Oil/Water Separator, floating oil skimmers.

Separation of Oil and Water is a vast subject as the co-existence of Oil and Water occurs in several ways in Process Industries. It may be separation of Water from Oil in the Edible Oil Industry or Separation of Grease from Water in Car-Washing Garage. As per the Separation requirement, the Equipment and System are also available in varieties of different designs.

If the Emulsion of O/W (Oil in Water) or W/O (Water in Oil) are stable and are well formed with very small droplets (< 50 �m) then a separate Chemical (De-emulsifier) or Physical (for example Heating, Dilution etc) treatments are required.

Specifically the Equipment required are of two types :

(1) Coalescer

This is equivalent of flocculator of particle suspension. Here droplets are made larger. Basically surface properties and interaction of the phases Oil or Water with the surface, such as affinity or repulsion is made use of. By carefully passing the emulsion in these Coalescers the droplet sizes are increased. The increase in size is basically to ease the subsequent separation.

(2) Separators

The separation may be achieved in by creating adequate forces to get these droplets away from the medium. The typical Separators are

Centrifuge
Hydrocyclone
Gravity Separator

Mamko design and manufacture Coarse Coalescer, that will increase droplets larger than 200 �m. This is followed by separators, which Mamko offer, are :

Hydrocyclones and
Gravity Separator

As a final stage, especially in the Gravity Separation, Skimming is required. Mamko offer �Belt Skimmers� to separate Oil/Grease, after the Gravity separation.

Depending upon the

(1) Type of Emulsion W/O and O/W
(2) Percentage of disperse phase in the medium
(3) Size of Droplets
(4) Collection phase purity,

requirements the system is designed and manufactured.

Typically a system for Oil/Water separation to separate grease and oil from water is shown above.