Three Phase Gas Separator

Three Phase Separator is a vessel designed to separate the gas that flashes from the liquid as well as separate the oil and water. 3 Phase separator is used when there is large amount of gas to be separaed from the liquid and the dimensions of the vessel are determined by the gas capacity.Three phase test separator is used to mechanically separate hydrocarbon stream the liquid and gas components that exist at specific temperature and pressure.
Three phase separator design is important because separator is normally the intial processing vessel in any well testing and Early production facility. Improper design of Three phase separatorcan be a bottleneck and reduce the capacity of the entire well testing or Early production process facility.

Downstream equipment's of Three phase separator cannot handle high proportion of gas- liquid mixtures. Generally three phase test separator or Production separator are designed to meet performance requirement of below 1% basic sediment and water content.

Gas and liquid separators are classified as Three phase separator, Two phase separator, Free knock out drums, Flare KO drum, Production separator, degassers, this can be either Horizontal or Vertical.

Increase in performance of three phase separator is achieved by steady state equilibirium condition. Steady state conditions are achieved in three phase separator, two phase separator, production separator by proper control systems on the skid mounted packages.

In well testing industry, below standard three phase test separators are commonly used.

  42 “ x 10 ft 1440 PSI Test Separator

  42 “ x 15 ft 1440 PSI Test Separator

  48” x 10 ft 2160 PSI Test Separator

  Custom built Three phase separator also available upon request

Three phase separator design is basically based upon fluid flow rate , temperature , pressure and fluid properties.

Test separators are designed considering 1 min retention time. Where as in early production or production facility the retention time will be based upon crude oil properties which is varying from 3 mins to 30 minutes.

VERPL(Vi Energ resources private limited ) three phase separators are packaged in modular skids with pipings and control systems. Skid can be either CSC certified or DNV Certified.

Major Factors effecting Three phase separator design are Gas /liquid flowrates, operating & design consitions, surging or slugging tendency, physical properties, presence of impurities, foaming tendencies, corrosive tendencies, etc.

Three phase test separator consist of four sections Inlet diverter section, liquid collection section, Gravity settling section and Mist extractor section.

Our skid mounted Three phase test separator packages are assembled with liquid dump valve regulated by level controller to maintain steady state liquid level and steady state pressure of three phase separator is controlled by pressure controller with pressure control valve. Which directly impact in performance of the separator.

We choose proper internals based upon fluid properties and client requirements to optimize three phase separator design.