Api oil-water separator An api oil-water separator
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| API oil-water separator
An API oil-water separator is a device designed to separate gross amounts of oil and suspended solids from the wastewater effluents of oil refineries, petrochemical plants, chemical plants, natural gas processing plants and other industrial sources. The name is derived from the fact that such separators are designed according to standards published by the American Petroleum Institute (API). Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into an environment that cause instability, disorder, harm or discomfort to the physical systems or living organisms therein.Pollution can take the form of chemical substances, or energy, such as noise, heat, or light energy. Pollutants, the elements of pollution, can be foreign substances or energies, or naturally occurring; when naturally occurring, they are considered contaminants when they exceed natural levels. Pollution is often classed as point source or nonpoint source pollution. Sometimes the term pollution is extended to include any substance when it occurs at such unnaturally high concentration within a system that it endangers the stability of that system. For example, water is innocuous and essential for life, and yet at very high concentration, it could be considered a pollutant: if a person were to drink an excessive quantity of water, the physical system could be so overburdened that breakdown and even death could result. Another example is the potential of excessive noise to induce imbalance in a person's mental state, resulting in malfunction and psychosis; this has been used as a weapon in warfare. Pollution control is a term used in environmental management. It means the control of emissions and effluents into air, water or soil. Without pollution control, the waste products from consumption, heating, agriculture, mining, manufacturing, transportation and other human activities, whether they accumulate or disperse, will degrade the environment. In the hierarchy of controls, pollution prevention and waste minimization are more desirable than pollution control. HistoryThe API separator was developed about 75 years ago by the API and the Rex Chain Belt Company. The first API separator was installed in 1933 at the Atlantic Refining Company (ARCO) refinery in Philadelphia. Since that time, virtually all of the refineries worldwide have installed API separators in their wastewater treatment plants. The majority of those refineries installed the API separators using the original design based on the specific gravity difference between oil and water. However, many refineries now use plastic parallel plate packing to enhance the gravity separation. Description of the design and operationThe API separator is a gravity separation device designed by using Stokes Law to define the rise velocity of oil droplets based on their density and size. The design of the separator is based on the specific gravity difference between the oil and the wastewater because that difference is much smaller than the specific gravity difference between the suspended solids and water. Based on that design criterion, most of the suspended solids will settle to the bottom of the separator as a sediment layer, the oil will rise to top of the separator, and the wastewater will be the middle layer between the water on top and the solids on the bottom. Typically, the oil layer is skimmed off and subsequently re-processed or disposed of, and the bottom sediment layer is removed by a chain and flight scraper (or similar device) and a sludge pump. The water layer is sent to further treatment consisting usually of a dissolved air flotation (DAF) unit for further removal of any residual oil and then to some type of biological treatment unit for removal of undesirable dissolved chemical compounds. 
A typical parallel plate separator Parallel plate separators are similar to API separators but they include tilted parallel plate assemblies (also known as parallel packs). The underside of each parallel plate provides more surface for suspended oil droplets to coalesce into larger globules. Any sediment slides down the topside of each parallel plate. Such separators still depend upon the specific gravity between the suspended oil and the water. However, the parallel plates enhance the degree of oil-water separation. The result is that a parallel plate separator requires significantly less space than a conventional API separator to achieve the same degree of separation. 
An Oily water separator (OWS) is a piece of shipboard equipment that allows a vessel's crew to separate oil from bilge water before the bilge water is discharged overboard. Bilge water is an almost unavoidable product in ship operations. Bilge water that is generated in proximity to shipboard equipment (such as in the engine room) often contains oil. Direct discharge of this water would result in undesirable transfer of waste oil to the marine environment. By international agreement under the MARPOL convention, most commercial vessels need to be fitted with an oily water separator to remove oil contaminants before bilge water is pumped overboard. Oily water separator equipment has been a shipboard requirement since the 1970's but recently it has become evident that oily water separators have not been as effective as had been assumed and actual, and alleged, improper operation (sometimes called a Magic Pipe) of this equipment by shipboard crews has resulted in criminal prosecutions of engine room crew members in the United States and to a lesser extent in Europe. Directory: uploads uploads -> 587 Return function, r i(X) r i(0) r i(1) r i(2) r i(3) 1 0 2 4 6 Thermal Station, I 2 0 1 5 6 3 0 3 5 6 10 uploads -> Department of science and humanities department of mathematics part-a questions and answers uploads -> The Case Against the nypd’s Quota-Driven ‘Broken Windows’ Policing What Is It? uploads -> For want of a nail uploads -> Ownership Models There are two different types of ownership models uploads -> Police Militarization uploads -> City of rising star regular meting thursday, july 14, 2016 uploads -> Township of winfield uploads -> Stop Militarizing Law Enforcement Act of 2014 uploads -> The Black Panther Party’s Ten-Point Program What We Want Now! Download 378.86 Kb. Share with your friends:
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