Strainers selection

[Sawsan311]

Dear All,

I would like to get to know your experiences with respect to the selection of Y type versus basket type strainers. we have issues with strainers getting frequently choked by the emulsion formation in production separators and downstream produced water tanks. I believe mesh size selection would play minor role in resolving the choking when it comes to such emulsion issue.

Regards,

 

[TiCl4]

Sawsan, for strainers that frequently need to be purged, wye-strainers with a blowdown valve are much easier/faster to clean (assuming the material clogging the filter does not stick to the screen). With a wye-strainer, you can even automate the blowdown cycle by placing differential pressure meter across the filter and automating the blowdown valve to cycle based on a set dP value.

However, wye-strainers will usually exhibit a larger pressure drop for a given pipe size/flow than a basket filter. If you are going for a very small mesh size, you will likely need to either use a filter basket or upsize the pipe to accommodate a larger wye-strainer to avoid excessive pressure drop. The specific manufacturer should be able to provide a pressure drop vs water flow graph.

As you can imagine, blowdown of wye-strainers can be messy. If used, consider the direction of blowdown and potential cleanup needed if you do not catch the material in a container.

Fun fact: I've used wye-strainers to catch mussels in our cooling water, which was supplied from a nearby river. They would grow in the pipelines, and we would inject small amounts of chlorine to kill them. They would grow to be a certain size (0.25-0.5"), then die and drop off the wall of the pipe. We would catch them in wye strainers and blow them out on the concrete every week or so.

 

[LittleInch]

If you've got emulsion formation which are blocking your strainers, you need to approach this differently and deal with the emulsion problem.

Strainers are great for removing solid bits when there isn't very much of it and so doesn't need cleaning for a long time ( 4 weeks min).

Emulsion needs to be dealt with before you get to a strainer. I would just send it into a large tank and inject demulsifier before trying to send it through a strainer.

Y type strainers tend to be quite small compared to baskets so have less capacity to deal with any volume of dirt, but neither handle "slime" very well.

Even self cleaning filters don't really like the type of gunge that emulsions can produce.

Sort out the emulsion problem.



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