Oil Water Separation and Filtration System - Dec 2017
I and three other students worked with the Ocean’s simulations lab at SouthWest Research Institute(SwRI), for our Capstone project, to solve a unique water conservation problem at the lab.
PROBLEM: The lab performs subsea pressure tests on offshore vessels to simulate offshore conditions. Most of the test water used are contaminated with crude oil based residue and rust. For heavily contaminated water, oil contaminants had to be reduced before dumping. Current filtration method makes use of multiple stages of catridge filters to reduce oil.
SOLUTION: We designed and fabricated an Oil Water separation and filtration system, with passive separation, to improve current test water dumping procedures and reduce the use of catridge filters. Filtration system reduced oil contaminants in post test water and allowed for possible re-use. Our design include the following major components:
- A settling tank: Settling tank allows for gradual sediment settling. Tank also holds most of the transient water and capacity is ~300 gallons. Steel sheets were side welded to fabricate tank.
- Float skimmer: The float skimmer was desgined to float and seive oil build up, concentrated on the water surface in the build up region, through a small drain inlet. Oil is drained down to a small catch tank.
Float skimmer render vs post fabrication:
- Coalescing media: The coalescing media improves oil separation by the increasing oil droplet size as water flows through.
Coalescing media CAD render vs post fabrication
- Skid mount: The skid mount is a base support for the whole system with a forklift allowance for transportation.
Final Assembly of System after Fabrication
