Separation of mineral oil droplets using polypropylene fibre bed coalescence

This paper investigates the separation possibilities of model emulsion oil-in-water using polypropylene fibre bed coalescence. Experiments were carried out over a wide range of physicochemical characteristics of mineral oils, bed permeability and operating fluid velocities. The aim of this study was to analyze the influence of the dispersed oil phase nature and of the bed geometry on the separation efficiency. From the obtained results, it can be concluded that polypropylene fibers in the broadest studied range of bed permeabilities and fluid velocities, effectively separate oil that is highly polar. On the contrary, for the other two investigated oils at low values of bed Permeability a region was detected in which the coalescer is incapable to operate. It has to be emphasized that the polypropylene fibres efficiently separate all three investigated oils at the highest studied bed permeability.