US 2015/0175463 A1Published application

System and method for dewatering oil/water sludge

AssigneeFaroe Maritime Technic

InventorKaj Joensen

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Abstract

Disclosed is a dewatering system and method for separating oil/water sludge into clean water and dewatered waste oil components in a repetitive batch process. The system comprises a vacuum distillation device. The vacuum distillation device has a feed port for loading the oil/water mixture, a processing chamber with heating and heating controlling means, a vapor phase port communicating with the chamber, a vacuum pump connected to the vapor phase port and configured to removing water vapor from the chamber to reduce vapor phase pressure to below atmospheric pressure, and a waste port configured for retrieving dewatered waste oil from a bottom portion of the chamber. The system further comprises a control unit configured to perform one or more control functions for controlling operation of the system in a programmed manner. A gravitational settling device is provided for pre-treating sludge to remove continuous phase water prior to loading the distillation device.

Claims15

Dependent claims

System for separating oil/water sludge into a clean water component and a dewatered waste oil component in a repetitive batch process, the system comprising

a vacuum distillation device, the vacuum distillation device having a feed port for loading a batch of an oil/water mixture to be treated, a processing chamber provided with heating means in a bottom portion thereof, means for controlling the heating means, a vapor phase port communicating with a top portion of the processing chamber, a vacuum pump connected to the vapor phase port and configured for removing water vapor from the processing chamber so as to reduce the vapor phase pressure therein to below atmospheric pressure, and a waste port configured for retrieving dewatered waste oil from a bottom portion of the processing chamber,
a control unit configured to perform one or more control functions for controlling the operation of the system in a programmed manner,
a gravitational settling device for pre-treating the sludge prior to loading the distillation device, wherein the gravitational settling device has a sludge inlet for receiving sludge in a settling chamber, a water outlet for releasing water, and an oil outlet for releasing pre-concentrated oil, the gravitational device is connected to the system via means for transferring water from the water outlet of the gravitational settling device to a clean water tank and means for transferring pre-concentrated oil from the oil outlet of the gravitational settling device to the feed port of the distillation device,
the gravitational settling device is configured for continuous flow operation prior to loading the distillation device, and
wherein means are provided for transferring sludge from a sludge tank to the sludge inlet of the gravitational settling device.

2 more elements

Method for separating an oil/water sludge into a clean water component and a dewatered waste oil component in a repetitive batch process, the method comprising the steps of

loading a batch of an oil/water mixture as a liquid phase in a processing chamber of a vacuum distillation device,
reducing the pressure in the processing chamber to a processing pressure below atmospheric pressure,
heating the liquid phase to a liquid phase processing temperature so as to release water from the oil/water mixture of the liquid phase into a vapor phase above the liquid phase and removing vapor from the vapor phase in the processing chamber until the water content of the liquid phase has reached a pre-determined target value, and subsequently
transferring a residual liquid from the processing chamber to a waste oil tank,
pre-treating the sludge in a gravitational settling device so as to remove continuous phase water from the oil/water sludge in a continuous flow operation prior to treatment in the distillation device, wherein oil/water sludge is transferred from a sludge tank through a sludge inlet to a middle portion of a settling chamber of the gravitational settling device, wherein continuous phase water present in the oil/water sludge is accumulated in a bottom portion below the middle portion of the settling chamber, collected from said bottom portion through a water outlet, and transferred to a clean water tank, and wherein remaining components of the oil/water sludge including dispersed phase water is accumulated as a pre-concentrated oil/water mixture in a top portion above the middle portion of the settling chamber, collected from said top portion through an oil outlet, and transferred to the vacuum distillation device for further treatment.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.