Gas Compression magazine featured our new line of 3 phase KLS separators as its April cover story. These innovative systems eliminate the aerosol carryover often associated with traditional systems, dispensing with the need for further downstream separation. Effective in a variety of applications, the units provide superior inlet separation to compressor stations and process systems where the user prefers to separate the removed liquids into individual streams before transferring to storage tanks. They also serve as high performance flash vessels in both glycol and amine regeneration systems, removing over 99.99% of all liquids from the flash gas stream.
The three phase units are an extension of our highly successful KLS line of two phase separators for those clients wanting an additional layer of liquid-liquid separation. The two horizontal units differ on the inlet location. The 2SC-3P uses our KLS-1B as the inlet connection with a single weir and a water leg for liquid separation. The KLS-2-3P uses the KLS 1B on the outlet gas and two weirs for liquid separation. The first weir is inverted to provide good clean water to the second weir. The light fluid spills into the first bucket while the water spills into the second liquid section. Level control is very simple with this design since the instrument does not need to distinguish the difference in the fluids. It also reduces any disturbance to the settling section when dumping fluids.
Our clients needed something to remove the aerosols that were being carried over through their traditional three phase separators. Historically, operators would have had a three-phase separator followed by an additional filter/separator afterwards to catch those aerosols. By combining the two, we save footprint and significant total cost.
We introduced our two phase KLS Helical Coil Separator 16 years ago. With no moving or replaceable parts, the KLS requires virtually no maintenance and is extremely reliable, using advanced inertial separation technology to remove both solid and liquid particulates from the gas stream. The system utilizes impingement, coalescence, and inertia to provide maximum contaminant removal efficiencies. After passing through an initial bulk contaminant knockout phase, the gas stream passes through a section of helical coils which impart a high G swirl attaining 10,000 or more G’s, creating a tight vortex which directs clean gas through a central exit tube while throwing contaminants to the outer shell walls where they fall into a collection sump.
In nearly 500 installations, the KLS has been documented to remove 99.99% of solid and liquid contaminants 0.3 microns and larger regardless of flow rate while slashing the operating expenses of old fashioned filter separators. The KLS is field proven to maintain this efficiency while handling heavy liquid loads, and other upset conditions. Because there are no filters to foul and clog, there is no incremental increase in compression dp, which translates to lower fuel costs. Obviously there is no filter replacement and disposal expense. The KLS eliminates the aerosol carryover often associated with vane type separators, and is not flow dependent like centrifugal units.
