A filter is provided including a vessel having an input positioned near the top of the vessel for contaminated fluid; the vessel containing media; a drain screen; a propeller rotatable on a drive shaft extending downwardly from the top of the vessel; a deflector plate below the drain screen to impel media outwardly from the center of the vessel; a plurality of baffles positioned on side walls of the vessel; and a drain to remove fluid from the vessel.

A fluid treatment system combines cyclonic separators and gravitational separators for use in onshore and offshore oil and gas operations and elsewhere. The characteristics of apertures that interface between a gravitational separation chamber and a cyclonic separator are configurable in accordance with operational requirements. By selecting aperture characteristics, improved control and separation efficiencies can be achieved.

The invention in at least one embodiment includes a system for treating water having an intake module, a vortex module, a disk-pack module, and a motor module. In at least one embodiment, a water system includes vortex housing having an interior wall defining a vortex chamber in fluid communication with the expansion chamber of said disk-pack turbine and inlets into the vortex chamber, and the vortex chamber having an upper section with a bowl or modified concave hyperbolic shape into which fluid is received from said inlets and a lower section with a conical or funnel shape with a steep vertical angle of change that opens into expansion chamber. In at least one further embodiment, the disk-pack module includes a disk-pack turbine having a plurality of disks having at least one waveform present on at least one of the disks.

In at least one embodiment, the invention provides a retrofit for existing water treatment systems where the retrofit includes at least one of the following: a particulate separator, a supplementary inlet, and a waveform disk-pack turbine. In a further embodiment, the invention includes a water treatment system combined with at least one of the following: a particulate separator, a supplementary inlet, and a waveform disk-pack turbine.

An apparatus for, and a method of, separating oil, water, gas and solid particles (usually sand) from a hydrocarbon-containing fluid produced from an oil and/or gas production facility. In particular, this invention relates to an apparatus and method for the separation of oil, water, gas and solid particles from a well or group of wells using an integrated apparatus which significantly reduces the space required on the production platform or rig and recycles produced gas to improve process efficiency while reducing cost.

The present invention relates to the process of purification of boric acid by ion exchange method. Boric acid is dissolved in hot demineralized water. The hot solution is pressure-filtered. The hot saturated solution, which is purified from water-insoluble, is passed through a column containing strong cation exchange resin, followed by a column containing weak anion exchange resin at the same temperature and cooled afterwards. The crystals settling by cooling are separated from the mother liquor, the amount of aqueous solution within them is reduced and then dried. The waste solution formed during crystallization and filtrate formed after separation of crystals from aqueous solution are mixed and used in boric acid dissolving process. The developed method enables the reduction of sodium, sulfate, chloride and iron impurities of technical grade boric acid to less than 1 ppm and is more economic and environmental friendly than current methods.

A method and system are disclosed for producing a zein protein product from a whole stillage byproduct produced in a corn (or similar carbohydrate-containing grain) dry-milling process for making alcohol, such as ethanol, and/or other biofuels/biochemicals. In one embodiment, the method includes separating the whole stillage byproduct into an insoluble solids portion and a centrate (solubles) portion, which includes protein, such as zein protein. Thereafter, the centrate (solubles) portion can be separated into a water soluble solids portion and a protein portion, which includes zein protein. Zein protein may be separated out from the protein portion. The remaining protein portion may be further processed to produce a high protein corn meal. The resulting zein protein portion may be further processed to be sold as a zein protein product and/or used as or in, for example, coatings, fibers, adhesives, ceramics, inks, cosmetics, textiles, food products, pharmaceutical, and biodegradable plastics.

A system and method for dehydrating crude oil on a floating production storage and offloading installation include a separator vessel to receive an incoming produced water stream, followed by a flash vessel, a treatment block, a crude oil storage tank, and an electrostatic treater. The treatment block includes a low pressure degasser followed by a compact electrostatic separator pre-treater or a compact electrostatic separator pre-treater followed by a low pressure degasser. The flash vessel and/or the low pressure degasser may employ an inlet cyclonic distributor and demisting cyclones, while the electrostatic treater may employ DUAL FREQUENCY technology. The separator vessel may be a single horizontal two-phase separator/degasser or two vertical two-phase separator/degassers that operate in parallel with each receiving approximately 50 percent of the incoming produced water stream. The final outlet stream preferably contains no more than 0.5 BS&W and 285 milligrams per liter salt.

Small footprint, portable skid mounted wellhead desander systems are disclosed. In one version, two systems are mounted on the skid, one system being a single well system for testing various properties of well fluids, and the other being a combined bulk system for desanding comingled flow from a plurality of wells. In another version, the skid mounted system has three independent desanders together with all essential equipment, including e.g., plug catcher, hydrocyclone desander, solids accumulator, choke manifold, and all necessary sensors, valving and control equipment.

A sand trap for use in oil and gas extraction operations includes a cylindrical vessel for receiving a high-pressure fluid stream with particulates. The vessel has a vertical longitudinal axis and a hollow cylindrical wall having upper and lower ends and an inlet opening generally perpendicular to but askew to the vessel longitudinal axis. Upper and lower caps extend from the upper and lower ends and have openings along the vessel longitudinal axis. An annular diverter has top and bottom ends and a longitudinal axis coaxial with the vessel longitudinal axis. A diverter outer wall permanently extends from an inner face of the cylindrical wall, and a diverter inner wall has an upper portion narrowing to a choke area and a lower portion flaring out from the choke area. A vent pipe extends from the upper cap opening to a location between the upper cap and the diverter top end.