Turning Offshore "Oil Troubles" into Good Solutions: How SINOKLE's CDOF Technology Solves the Problem
1. Sources of offshore oil production platform wastewater:
Offshore platform wastewater mainly originates from every stage of the production process, including but not limited to oily water discharged from production separators, wastewater from electric dehydrators, and other oily wastewater generated in daily platform operation. According to oil content, chemical composition and suspended solids content it can be further divided into several types, but their common feature is that all contain a certain amount of petroleum pollutants, posing a potential threat to the marine environment.
2. Characteristics of offshore platform wastewater:
High oil content, with a wide oil droplet size distribution ranging from large particles of free oil to fine emulsified oil.
Large amounts of chemical additive residues such as corrosion inhibitors and scale inhibitors, which increase treatment difficulty.
Limited space, requiring compact and efficient treatment equipment to suit the special offshore platform environment.
3. Treatment difficulties of offshore platform wastewater
Low oil-water separation efficiency, especially for the removal of fine emulsified oil and dissolved oil.
Oily sludge is easily generated during treatment, increasing the downstream treatment burden.
The offshore environment is complex and changeable, demanding high stability and corrosion resistance from treatment equipment.
4. Conventional treatment processes and their shortcomings
Process: Mostly combined physical-chemical treatment, including inclined-plate oil separation, hydrocyclone separation and walnut-shell filtration steps.
Shortcomings:
① Many treatment stages, complex flow and a large footprint.
② Limited removal of fine emulsified and dissolved oil, making it hard to meet strict water quality standards.
③ Large volumes of oily sludge, increasing subsequent treatment and disposal costs.
④ High operating cost, high energy consumption and complex maintenance.
5. A new process for offshore platform wastewater treatment
The integrated ozone catalytic oxidation and flotation technology developed by SINOKLE (CDOF) creatively combines ozone advanced oxidation, cyclonic separation and dissolved air flotation technologies, achieving efficient oxidation, decolourisation and sterilisation.
Process steps:
Inclined-plate oil separation pretreatment: The oily water from production separators and electric dehydrators is mixed with chemical agents and enters the inclined-plate oil separator for preliminary separation, removing large particles of free oil.
Hydrocyclone secondary separation: The pretreated wastewater enters the hydrocyclone for secondary separation, further removing oil droplets.
CDOF Advanced treatment: The wastewater treated by the hydrocyclone enters the CDOF unit, where ozone catalytic oxidation, cyclonic and dissolved air flotation technologies achieve efficient oxidation, decolourisation, sterilisation and deep oil-water separation.
Walnut-shell filtration and backwashing: The treated wastewater enters the walnut-shell filter for final filtration to ensure effluent quality. The filter media is regenerated through the backwash tank, and the backwash water is reused to flush the inclined-plate oil separator, forming a recycling loop.
Core technologies:
Ozone catalytic oxidation technology: Multiple catalytic oxidation technologies are used to raise ozone utilisation and oxidation performance.
Combination of cyclonic and dissolved air flotation: Strengthens flotation performance, reduces flocculant dosage and cuts oily sludge generation.
Fully automatic closed pressurised operation: Reduces manual intervention and improves operational stability and safety.
Advantages:
High treatment efficiency: Fast reaction rate and short treatment time, requiring only 5~10 minutes.
Small footprint: Compact equipment suits the limited space of offshore platforms.
Low operating cost: Low ozone consumption and low energy consumption save costs.
Good treatment performance: Stable effluent quality meets strict water quality standards.
Safe and environmentally friendly: Fully automatic closed pressurised operation reduces manual work and environmental risk.
Process diagram:
Influent and effluent results:
