ABSTRACT
The physical separation process of coalescence has been studied analytically under controlled conditions in regard to the separation of oil from oily water mixtures. Variations in coalescer performance were studied as a function of the oily water feed to a three stage prototype separation system of which coalescence was the final stage. The data were analyzed statistically and it was shown that increasing suspended solids concentration, increasing oil viscosity, and increasing oil concentration decreased coalescer element lifetime, however, above a certain level increasing oil concentration had no effect. Variations in the total flow rate in the range of one to four gallons per minute per square foot did not have a significant effect on coalescer element life. Under all conditions studied, the effluent water contained less than 15 parts per million oil, only ten percent of the samples analyzed contained more than this amount. The results indicate that coalescence is useful as a final polishing step in an oil/water separation system.