Effect of Temperature on Oil–Water Separations Using Membranes in Horizontal Separators

Abstract

The effect of temperature on oil–water separations is studied in this paper, focusing on the changed penetration velocities of water droplets on the separation membrane in a horizontal separator. A compact numerical scheme is developed based on the phase-field model, and the temperature effect is first theoretically analyzed regarding the key thermodynamic properties that may affect the separation performance. The computational scenario is designed based on practical horizontal separators in the oil field, and the droplet motions in the oil–water two-phase flow are simulated using our scheme under various operation conditions. It was found that a higher temperature may result in a faster penetration of the water droplets, and a larger density difference in the oil–water system is also preferred to accelerate the separation using membranes. Furthermore, increasing the operation temperature is proved to benefit the separation of water and heavy oil.

Preparation of Porous Silicate Cement Membranes via a One-Step Water-Based Hot–Dry Casting Method

“…Advantageous features including a smaller occupied area, lower energy consumption, and higher separation efficiency have made membrane separation technologies crucially important in recent decades for applications in various areas, such as gas separation, sewage treatment, oil-water separation, and seawater desalination [1][2][3]. Although membrane separation technology based on organic membranes has achieved much [4][5][6][7][8][9], organic membranes are known to be plagued with some inherent limitations, such as a poor resistance to alkali and an inability to bear high temperatures.…”