ABSTRACT
ACS Industries, Inc. recently commercialized proprietary advanced oil/water separation technology which separates heavy oils (up to 50,000 centistokes). The separation efficiency of these units is exceptional (down to less than 2 PPM oil in water in field trials). During emergency situations, they can produce effluent water containing less than 15 ppm of oil (with up to 50% oil in the feed).
The system is commercially proven with 32 units built for the Marine Spill Response Corporation (MSRC), plus units processing waste water at 3 power plants. These units are mounted on a single skid in capacities up to 525 GPM, and they are fully automated.
ACS has also been providing CPI separators to the Process Industries for seven years. We are now integrating our CPI separator know-how with our proprietary oil/water separation technology to provide higher quality water effluents at lower cost than can be achieved by any other technology.
The design concepts, commercial test data, a summary of the factors affecting the extent of separation and a competitive comparison are included in Tables 1 through 3 and Figures 1 and 2. More detailed information (including the history of the development, design details and costs) is available in copies of a presentation given previously to the M. W. Kellogg Company. Also, samples of chevron, sheet metal structured packing and fiberglass/wire co-knit internals are available for examination.
The inventions in this development include the use of a hydrocarbon solvent to cut viscosity and keep the high surface area (4,000 to 5,000 sq ft/cu ft) separation media clean, pulling fluids through the system rather than pumping through to avoid shearing oil to fine drop size, the development of a serrated edged capacitance probe to be able to detect the viscous oil/water interface properly, the use of proprietary high surface area separation media and the development of a highly sophisticated and redundant control system to allow for operation unattended or by nontechnical personnel.
