TY - GEN
T1 - Cleanup of offshore emulsion spill, an experimental approach
AU - Zekri, Abdulrazag Y.
AU - Chaalal, Omar
AU - Ghannam, Mamdouh
PY - 2008
Y1 - 2008
N2 - An emulsion leak during offshore oil production operations is a real problem facing the oil industry. No work has been reported in the literature covering a technique for offshore emulsion spill cleanup. A vacuum collection system was used in this project to study the possibility of mechanical removal of emulsion spills. The system consists of sea water unit, emulsioncollecting system, vacuum unit, and air distributors. A number of operating parameters were tested such as air flow rate 0.0167×103-0.15×10 3 m3/sec), emulsion spill thickness (0.6-3.5 mm), the height of water column in the emulsion removal system (0.40-0.85 m), and the collection unit hole size and density. The system has been tested before for the oil spill and found to be simple, fast cleaning process, efficient with minimum cost. The results of this study indicated that hole density in the collection unit has an affect on the emulsion cleanup process; and increasing the air flow rate increases the amount of emulsion removed from the system until a certain rate at which the opposed effect was observed, i.e. the studied system exhibited an optimum air flow rate for the collection of emulsion. In addition to that, the height of the water column has an effect on the cleaning process, an optimum water column height is needed to be determined for any designed emulsion removal system similar to the system used in this study.
AB - An emulsion leak during offshore oil production operations is a real problem facing the oil industry. No work has been reported in the literature covering a technique for offshore emulsion spill cleanup. A vacuum collection system was used in this project to study the possibility of mechanical removal of emulsion spills. The system consists of sea water unit, emulsioncollecting system, vacuum unit, and air distributors. A number of operating parameters were tested such as air flow rate 0.0167×103-0.15×10 3 m3/sec), emulsion spill thickness (0.6-3.5 mm), the height of water column in the emulsion removal system (0.40-0.85 m), and the collection unit hole size and density. The system has been tested before for the oil spill and found to be simple, fast cleaning process, efficient with minimum cost. The results of this study indicated that hole density in the collection unit has an affect on the emulsion cleanup process; and increasing the air flow rate increases the amount of emulsion removed from the system until a certain rate at which the opposed effect was observed, i.e. the studied system exhibited an optimum air flow rate for the collection of emulsion. In addition to that, the height of the water column has an effect on the cleaning process, an optimum water column height is needed to be determined for any designed emulsion removal system similar to the system used in this study.
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U2 - 10.2118/111293-ms
DO - 10.2118/111293-ms
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:52349096812
SN - 9781605601663
T3 - Society of Petroleum Engineers - 9th International Conference on Health, Safety and Environment in Oil and Gas Exploration and Production 2008 - "In Search of Sustainable Excellence"
SP - 15
EP - 24
BT - Society of Petroleum Engineers - 9th International Conference on Health, Safety and Environment in Oil and Gas Exploration and Production 2008 - "In Search of Sustainable Excellence"
PB - Society of Petroleum Engineers
T2 - 9th International Conference on Health, Safety and Environment in Oil and Gas Exploration and Production 2008 - "In Search of Sustainable Excellence"
Y2 - 15 April 2008 through 17 April 2008
ER -