• Kuthambakkam village Poonamallee, Chennai-600 124, India

Heater Treater Skid

Heater treater removes impurities from the produced crude oil. The most prevalent impurity is the produced water, which usually contains dissolved salts. Other impurities are sand, silt, metallic oxides, hydrogen sulphide, and various minerals. All of these constituents may deposit in the storage tanks, pipelines and, finally, in the refinery process equipment. Resulting corrosion, erosion, and plugging is detrimental to the efficiency of operation of various equipment. Because of this, the pipeline-refinery BSW (basic sediment and water) acceptability limit on crude oil shipments is 0.5%. The gas also must be separated from the crude oil.

PROCESS OF HEATER TREATER

All treaters utilize gravity to separate the lighter from the heavier components: gas is the lightest, followed by oil and then water, with solids being generally the heaviest components. Time and gravity are the two main factors involved in the separation of various components in Heater treater. The closer the specific weights of the components are, the longer it will take for gravity separation to occur. In addition, oil coats and saturates the other components changing their specific weights. Coating with oil affects the weight of small water droplets more than that of the larger ones. Another major deterrent to gravity separation is high viscosity of the crude oil. The thicker the oil, the longer the duration of separation process in Heater treater. A Heater treater utilizes the gravity separation process, which is speeded up by enlarging the water droplets and/or reducing the viscosity of the oil, often using chemicals that can help break emulsions. All of these techniques must be applied in a systematic manner that will conserve energy, minimize costs, and accomplish the task as quickly and efficiently as possible. Operation of a typical heavy-duty thermal Heater treater is based on the best principle of gravity separation by maintaining a horizontal flow pattern throughout the entire processing scheme. The constant force of flow resisting the settlement of water droplets is minimized, as opposed to treaters with vertical flow patterns. Efficient uniform heating is assured by the stream-flow distribution of the fluid around the heating elements. The stream-flow (channeled flow) heating pattern results in a maximum heating efficiency and attains positive equilibrium at the oil-gas and water-oil interfaces. With the stream-flow pattern, free water is separated and bypassed around the heating elements. The crude oil emulsion is heated sequentially, with the entrained gas and water being removed at the earliest possible moment in the heating process. This insures a minimum energy loss from the heating constituents above that necessary to achieve separation.

Heater treater may be in vertical or horizontal type. Features of Vienerg Heater treaters are :

1) Removable U-tube firebox

2) Removable stack with stack brace

3) Outside removal adjustable water siphon with drain facility.

4) Fuel gas manifold piping.

5) Compact skid mounted and ASME code certified.