is
the capability of the system to modify its own operation to achieve the best possible mode of
operation. A general definition of adaptive control implies that an adaptive system must be
capable of performing the following functions: providing continuous information about the
present state of the system or identifying the process; comparing present system performance to
the desired or optimum performance and making a decision to change the system to achieve the
defined optimum performance; and initiating a proper modification to drive the control system
to the optimum. These three principles—identification, decision, and modification—are inherent
in any adaptive system.

Dynamic-optimizing control requires the control system to operate in such a way that a specific
performance criterion is satisfied. This criterion is usually formulated in such terms that the
controlled system must move from the original to a new position in the minimum possible time
or at minimum total cost.

Learning control implies that the control system contains sufficient computational ability so that
it can develop representations of the mathematical model of the system being controlled and can
modify its own operation to take advantage of this newly developed knowledge. Thus, the
learning control system is a further development of the adaptive controller.

Multivariable-no interacting control involves large systems in which the size of internal variables
is dependent upon the values of other related variables of the process. Thus the single-loop
techniques of classical control theory will not suffice. More sophisticated techniques must be
used to develop appropriate control systems for such processes.

8.3 Modern Control Practices

There are various cases in industrial control practice in which theoretical automatic control
methods are not yet sufficiently advanced to design an automatic control system or completely
to predict its effects. This situation is true of the very large, highly interconnected systems such
as occur in many industrial plants. In this case, operations research (q.v.), a mathematical
technique for evaluating possible procedures in a given situation, can be of value
(Kajitvichyanukul, P.2006).

41
In determining the actual physical control system to be installed in an industrial plant, the
instrumentation or control-system engineer has a wide range of possible equipment and methods
to use. He may choose to use a set of analogue-type instruments, those that use a continuously
varying physical representation of the signal involved—i.e., a current, a voltage, or an air
pressure. Devices built to handle such signals, generally called conventional devices, are capable
of receiving only one input signal and delivering one output correction. Hence they are usually
considered single-loop systems, and the total control system is built up of a collection of such
devices. Analogue-type computers are available that can consider several variables at once for
more complex control functions. These are very specific in their applications, however, and thus
are not commonly used (Kajitvichyanukul, P.2006).
The number of control devices added to an industrial plant may vary widely from plant to plant.
They may comprise only a few instruments that are used mainly as indicators of plant-operating
conditions. The operator is thus made aware of off-normal conditions and he himself manually
adjusts such plant operational devices as valves and speed regulators to maintain control. On the
other hand, there may be devices of sufficient quantity and complexity so that nearly all the
possible occurrences may be covered by a control-system action ensuring automatic control of
any foreseeable failure or upset and thus making possible unattended control of the process.

With the development of very reliable models in the late 1960s, digital computers quickly became
popular elements of industrial-plant-control systems. Computers are applied to industrial control
problems in three ways: for supervisory or optimizing control; direct digital control; and
hierarchy control.

In supervisory or optimizing control the computer operates in an external or secondary capacity,

changing the set points in the primary plant-control system either directly or through manual
intervention. A chemical process, for example, may take place in a vat the temperature of which
is thermostatically regulated(Kajitvichyanukul, P.2006) . For various reasons, the supervisory
control system might intervene to reset the thermostat to a different level. The task of supervisory
control is thus to “trim” the plant operation, thereby lowering costs or increasing production.
Though the overall potential for gain from supervisory control is sharply limited, a malfunction
of the computer cannot adversely affect the plant. In direct-digital control a single digital
computer replaces a group of single-loop analogue controllers. Its greater computational ability
makes the substitution possible and also permits the application of more complex advanced-
control techniques. Hierarchy control attempts to apply computers to all the plant-control
situations simultaneously. As such, it requires the most advanced computers and most

42
sophisticated automatic-control devices to integrate the plant operation at every level from top-
management decision to the movement of a valve (Keller, J 1975)
.The advantage offered by the digital computer over the conventional control system described
earlier, costs being equal, is that the computer can be programmed readily to carry out a wide
variety of separate tasks. In addition, it is fairly easy to change the program so as to carry out a
new or revised set of tasks should the nature of the process change or the previously proposed
system prove to be inadequate for the proposed task. With digital computers, this can usually be
done with no change to the physical equipment of the control system. For the conventional
control case, some of the physical hardware apparatus of the control system must be replaced in
order to achieve new functions or new implementations of them (Goodwin, G 2001)

Control systems have become a major component of the automation of production lines in
modern factories. Automation began in the late 1940s with the development of the transfer
machine, a mechanical device for moving and positioning large objects on a production line (e.g.,
partly finished automobile engine blocks). These early machines had no feedback control as
described above. Instead, manual intervention was required for any final adjustment of position
or other corrective action necessary. Because of their large size and cost, long production runs
were necessary to justify the use of transfer machines (Kajitvichyanukul, P.2006)

.The need to reduce the high labor content of manufactured goods, the requirement to handle
much smaller production runs, the desire to gain increased accuracy of manufacture, combined
with the need for sophisticated tests of the product during manufacture, have resulted in the recent
development of computerized production monitors, testing devices, and feedback-controlled
production robots. The programmability of the digital computer to handle a wide range of tasks
along with the capability of rapid change to a new program has made it invaluable for these
purposes. Similarly, the need to compensate for the effect of tool wear and other variations in
automatic machining operations has required the institution of a feedback control of tool
positioning and cutting rate in place of the formerly used direct mechanical motion. Again, the
result is a more accurately finished final product with less chance for tool or manufacturing
machine damage (Goodwin, G 2001).

9. Results
At this facility we have (65200 barrel/ day) and 75% is the steady state and also 25% of this
facility is slush flow.0.15 of methane , 0.051 ethane and 0.0098 propane ……etc. is in this facility
and also 0.27703 of the water is in this facility. We have a lot of the water. We use five there

43
phase separator to separate gas and water from the oil because more water and gas is separate
from the oil and we have more water because of this we use three phase separator.at the end of
the facility the ratio of gas in the gas is (0.0001 liquid volume fraction and also the ratio of water
in the oil is zero liquid volume fraction) that is a good ratio to be sealed to the purchaser.at the
end of this facility we sent the gas to the flare or sale and water sent to disposal because it is not
contain gases or other impurities.

10. References

 King, C.J., 2013. Separation processes. Courier Corporation.

 Geankoplis, C.J., 2003. Transport processes and separation process principles :( includes
unit operations). Prentice Hall Professional Technical Reference.
 Kajitvichyanukul, P., Hung, Y.T. and Wang, L.K., 2006. Oil water separation.
In Advanced Physicochemical Treatment Processes.
 Keller, J.H.F., 1975. Oil-water separation process.

 Svrcek, W. Y., and W. I. J. Monnery. (1993)."Design Two-Phase Separators Within."

Chemical engineering progress.
 Dean, Alan J., and Hans P. Hopper. "Vertical oil separator.
 Shah, R.K. and Sekulic, D.P., 2003. Fundamentals of heat exchanger design. John Wiley
& Sons.
 Fraas, A.P., 1989. Heat exchanger design. John Wiley & Sons.
 Goodwin, G.C., Graebe, S.F. and Salgado, M.E., 2001. Control system design. Upper
Saddle River, p.13.
 Larson, J.M., Jenkins, L.F., Narasimhan, S.L. and Belmore, J.E., 1987. Engine valves
design and material evolution. Journal of engineering for gas turbines and power.
 Doig, I.D., Doig Ian D, 2010. Valves and pumps.

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