CYCLOTECH B20 Series Deoiling Hydrocyclone

Robust central component to integrated produced water treatment strategy

The CYCLOTECH B20 series deoiling hydrocyclone system is an integral part of our produced-water treatment capability. The hydrocyclone liner most commonly is manufactured in duplex stainless steel. For erosive applications, M-I SWACO offers liners with all inlet and tapered internal surfaces exposed to high fluid velocities.

Our liners are manufactured from a range of wear-resistant materials, including  Stellite® 6^,tungsten carbide or reaction-bonded silicon carbide. They also can be manufactured with an advanced ceramic that will provide a wear life of up to 10 times that of a standard duplex stainless steel liner.

Principle of Operation

A hydrocyclone has no moving parts and achieves solid/liquid separation by virtue of a pressure drop across the unit. A slurry is forced under pressure into the inlet section of the liner via a tangential inlet port. This, together with narrow cyclone diameter, causes the fluid to spin at high velocity, creating a high g radial acceleration field.  The solid particles, being the denser phase, are forced outwards to the hydrocyclone inner wall. Here, through internal hydrodynamic forces, the solids are ejected from the apex of the cyclone while the liquid exits counter currently via an axial port adjacent to the inlet. The separated solids are collected in a solids accumulator, which can be periodically purged on line, without interruption to the hydrocyclone operation. This negates the requirement for a duty/standby operation.

High Turndown Vessel Design

For applications requiring very high turndown, M-I SWACO offers its CYCLOTECH HTD compartmentalized vessel approach. Internal baffles are used to divide the vessel into two or three compartments. Each compartment can be switched in or out of service using external valving. This effectively provides a number of hydrocyclone liner banks within a single vessel housing. This operation can be automated.

The CYCLOTECH HTD design has considerable benefits over traditional methods to increase turndown,  as it removes the need for either blanking liners or multiple vessels. In a typical installation, the systems form turndown from 3:1 to 10:1 for a two-compartment and more than 50:1 for a three-compartment HTD vessel.

New-Build Systems

The CYCLOTECH B20 series ranges from fully-automated packaged systems to standalone vessels. Standard pressure-vessel designs are available at most design pressures and temperatures.

CYCLOTECH B20 Series Retrofits

Implementing a CYCLOTECH B20 series deoiling hydrocyclone retrofit increases the capacity and performance of existing older design hydrocyclone systems. Increases of up to 80% are feasible while separation performance can be improved by up to 50%. These improvements can be done without adding extra hydrocyclone vessels, performing any hot work or any modification to existing pipe work. The CYCLOTECH B20 Series liner can be adapted to retrofit all existing third-party hydrocyclone vessel designs.

Hydrocyclone Spares

M-I SWACO specializes in the supply of spare hydrocyclone liners and seal kits for all third-party systems. Both the CYCLOTECH B20 and B50 series deoiling hydrocyclone liners can be adapted to fit directly into all third-party vessels without requiring any modification to the existing vessel. Operators find the benefits include greater performance, more wear-resistant material options and greater cost-effectiveness. M-I SWACO now has call-off contracts in place with many operators to provide a single point of contact for all their hydrocyclone spares requirements.

Technical Viability Testing

M-I SWACO has a range of CYCLOTECH B20 series deoiling hydrocyclone single-liner test units (up to 900#), which can be used to determine separation performance on live fluids. These test units are compact, require no utilities and come complete with all required valving, instrumentation and hosing. As part of these performance trials, M-I SWACO can also perform a full oil-drop-size characterization of the existing produced water treatment.