Despite the similarities, the two components serve different purposes and are not usually interchangeable. Heater treaters are oriented either vertically or horizontally.
Both orientations accomplish the same thing. The reasons for choosing one over the other usually comes down to preference based on a limited set of criteria. Producers often chose the style of heater based on previous experience and the preference of their operators. Footprint requirements also factor in to the decision-making process. Vertical treaters have a smaller footprint but higher profile. Lastly, flow requirements may dictate design.
There are multiple designs of vertical vessels but the most common utilizes a water leg and an oil box to capture the two liquids. The dry oil is tapped via a separate outlet at the top of the tank. Heater treaters are available in vertical or horizontal orientations. The main difference between a vertical heater treater and a horizontal heater treater for oil and gas is the duration for which the liquid stays in the vessel. The cycle time in horizontal heater treaters is usually longer than that in the vertical orientation.
The orientation of a horizontal heater treater is a cylindrical vessel lying on its side. Horizontal heater treaters have the same basic operation as vertical treaters but have a larger section for treating the crude. A key benefit of this orientation is that the vessel can handle higher volumes of fluid and heavier crudes that require longer retention periods for separation. Horizontal heater treaters can treat emulsions of any API gravity with high water content.
Vertical heater treaters are cylindrical vessels in an upright position. Currents caused by the heating can assist in the distribution of chemicals used to help with separation. Keeping the temperature above the cloud point keeps the paraffins from solidifying. Heating causes the lighter, more volatile to vaporize out of the crude oil into the gas phase. This is disadvantageous for two reasons. Secondly, a gas blanket consisting of volatile hydrocarbon gasses could form and self ignite if the temperature gets too high.
Unless there are heat or fuel sources readily available, operation of the heater treater can get expensive, especially as fuel costs increase. Direct fired heater treaters are complex pieces of equipment and require instrumentation, controls and safety devices to be installed and working together to ensure a stable safe process.
Typical pieces of equipment on a heater treater are dump valves, back pressure valves, temperature and pressure transmitters. Types of heater treaters Heater treaters can be either direct fired or indirect fired. Indirect Heater An indirect fired heater treater is one where the heating element heats the water or another heating medium and the heating medium is then used to transfer heat to the process stream.
Sizing A heater treater should be designed for a certain amount of residence time. Pressure Relief All pressure vessels should have some pressure relief device to guarantee that the internal pressure does not exceed design requirements. For heavier crudes API Gravity 10 and below , where the density of the oil is near the density of water, heating the emulsion causes the density difference between the oil and water which promotes separation.
The Horizontal Treater is designed to efficiently treat large capacities of crude oil by removing water and emulsion from the wellstream, preparing the treated oil for delivery. Our unique shroud and distributor provide increased capacity, efficiency and separation.
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