Water Clarification Apparatus

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention pertains to a method and apparatus for separation of suspended matter from a liquid. The method and apparatus more specifically applies to a system wherein the separation is accomplished in a vertical single cell vessel by multiple internal hydrocyclones or cyclonic separators for solids and aeration by sparging tubes which provide gas bubbles within the main vessel to cause coalescing and separation of the remaining suspended matter from the water.

2. General Background

Oil/water and solid separators have been widely used in the oil and gas industry, and in pulp and paper mills, municipal waste treatment facilities, steel mills, food processing plants and electricity generating plants. There is thus an ever present and growing problem of contaminated waste water as a by-product of these various processes, and in particular, water produced in the production of oil and gas wells as well as waste water in the refinement process. Air/gas floatation is the method most commonly used to separate suspended material and oil from water and other liquids. Three basic types of air/gas floatation systems exist: dissolved air or gas; rotor-type disbursed air or gas; and, eductor-type disbursed air or gas systems. The hydrocyclone method also has been applied to the separation of suspended matter from liquids. A typical version of the single cell assembly is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,986,654 issued to George, et al. This assembly incorporates a single, horizontal, U-shaped tank through which the fluid to be treated is passed. A gas stream is injected into this tank and percolates through the fluid while the pressure of the fluid is increased. After such pressure is released, the gas breaks out of solutions and attaches itself to any contaminants in the fluid, thereby separating these contaminants from the fluid.

A simplified vertical single cell assembly is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,080,802 to Cairo, Jr., et al. This assembly incorporates a vertical vessel with an internal riser tube which contains additional coalescing means installed therein through which the fluid to be treated is passed. The riser tubes are in open communication with the fluid at or below the surface. An externally mounted eductor system is used along with a static mixing chamber to mix the contaminated liquid influent and a gas injected into the stream by the eductor before the mixture is released into the internal tube section of the vessel.

Yet another system disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,255,262 to O'Cheskey provides an apparatus which mixes and disburses gas in the form of fine bubbles and liquid in a tank in an attempt to remove contaminants from the liquid flow into the tank. The gas is induced from an upper section of the tank downwardly into the liquid in the tank via a draft tube. The gas induction occurs as a part of the liquid contained in the vessel is recycled back through the individual cells or compartments using a centrifugal pump. The apparatus uses a mechanical skimmer assemble which serves to remove contaminated froth accumulated on the surface of the liquid in the tank.

The apparatus and method of the present invention provide a system which solves the aforementioned problems associated with clarifying contaminated liquids with a high solid and high oil content. What the present invention provides is a system which does not rely on induced air/gas floatation separation alone, but incorporates cyclonic separators to separate, by the force of gravity, the solids and oil from the contaminated fluid on the inlet of the separator. The first portion or stage of the system utilizes a spiral separation coalescer (SPIRALSEP) provided to increase the micron size of the contaminated particles entering the inlet piping. The coalesced fluid then flows into one or both of a pair of hydrocyclones which are provided for the removal of solids from the water by centrifugal force to separate contaminants by density or simulated gravity to separate the oil as well as the influent liquid. The solids are retained in the cone section of each hydrocyclone for ease of removal as well as to prevent the solids from plugging the optional horizontal pack or filter section. Oil will exit at the top of the cyclonic separators through an orifice in each which controls the upward flow and forces a large portion of the fluid to exit the bottom of each of the cyclonic separators. The second portion or stage of the system utilizes aerating means or sparging tubes that aerate the fluid with microfine gas bubbles as it flows down through the vessel. A third portion or stage, which is optional, is a coalescer or pack section or filter medium positioned above the sparging tubes and below the exit at the top of the cyclonic separators to pretreat the oil remaining in the fluid before introduction of the fine gas bubbles by the sparging tubes.

For a further understanding of the nature and objects of the present invention, reference should be had to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing in which like parts are given like reference numerals and, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a front elevational view of the first embodiment of the apparatus of the present invention described in Ser. No. 08/123,231;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged elevational view of the cleansed water discharge outlet of the embodiment of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a top plan view of the embodiment of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view, with some detail removed, taken along the LINES 4--4 of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a sectional view, with the pack section and some other details removed, taken along LINES 5--5 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is an enlarged view of the "SPIRALSEP" of the embodiment of FIG. 1;

FIG. 7 is an elevational view of the central shaft mounted spiral blades or auger of the SPIRALSEP of FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 is an elevational view of the outer core of the embodiment of FIG. 1;

FIG. 9 is a top plan view of the outer core of FIG. 8;

FIG. 10 is an elevational view of the sand hopper of the embodiment of FIG. 1;

FIG. 11 is a top plan view of the sand hopper of FIG. 10;

FIG. 12 is a top perspective view of the pack section of the embodiment of FIGS. 1 and 4;

FIG. 13 is an elevational view of the inner core of the apparatus of the present invention;

FIG. 14 is a top plan view of the inner core of FIG. 13;

FIG. 15 is an elevational partial view of the oil bucket of the embodiment of FIG. 1;

FIG. 16 is a sectional view taken along LINES 16--16 of FIG. 6;

FIG. 17 is a sectional view of the embodiment of FIG. 1, with some detail removed, illustrating its operation and method;

FIG. 18 is a pictorial view, partially broken away, of the weir of the embodiment of FIG. 1;

FIG. 19 is a sectional view, with some detail removed, taken along LINES 5--5 of FIG. 1 illustrating the operation and method of the preferred embodiment;

FIG. 20 is an enlarged partial view of the cyclonic separator of FIG. 19;

FIG. 21 is a sectional view of the second embodiment of the apparatus of the present invention with some detail removed; and,

FIG. 22 is a sectional view, with some detail (including the pack section 420) removed, of the embodiment of FIG. 21.

Referring now to the drawing, and in particular FIGS. 21 and 22, the second embodiment of the apparatus of the present invention is designated generally by the numeral 410.

The apparatus of the second embodiment of the present invention 410 is generally described as a vertical oil/water/solid separator vessel 412 with a pair of hydrocyclones ("cyclones") or cyclonic separators 414, 514 provided centrally therein and single cell floatation areas 415, 417 and sparging tubes 492 as an aeration means.

The two cyclones 414, 514 are illustrated in the second embodiment of FIGS. 21 and 22; however, additional cyclones can be provided. Because the cyclones 414, 514 are piped to the outside of vessel 412, either or both of cyclones 414, 514 can be used. Different size cyclones are normally installed to allow the operator to use the one of his choice (or both), for example, the smaller cyclone 514 during start-up and the larger cyclone 414 (or both cyclones) after start-up. In FIGS. 21 and 22, the cyclone 414 is approximately three (3) times as large as cyclone 514, but this is merely for illustration and not to be taken as limiting.

In operation, the contaminated fluid to be separated enters separator vessel 412 via inlet piping (not shown) connected at inlets 430, 530, shown in FIG. 22, which extend into the vessel 412 and attach tangentially to their respective cyclonic separators 414,514. Connected to inlets 430, 530 interiorly of vessel 412 are preliminary separators or coalescers 416, 516, respectively (previously identified as a "SPIRALSEP" 16 in my earlier co-pending applications Ser. No. 07/965,888 and 08/123,231, best seen in FIGS. 6 and 7) which begin the separation process while fluid is still within pipelines 460, 560 and before it enters hydrocyclones 414, 514. The operation of SPIRALSEP 16 (and thus SPIRALSEPs 416, 516) has been previously described in Ser. No. 08/123,231.

The operation of hydrocyclones 414,514 is described by the operation of hydrocylone 14 in Ser. No. 08/123,231 with similar elements identified by the 400 and 500 series of numbers in this application (i.e., openings 75 and openings 475, 575, etc.).

The sparging tubes 492, best seen in FIGS. 21 and 22, will introduce micro-fine gas bubbles 252 into the water flowing downwardly in vessel sections 415 and 417 of vessel 412 to attach to the remaining oil droplets and to lift them to the surface "S" (best seen in FIG. 17) for eventual skimming. Sparging tubes 492 can be mounted on the top of the vessel 412 when the optional coalescer or pack section 420, best seen in FIGS. 4, 12, 17 and 21, is not installed or, sparging tubes 492 can be mounted near the bottom, as seen in FIG. 21 (where they would be connected to inlets 450). When mounted internally near the bottom as best seen in the second embodiment of FIGS. 21 and 22, each of the sparging tubes 492 will carry the liquid and bubbles 252 into vessel 412 through the inlet nozzles 450 to semi-circular piping 495 and to the multiple nozzles 497 at the ends of piping 495 to direct the flow in a counter-circular motion around the vessel 412. Further, the exit nipples (not shown) of nozzles 497 can be flattened to deliver a fan flow (as shown at 90 and by ARROWS J in FIG. 19) to fill the area of vessel section 417 between the outer wall of sand hopper 472 and the inner wall of the separator vessel 412. This has the previously noted effect of increasing the surface area of the bubbles 252 to flood the zone with the micro-fine bubbles 252 so as to contact the remaining oil droplets in vessel sections or areas 415 or 417 before it can exit the vessel. The size of the sparging tubes 492 will be controlled by the diameter of vessel 412 and by the annular spaces 474,574 between the inner and outer cores 471, 571 and 470, 570 as well as the volume of liquid to be separated. In the second embodiment of FIG. 21, two (2) sparging tubes 492 are employed. Vessel 412 can be built as a pressurized vessel or a non-pressurized vessel depending upon the requirements and needs.

Sparging tubes 492 introduce micro-fine gas bubbles 252 into vessel 412. Additionally, a filter or pack section 420 separates and collects oil from water and gas bubbles passing therethrough.

The cleansed water, solids, oil and gas have various outlets from vessel 412. A plurality of sparging tubes 492 introduce gas bubbles 252 into vessel 412 and cleansed water is removed and provides a means for controlling the introduction of contaminated fluid at the preliminary separators 416, 516.

Turning now to FIGS. 17 and 19-22, the operation of the second embodiment can be understood. Sparging tubes 492 are connected to inlet piping 450 and are powered under a vacuum and introduce micro-fine gas bubbles 252 into chamber 417 of vessel 412 as best seen in FIGS. 19 and 21 and 22. These bubbles 252 fan out at the nozzles 497 of sparging tubes 492 within vessel section 417 of vessel 412 as at area 90 in FIG. 19.

With sparging tubes 492 of the second embodiment replacing eductors 52 of the first embodiment, the system 410 does not require a reflux or recycle pump system, and can be used at a situs where no electrical power is available, but low pressure gas is available for the sparging system 492.

Because many varying and differing embodiments may be made within the scope of the inventive concept herein taught and because many modifications may be made in the embodiment herein detailed in accordance with the descriptive requirement of the law, it is to be understood that the details herein are to be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.