Tank Bottom Processing (BS&W – Bottom Solids and Water)

Hiller machines provide world-class standards for high-performance decanter centrifuges specially equipped to meet the separation requirements of the waste oil processing industry with specialized separation equipment and systems technology. Whether it is 2-phase or 3-phase separation, the Hiller range of DecaPress and DecaOil centrifuges offer high performance separation solutions with a very small footprint. The Hiller DecaPress and DecaOil decanter centrifuge series were designed and developed for maximum oil recovery, solids capture and cake dryness at high throughputs with significantly reduced power consumption.

Crude oil storage tanks are an essential part of all major operations in the petroleum industry. These storage tanks are most typically located at:

• Refineries and production sites
• Import, export and transfer storage facilities

Due to the solids content of crude oil, those tanks loose storage capacity over the years, as they slowly fill up with settled solids from the crude. Those tanks therefore require regular cleaning in order to maintain their storage capacity.Tanks are emptied of crude oil and the residual sediment and residues adhering to the tank walls are then removed with high pressure water jets. The resulting product is characterized by containing a considerable amount of water content (in the order of 30-60% by volume), an oil phase with rather high viscosity, typically the presence of an emulsified phase, and high solids content (in the order of 10-40% by volume). In principle the treatment of storage tank bottom sludge and water is similar to that of slop oil dredged from lagoons. Although a 3-phase decanter only can be applied here with good results, the high solids content of the product means that a combination of 2-phase decanter plus 3-phase separator.