This invention relates to the separation of particulate contaminants from a fluid. In one embodiment of the invention, two sand separators placed in series may be used to separate sand from liquid or gaseous natural gas. This invention has some of its applications in the oil gas industry, particularly for use in separating sand from gas produced by natural gas wells that have been opened by hydraulic fracturing.

A fluid reaction tank is provided having an inlet vortex tube for receiving fluid having suspended solids therein and to impart a vortex motion on the fluid flowing therethrough into a reactor housing having one or more cartridges containing a flocculant composition. The cartridges can have perforated inner sidewalls to allow contact of fluid with the composition. The cartridges can further have vortex forming ridges therein to impart or to maintain the vortex motion of the fluid flowing through the fluid reaction tank.

The “sludge dehydrator” equipment is a machine that permits to remove low turbidity water from sludge or watery pastes of industrial or mining origin, with the following objectives: To optimize ore recovery processes such as flotation by means of an increase of the sludge density; To thicken sludge or watery pastes for optimizing the filtering and drying processes, as well as to dispose of mining tailings; To concentrate and dispose of solids in suspension and to recover and recycle clean or clarified water. The “sludge dehydrator” equipment has been designed on the basis of a rectangular tank provided with the necessary infrastructure for containing inside a series of suction plates being connected to a vacuum system, through which the process of solid-liquid separation is carried out and, on the other hand, to contain the cleaning mechanism—the cleaning car—with its motor system made up by pneumatic or hydraulic components required to clean suction plates the filtering medium and to keep them permanently operative. In accordance with the “sludge dehydrator” feeding and the design of the lower or bottom cone of the rectangular tank will benefit to be derived from the industrial and mining operation.

A process and device to create access to low gravity solids (LGS) of about 2 to 20 microns for removal from a fluid material/LGS emulsion having the steps of: flowing the emulsion into high pressure tubing; separating the emulsion into at least two high pressure streams; forcing the emulsion through high pressure nozzles at a terminus of each of the at least two high pressure tubing streams at a speed in the range of about 10 ft/sec to 200 ft/sec or at a force in a range of about 10 to 100 PSI; and colliding the streams of emulsion exiting the high pressure nozzle within a pressure drop chamber, wherein the pressure drop is in a range of about 5% to 50% of the back pressure of the nozzles; wherein a cavitation effect is realized from a collision force of the high pressure streams within the pressure drop chamber.

A separation apparatus for separating constituents from effluent. The separation apparatus includes a gas diffuser, a hopper, and a tank. The gas diffuser includes an inlet inner tube for receiving effluent from a well. The hopper is disposed at least partially below the gas diffuser, and the tank is connected to the hopper. The gas diffuser is configured so that gas in the effluent is released from the effluent and into the atmosphere before the effluent enters the hopper. The hopper is configured so that liquid effluent in the hopper spills over a top portion of the hopper and into the tank.

A system (100) includes a separator vessel (134) that is adapted to separate solids particles (192) from a flow of a multi-phase fluid (190), a level sensor (154) that is coupled to the separator vessel (134), wherein the level sensor (154) includes a viscosity sensor that is adapted to measure changes in the viscosity of a fluid mixture that includes the solids particles (192) that are separated from the flow of multi-phase fluid (190) by the separator vessel (134), and a control system (160) that is adapted to determine a level of the separated solids particles (192) accumulated in the separator vessel (134) from the changes in the viscosity of the fluid mixture measured by the viscosity sensor.

Various embodiments of the present disclosure can include a system for filtering of contaminated fluid. The system can include a fiber manufacturing plant. The system can include a filter system which utilizes a fiber filter produced in the fiber manufacturing plant to clean and recycle a contaminated fluid.

A system, process and method for remediating contaminated soil and solvent recovery. A solvent mixture including a polar and a non-polar solvent is mixed with contaminated soil in mixing vessels, allowing the solvent mixture to extract contaminates from the soil. The solvent mixture is separated from the soil using bicanting units to form a solvent stream and a soil stream. The soil stream goes through air sparging in a dryer to remove residual solvent vapor. Water and/or micro-fines are extracted from the solvent stream using a centrifuge. The solvent stream undergoes distillation in a distillation unit to remove the containments from the solvent stream, while recovering separately the solvent mixture and a product. The recovered solvent mixture can be recycled back to the mixing vessels. The contaminates can be BTEX or F1-F4 hydrocarbons, and the product can be oil or other hydrocarbons. The system can be mobile.

Oil-gas separators and methods of using the oil-gas separators are disclosed. An exemplary oil-gas separator comprises a first fluid channel for receiving a well fluid, the first fluid channel having an open proximal end, a sealed distal end, and a plurality of perforations in a distal portion of the first fluid channel's exterior wall for expelling well fluid comprising oil and entrained gas into an annular space between the oil-gas separator and a well casing to produce gas-reduced oil and a second fluid channel for receiving the gas-reduced oil, the second fluid channel having a sealed proximal end, an open distal end for expelling the gas-reduced oil to the Earth's surface, and a plurality of perforations in a proximal portion of the second fluid channel's exterior wall for receiving fluid from the annular space.

A system for automatically discharging sand from a sand separator. The system includes a first and second valves and a choke valve disposed in a discharge line from a sand separator. A pressure transducer measures pressure in the line between the first and second valves. A control panel operates the valves to initiate and terminate the discharge sequence. An emergency shutdown valve is positioned upstream of the sand separator and is operative to shut down the system if the pressure reading by the transducer exceeds a predetermined amount.