Tecniplant supplies API Oil Water Separators for removing free oil and solids from water, in the upstream stage of the oily waste water treatment.
These separators treat and remove about 80% of the free oil from oily-water with more than 150 µm of particle size dimension. The API separators take advantage of the different specific weights between the free oil, the water and the suspended solids. These rectangular shaped separators are designed to have the sufficient retention time to allow the oil to rise to the surface and the solids to settle on the bottom. The flow speed is very low. A motorized chain mechanism is dragged along the basin in the opposite direction to the water flow. The upper skimming devices remove the free oil from the surface sending it to the side slotted collecting pipes. The synchronized lower scraping system recovers the sludge from the bottom sending it to the recovery basin. The materials utilized for the chain and the wet parts (stainless steel, plastic) depends on the chemical and physical characteristics of the water to be treated.
These rectangular shaped separators are designed to have the sufficient retention time to allow the oil to rise to the surface and the solids with a specific gravity >1.0 to settle on the bottom, according to the Stokes’ law.
Length, width and depth dimensions of the API’s channels are designed minimizing the potential for short circuiting and minimizing the amount of time it takes for oil particles to rise to the surface.
TYPICAL WASTE WATER DATA
Inlet oil content: 500 – 2000 ppm
Outlet oil content: 100 – 200 ppm
Inlet TSS content: 500 – 1000 ppm
Outlet TSS content: 100 – 250 ppm
The API can be provided as a complete package (metallic basin complete of instrumentation, ancillaries and automation) or, in the case of concrete basin, can be provided the only internals (frame, chains, blades, etc).
Process data and fl uid properties are considered in the design phase for sizing the equipment and for the choice of the materials.