Environmental agencies do not allow effluents, from the petroleum productions, which contain oil concentrations that exceed the amounts permitted by the regulations. In recent time heavy oil operating petroleum industries are generating oil/water mixture by products, which are difficult to separate. Industrially, hydrocyclone is generally used to separate oil from an oil/water mixture. This is due to its high performance of separation, low cost of installation and maintenance. In the present work, therefore, the thermal fluid dynamics of water/ultra-viscous heavy oil separation process in a hydrocyclone has been studied. A steady state mathematical model which simulates the performance of a non-isothermal separation process is presented. The Eulerian-Eulerian approach for the interface of the phases involved (water/ultra-viscous heavy-oil) is used and the two-phase flow is considered as incompressible, viscous and turbulent. For carrying out numerical solutions of the governing equations the CFX11 ® commercial code was used. Results of the behavior of the two-fluid flow inside the hydrocyclone and separation efficiency are presented and analyzed. The role of the average temperature of the fluid, oil droplet diameter and the fluid mixture inlet velocity on the separation efficiency of the hydrocyclone are verified.

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In the oil industry and academy, the treatment of water contaminated with oil using conventional hydrocyclones and membranes has been an alternative to meet the requirements established by environmental control agencies. However, such equipment is not fully efficient in the treatment of much diluted oily water, with both presenting restrictions in their performance. In this sense, the present work proposes to study the separation process of oily water using a new configuration of hydrocyclone, equipped with a porous ceramic membrane in the conical part’s wall (filtering hydrocyclone). For the theoretical study, a Eulerian–Eulerian approach was applied to solve the mass and momentum conservation equations, and the turbulence model, using the computational fluid dynamics technique. The results of the velocity, pressure and volumetric fraction of the involved phases, and the separation performance of the hydrocyclone, are presented, analyzed, and compared with those obtained with a conventional hydrocyclone. The results confirmed the high potential of the proposed equipment to be used in the separation of the water and oil mixture.

Hydrocyclones are devices used to treat produced water in the petroleum industry. These gadgets are employed especially at offshore fields, due to restrictions of charge and space. Several factors may affect the performance of the oil/water separation by hydrocyclones. Among these factors are the geometry and processing capacity of the hydrocyclones, oil droplet size, density difference between the phases, pressure drops, and temperature fluctuation. This paper aims to analyze the effects of inlet fluid mixture temperature and oil droplet size on hydrocyclone performance in separating dispersed heavy oil from continuous streams of water. The experiment used a commercial package, ANSYS CFX 11. Numerical results clearly indicate that superficial velocity and oil mass flow rate in the overflow have a positive relationship with oil droplet size and temperature. The pressure drop decreased from 155.857 to 141.966kPa and the separation efficiency changed from 58.97 to 60.11% when the inlet temperature increased from 20 to 100°C using a 40m oil droplet diameter.

The hydrocyclone is an alternative for produced water treatment in the petroleum industries, especially at offshore fields. Many parameters, such as oil droplet diameter affect the separation performance of the hydrocyclone. In this sense, the purpose of this work is study the effect of oil droplet diameter and inlet fluid on the separation efficiency of a hydrocyclone to remove dispersed heavy-oil from a water continuous stream. Results of the streamline, pressure drop, volume fraction and efficiency of separation as a function of oil droplet diameter and feed velocity are presented and analyzed.

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A goiaba apresenta excelentes características nutricionais, sendo considerada uma importante matéria prima na indústria de alimentos. Para a utilização eficiente desse fruto, é necessária a adoção de técnicas de conservação que retardem as perdas de qualidade decorrentes do processo de amadurecimento. A secagem por meio de energia solar devido ao seu potencial e baixo custo, configura-se como uma alternativa economicamente viável para a conservação de produtos agroindustriais. Assim, objetivou-se com esse estudo analisar o processo de desidratação da goiaba e descrever a cinética de secagem utilizando secador solar, bem como ajustar os dados experimentais a modelagem matemática. Foram utilizadas goiabas da variedade Paluma no estádio de maturação 3 (verde-amarelo), adquiridas no comércio local. As amostras foram acondicionadas em cestas de arame e submetidas à secagem em monocamada em triplicata, através de um secador solar. Os dados experimentais de secagem da goiaba foram ajustados às equações de Page, Henderson e Pabis, Lewis, Cavalcanti Mata e Thompson. O secador solar promoveu a obtenção de resultados satisfatórios no processo de secagem da goiaba, onde a melhor predição ao processo de cinética de secagem foi obtida pelo modelo de Page.

Mining is a relevant economic activity in many countries. In the treatment of ores, water is an indispensable input. For classification of minerals, the mineral industry uses the hydrocyclone process, where water is used as the medium for transporting dispersed ore particles, that are separated from the liquid by centrifugal force inside anequipmentnamed hydrocyclone.The constant advance of computers processing power, the evolution in the techniques and numerical methods, allow to simulate with great precision complex physical problems of fluid dynamics such as flow in hydrocyclones.In this sense, this work aims to analyze the performance of a concentrating hydrocyclone in the separation of ore and water by CFD. In the fluid dynamics simulation, the Eulerian-Lagrangian approach and the Ansys Fluent software were used. Results of pressure, velocity, and volumetric fraction fields of theinvolved phases are presented and evaluated. From the analysis of the results, it was observed that increasing the flow mixture velocity at the entrance of the equipment tends to increase the separation performance of the hydrocyclone.