EPCON Technology
Our proprietary treatment technology, the EPCON* Compact Flotation Unit (CFU), is a leading multiphase water separation and treatment technology especially suitable for removing hydrocarbons, hydrophobic substances, aromatic compounds and small particles from produced water. The technology has been developed and tested jointly with oil companies in the North Sea. Today, it is a proven technology having gained commercial acceptance and is a preferred choice of a number of Super Majors, Majors and national oil companies.
The CFU is a vertical pressure vessel which is designed to deal with the mixture of oil and gas, water, solids and natural chemicals to ensure that it is effectively treated before being either discharged or re-injected.
It has the following key characteristics:
- No moving parts and no small bore openings
- No external energy required
- Small footprint and low weight
- High capacity due to short residence time (down to below 30 seconds)
- Reliable and highly efficient in the separation of water, oil and gas to achieve a high standard of treated water (less than 5ppm in some instances)
- Can be operated in series or in parallel depending on the performance requirements of a specific application
- Significantly lower capex and opex when compared against traditional technologies
- Effective at many different applications in the process stream
- Can operate robustly under a wide variety of physical conditions
Table 1 compares the EPCON CFU with hydrocyclones and degasser.
Table 1. Performance Comparison: EPCON CFU vs hydrocyclones and degasser
Parameters |
Hydrocyclone and |
1 stage CFU |
2 stage CFU |
Footprint (m2) |
30 |
6 |
12 |
Wet weight (metric tons) |
45 |
8 |
16 |
Capacity (bpd)/(m3/h) |
81 000/540 |
81 000/540 |
81 000/540 |
Performance (mg OiW/l) |
<40 |
<30 |
<10 |
Pressure (bar); minimum -high pressure |
3.5 Good performance |
0.7 Good < 30barg tested |
1.5 Good < 30barg tested |
Sensitivity to - flow variation - solids - gas - movement (FPSO) |
Sensitive Sensitive <5% Depends on upstream |
20-100% of design Not sensitive* >1%;<80% Not sensitive |
20-100% of design Not sensitive* >1%;<80% Not sensitive |
CAPEX |
“High” |
Low |
Medium |
OPEX |
Low |
Very low |
Very low |
Table 2 compares the EPCON CFU with the centrifuges normally applied on the oily fluids.
Table 2. Performance Comparison: CFU vs centrifuges
Parameters |
Centrifuges |
1 stage CFU |
2 stage CFU |
Performance (mg OiW/l) |
40-160 |
<100* |
<10** |
Sensitivity to - flow variation - solids |
Sensitive Sensitive |
20-100% design Not sensitive |
20-100% design Not sensitive |
CAPEX |
High |
Low |
Medium |
OPEX |
High |
Very low |
Very low |
*Data from Troll C ** Experiences from Troll C, incoming conc. ~1000 ppm .
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