FREYLIT Oil/Water Separator Design & Process Efficiency

Introduction: API421 and design of oil separators

Class I oil/water separators in the United States, as well as many around the world, are often
designed per guidelines outlined in The American Petroleum Institute Bulletin 421 [1] . When
treating effluent oily waste water, no national efficiency standard exists in the United States.
API 421 calls for a coalescing media of parallel plates inclined 45 to 60 degrees and spaced
0,75 to 1,5 inches apart to separate oil droplets of assumed 60-micron size. No residual oil
content of the water discharged is specified in API 421.

Local U.S. water authorities commonly specify a discharge water quality, typically 10 to 50
mg/l. API 421 does not specify a water quality exiting the OWS, but does suggest 50 mg/l of
oil in the water being discharged, as a possible target, but not as a separator performance
parameter.
Moreover, API 421 was originally formulated in the 1970’s as a guide for waste water
treatment at refineries and assumes removal of “free oil” only, with a droplet size of 150-
microns and above. Following are the definitions and categories of different oil droplet sizes
as defined by the “American Petroleum Institute” in the mid 1970’s:

1. “Free Oil”: Oil droplets 150 microns in diameter and larger

2. “Dispersed Oil”: Oil droplets from 20 to 150 microns in diameter
3. “Mechanically Emulsified Oil”: Oil droplets less than 20 microns in diameter
4. “Chemically Emulsified Oil”: Oil droplets less than 20 microns in diameter with a
chemical bond to other molecules.
5. “Stable Emulsion/Dissolved Oil”: Oil in solution with its carrier (i.e. machine coolants)

API 421 is often cited in regulatory publications published by various state, provincial and
national governments [2,3,4] as well as by research organizations[5[. As a result, many firms
that manufacture and market oil/water separation equipment design their vessels based
upon this standard [6,7,8], as well as local requirements.

Common industry practice therefore has been to design oil/water separators using ONLY the
rise rate of an oil droplet in a column of water as described by Stoke’s Law.

V = (2gr2) (d1-d2) / 9µ

V = rise velocity of oil droplet within the water column, ft/hr (cm/sec)
g = acceleration of gravity, ft/hr2 (cm/sec2)
r = radius of the oil droplet, ft (cm)
d1 = density of water, lbm/ft3 (g/m³)
d2 = density of oil, lbm/ft3 (g/m³)
µ = viscosity of water, lbm/hr – ft (dyne sec/cm²)
Stoke’s law predicts that as the radius of the oil droplet increases, the velocity of droplet rise
in the water column increases per the square of the radius. Therefore the purpose of the
coalescing media in an oil/water separator is to provide suitable surface area for oil droplets
to impact, then contact other oil droplets and combine, or coalesce, into larger droplets, as
the oily water flows through the separator. Oil removal from the water is thus greatly
enhanced as oil droplet size increases, due to increased droplet rise velocity.

CONSIDERATION #1: plate spacing

Therefore, coalescing media is designed with various alterations of corrugated plate shapes
and various spacings, often 0,5” (13 mm) to 0,25” (6 mm) between plates versus the 0,75” to
1,50” specified by API 421, The smaller spacing is an effort to improve coalescing of the oil
droplets – and hence improve oil removal efficiency.

FREYLIT coalescent plates are available in both 6mm and 12mm spacing.

CONSIDERATION #2: inclined plates v. horizontal plates

This reduced plate spacing versus API 421 is an effort to increase the effective surface area
of the media, in order to counter another API 421 design weakness:
As half of the total surface of any inclined parallel plate media is always angled upward,
rising oil droplets never impact the plates. In other words, half of surface area of any inclined
plate media never supports oil droplet coalescing.

FREYLIT coalescent plates are arranged in horizontal position in order to fully utilize
the complete surface area of each coalescent plate.

CONSIDERATION #3: Performance criteria – effluent oil content

Comité Européen de Normalisation (CEN) European Norm EN 858-1

The European Union adopted a quality standard in Class 1 oil/water separators in 2002 [9[.
This standard specifies a very low oil content in the water leaving the oil/water separator vs.
what is allowed by API 421.

Summarized, the performance test basis parameters of EN858-1 are:

Light Liquid: density 0,85 g/cm³ (fuel oil)
Water: potable or purified surface water
Solubility of Light Kiquid: nil, unsaponifiable
Water turn over: minimum of four volumes of test unit
Liquid Flux: 25-40 m³/hr-m² (10-15 gpm/ft2)
Inlet oil Concentration: 4250 mg/l
Maximum Residual Light Liquid: 5 mg/l (as measured by IR spectroscopy)
Therefore, the European Standard calls for oil droplet removal efficiency of 99,88%. Note
that EN 858-1 makes no allowance for minimum oil droplet size versus the 60 micron from
API 421. Therefore the EU standard requires oil droplets of all sizes, presumably as small as
20 micron diameter, be removed in the separator if the 5 mg/l outlet concentration is to be
achieved. This standard has proven, to be extremely difficult to meet by most supplier of oil
separator.

Since 1983, FREYLIT oil separators have been designed on the basis of Austrian
Standard B5101, which is the predecessor of EN858 and in fact was even stricter in the
testing method. Hundreds of FREYLIT oil separators were designed, built and tested
since then according to EN858 are in operation worldwide.

CONSIDERATION #4: Shape of coalescent plate – Reynolds Number

API 421 does not mention Reynolds Number. However, NRe of <500 is a common industry
design parameter in an oil/water Separator. This is to ensure laminar flow of water (no
turbulence) as the water passes through the vessel.

The Reynolds Number is dimensionless. It is used to define flow type in both English and
metric unit systems. The definition [10] of this parameter is:

NRe = (ρ V D) / µ
ρ = density of water, lbm/ft3 (g/m³)
V = superficial liquid velocity, ft/hr (cm/s)
D = characteristic (hydraulic) diameter, ft (cm)
µ = viscosity of water, lbm/hr – ft (dyne sec/cm²)

The fluid dynamics of oil/water separation at very low Reynolds Numbers have been the
subject of a detailed study [11]. One possible explanation that at least partially explains of the
observed low Reynolds Number is the Magnus Effect [12]. This is the phenomenon that
causes baseballs and tennis balls to curve. The Magnus Effect generates an upward force
on a rotating oil droplet as the water flows past the droplet. When oily water flows slowly over
a fixed surface, the liquid velocity near the surface is slower due to friction.

If water flows slower on one side of an oil droplet than the other side, the droplet will rotate.
Rotating oil droplets are deflected towards the surface where velocities approach zero. This
upward force therefore enhances the rise of oil droplets, and allows them to coalesce faster
than Stoke’s Law would predict for droplets in stagnant water. Laboratory tests have shown
that this “curve ball” effect of droplet rotation becomes pronounced at Reynolds Number
below 100.

The specially designed shape of FREYLIT coalescent plates achieves Reynolds

numbers well below 100, even at liquid flux of 50 m³/hr-m². Therefore, the performance
of FREYLIT coalescent plate separators consistently exceed the requirements of
EN858 and deliver residual oil contents of less than 5ppm. This shows that Stokes
Law can be uses as guide, and API should not be considered as the only design basis
for oil separators with coalescing media.
References

1. American Petroleum Institute, API Publication 421 “Design and Operation of Oil
Water Separators”, 1st Edition, Feb. 1990
2. New Zealand government publication, “Appendix 5, Separator Design
Methodologies”, www.mfe.govt.nz/publications/hazardous/water-discharge-
guidelinesdes98/ap-5-
3. New York State, Office of General Services, “Master Specifications, Section 11313,
Oil/Water Separation”,
www.ogs.state.ny.us/dnc/generallinfo/masterspec/html/11313.htm
4. United State Coast Guard, “Guidelines for Approval of 15ppm Oily Water Separators
(Oil Filtering Equipment) to MEPC.60(33) December 1997”
www.usgc.mil/hq/gm/mse/regs/owsguide.html
5. University of Washington, “chapter 11 – Oil Water Separators”,
www.ci.tacoma.wa.us/waterservices/permits/Volume5/SWMM%20V5_C11.pdf
6. Pan American Environmental, Inc.
7. Baldwin Ltd.
8. We-Mac Manufacturing, Inc.
9. Swedish Standards Institute, Stockholm, Sweden, “Official English Version EN8258-
1:2002”, www.sisforlag.se
10. Perry’s Chemical Engineering Handbook, 7th Ed., p. 6-50, Table 6-7 “Dimensionless
Groups and Their Significance”
11. N. Nassif, et. al., “Advanced Laminar Flow Oil/Water Separation Technology”, 2003
American Association of Drilling Engineers Technical Conference.
12. Krishna AchutaRao, “The Magnus Effect,” M.S. Thesis Mechanical Engineering,
1987, www.geocities.com/k_achutarao/MAGNUS/magnus.html?200517

Dr. Karim Zaki

FREYLIT Umwelttechnik Gmbh
Inkustrasse 1-7,
3400 Klosterneuburg
AUSTRIA
Tel. +43 2243 30833 / Fax +43 2243 30833 14
office@freylit.com / www.freylit.com