Eaton Corporation - Ronningen-Petter brand

We manufacture industrial filters
for fine filtration processing equipment

Petroleum Applications

The Filtration of Process Water
and its Importance in the Petroleum Industry

The Petroleum industry is one of Ronningen-Petter's areas of expertise. Therefore, I feel that this paper--written by one of our employees, Craig Annable, and published by Hydrocarbon Engineering--would be of interest to you. Due to its length, this will be posted in five different articles. Section 1: Introduction Section 2: Oilfield Production Site Section 3: Cooling and Amine Systems Section 4: Selecting the Right Filter Section 5: Disposable and Cleanable Filter Media ­­­---   Section 4: Selecting the Right Filter The objective of any filter is not to remove all particulate from the fluid stream. The size of particulate to be removed should be determined by the quality objective or system protection requirements. Removing particulate below the level identified for a specific system is a costly and unnecessary exercise with little or no return on investment. Will the stream be reintroduced into the process? If so, what contaminate levels will yield cost effective efficiency? The residual level of solids in the product filtrate will vary for each application. Understanding the limitations that varying solids levels will impose on the process is essential to determine the cost benefits of filtration systems. It is important to utilize filtration expertise along with process knowledge to gain the most from a filtration system. Protecting a process through filtration has many more variables to consider. A fundamental question is what size particle can cause erosion in downstream equipment. Another is at what level of solids will deposits build up in the low, slow flow areas. Two other important factors to consider when designing or selecting a filtration system are environmental/safety concerns and waste disposal costs. Environmental regulations governing fugitive emissions have become much more stringent in recent decades, and will be even more rigorous in the future. In the United States, ultra low sulfur diesel and gasoline fuel requirements become effective in 2004/2005. Companies are also faced with increasing worries over lawsuits from workers exposed to hazardous materials and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Waste disposal costs have risen dramatically in recent years, partially because of the stricter environmental regulations. My next article (section 5) will examine Disposable and Cleanable Filter Media, and how to determine which would work best for your application. by Ask Filter Man back to top