Screw Conveyor (auger) and Vertical Centrifuge are widely used at oil and gas drilling site. This week, some sets of Screw Conveyor and Vertical Centrifuge is ready. They will be shipped to an International Environmental Engineering Company. The screw conveyors can be used to collect drilling mud and drilling cuttings from solids control shale shaker, desander mud cleaner, desilter mud cleaner, and decanter centrifuge.

Vertical centrifuge is popular called as vertical cuttings dryer. It is used to further recover usable drilling fluids from drilling cuttings waste; especially from the oil based drilling cuttings. The vertical centrifuge can be used to treat the oil base cuttings from solids control shale shaker, desander mud cleaner and desilter mud cleaner. But the vertical centrifuge cannot be used to treat drilling cuttings discharged from decanter centrifuge. As the solids sizes allowed for entering decanter centrifuge is too fine for vertical centrifuge. They will all pass the screen opening of vertical centrifuge, nothing can be recovered.

GN Solids Control offers 3 sizes screen basket for GNCD930 vertical centrifuge: 0.25mm, 0.35mm and 0.5mm. Solids sides bigger than the screen opening will be blocked and discharged from the vertical centrifuge screen basket. Liquid and solids with smaller size than the screen opening will go through the screen opening and recovered for further treatment. As the screen opening is big, most fine solids will be recovered together with the useful mud, it will be too heavy to reuse. Decanter centrifuge should be used after vertical centrifuge to reduce the mud weight.

The International Environmental Engineering Company will use the screw conveyor, decanter centrifuge and vertical centrifuge in an area, where the remperature is extra frozen in winter. GN Solids Control locates all the processing equipment: decanter centrifuge, vertical centrifuge, feeding screw pump and flush screw pump, insides a fabricated container. The container is located with windows, doors and heating system to keep warm in winter to protection the devices. Clients can choose the suitable screen opening to suit for their mud situation.

There normally 2 sets screw conveyors for vertical centrifuge for cuttings dryer. Firstly, there is a screw conveyor with auger transfer to feed the drilling cuttings to the vertical centrifuge dryer. After the vertical centrifuge dryer, there should be another set of screw conveyor to collect the dryer solids discharged from vertical cuttings dryer, and transfer to solids skips or other storage place.

Decanter centrifuge is very popular to be used together with chemical dosing system for dewatering treatment. The dewatering decanter centrifuge unit is widely used for waste water treatment and oil sludge treatment.

But how to choose the right model and right size dewatering centrifuge unit to suit for a certain applications? There are some questions for preparing accurate quotation:

1) Mostly, the chemical dosing dewatering system will be located at safety area. Non-explosion proof is enough. Can you accept non-explosion proof? 

2) If it is must to be explosion proof, can you accept CNEx (China National Explosion proof) for chemical dosing system inside the container?

Or is it must ATEX or IECEx standard? Price and leading time varies greatly when the explosion proof standard is different.

As the chemical dosing dewatering unit is allocated inside a fabricated container. While the decanter centrifuge and centrifuge feeding pump locate outside the container. Sometimes, clients accept CNEx standard chemical dosing dewatering unit, and the decanter centrifuge and centrifuge feeding pump can be ATEX Zone 1 or IECEx zone 1. 

3) Some regions and areas the temperature is high. GN Solids Control will suggest equipping Air Conditioner for the container. The Air Conditioner can be CNEx / ATEx / IECEx standard for Zone 1, and it can also suit for +55C degree? 

For example, GN standard 20ft containerized chemical dosing system equipped with A/C, the PAM Polymer dosing pump capacity is 1200L/Hr. The PAC Coagulant dosing pump is 500L/Hr. The dosing pump speed are both adjustable. If clients need customized dosing capacity, welcome to contact GN sales engineers.

4) What is the right size decanter centrifuge the client want for the chemical dosing system: 14 inch centrifuge, 18 inch centrifuge or 22 inch decanter centrifuge are the most popular for dewatering treatment. 

Vertical mount Oil field mud gas separator also called as poor boy degasser. Similar as fire foam system, Oil field poor boy degasser is a kind of safety device for oil and gas drilling rig mud systems.

Vertical mount Oil field mud gas separator has been used with choke manifold, BOP, and usually it is complies with gas igniter, to deal with the free gas invaded into the active drilling fluids, especially for drilling fluids with H2S or drilling holes not well balanced. Normally, the oil field poor boy degasser is used after choke manifolds / BOP, and before mud system shale shaker. After the Oil field poor boy degasser, the invaded gas will be discharged in 2 ways:

Firstly, the invaded gas will be discharged in to atmosphere via a long vent pipe on top of the poor boy degasser. We call it atmosphere poor boy degasser. But it is not big, as sometimes there maybe H2S inside the invaded gas, which is hazardous to human beings.

Another gas treatment way is more popular: the invaded gas will be lead to a place a little far away from the mud gas separation through extended vent line under the degasser. The vent line can be 50 ~ 100m away, it depends on the jobsite layout. There will be a fire igniter near the vent line outlet. GN Solids Control fire igniter is automatic type, it fires at setup frequency to fire the hazardous gas from mud gas separator.

The drilling mud from mud gas separator will flow into solids control shale shakers. As there are normally more than 1 shale shaker inside a solids control mud system, so before the mud flows into shale shaker, it will flow into a distribution box, or distribution pipelines, and then through the distribution box or pipelines, mud be divides into each shale shaker.

GN Solids Control makes 3-panel and 4-panel shale shakers for mud processing after poor boy degasser. The shale shaker can be linear motion or dual motion. GN Solids Control also can make 3-way, 4-way and 5-way compact design distribution box for shale shaker mud distribution.

GN Solids Control, as a professional manufacturer for drilling mud solids control equipment makes different sizes of poor boy degasser. GN Solids Control makes 24 inch ID, 40 inch OD, and 42 inch OD mud gas separator to suit for all kinds of oil rig mud system.

Centrifugal pump is also named a sand pump. It is a very standard transfer device for water, oil sludge, drilling mud and other liquid flowable materials. There are many different brands of centrifugal pump manufacturer all over the world.

On oil and gas drilling field, centrifugal pump is widely used as trip pump, feeding pump for desander, desilter, mud cleaner, or decanter centrifuge. Centrifugal pump is also used a mixing pump together with mixing hopper or sharing hopper. Or used as transfer pump to transfer material from one tank to another.

GN Solids Control makes centrifugal pumps which are mainly used for oil and gas drilling, our pumps have higher material standard than others. Below are some difference of GN brand centrifugal pumps with other brands:

1) GN Pump casing and impeller are made from hard ductile iron alloy with increased abrasion resistant capability; While other brands are made from ductile iron or even gray iron. It enables a longer servicing time for drilling mud transfer.

2) GN pump is made by precision casting; It is much better than other brands which are made from sand casting.

3) GN pump skid is made from casting; while other brand skids are made from welding. And GN pump coupling cover is stainless steel, while others are carbon steel.

The casting skids provide reliable operation and less vibration in a result to extend the pump and motor life.

4) The motor brand we choose China leading manufacturer, they are also OEM of ABB motors.

Screw conveyor is the most popular transfer equipment to collect drill cuttings from solids control shale shaker, mud cleaner, and feed to vertical cuttings dryer. While using screw conveyor auger to feed for vertical cuttings dryer, normally at least 2 screw conveyor augers will be used.

Firstly, there will be a screw conveyor located in horizontal to collect drill cuttings from solids control mud system separation equipment, mostly, from shale shaker, desander, desilter and mud cleaner. After the horizontal screw conveyor, a second screw conveyor will be located inclined to transfer drilling cuttings from the horizontal screw conveyor and feed to the top feeding hopper on the top of vertical cuttings dryer.

Besides screw conveyor, Drilling cuttings transfer pump is another popular feeding device for vertical drilling cuttings dryer. Drilling cuttings transfer pump collect drill cuttings to its tank hopper, and use hydraulic power to push the drill cuttings to separation equipment, like vertical cuttings dryer, or to waste pits. But Drilling cuttings transfer pump is not self-suction pump. It can only collect drilling cuttings which can fall down into the holding tank. It cannot suction drill cuttings from waste pits.

Vacuum sludge transfer pump is another transfer pump which can feed for vertical cuttings dryer. It is a 100% air driven pump, need big air consumption. And it is a self-suction pump. Vacuum sludge transfer pump can transfer mud from solids control system, or suction material from waste pits and feed to separation equipment.

GN Solids Control can make screw conveyor, drill cuttings transfer pump, vacuum sludge pump, and vertical cuttings dryer to treat drill cuttings. Besides these equipment, GN Solids Control is capable to make other waste management equipment, like decanter centrifuge, big bowl centrifuge, high G drying shale shaker, solidification unit, dewatering unit, oil water separator, oil sludge separation system, etc…

Mud cleaner is a basic drilling mud separation equipment for various drilling activites. It is used after solids control shale shaker. Last week, Some sets of mud cleaner are ready for delivery from GN Solids Control Beijing factory.

The mud cleaners are specially designed for offshore rigs. Compared with normal onshore mud cleaner, the offshore mud cleaner with special design to suit for DNV2.1-1 lifting standard to meet offshore requestment.

Mud cleaner utilizes desander and desilter hydro cyclones to separation a certain sizes of solids phase. It is a combination of shale shaker, desander and desilter. The most popular desander cyclone is 10 inch. The 10 inch desander cone can remove particles above 47 microns. The most popular desilter cone is 4 inch. The 4 inch cone can separate solids to 27 microns. In some cases 12 inch desanter cone and 5 inch desilter cone may be used, but very few.

The hydro cyclones incorporate a precise combination of proportions, angles, ratios, and materials to optimize separation of solids from the feed material. In normal operation, feed slurry is introduced tangentially into the interior of the hydro cyclone at high velocity causing a whirlpool effect to occur inside the cone. The swirling motion of the slurry drives the larger, denser particles outward against the cone wall while the smaller, lighter particles move toward the center of the cone.

The low-pressure vortex at the center of the cone pulls in the excess liquid and small particles, as well as drawing in air through the apex at the lower discharge end of the cone. The high-velocity air stream aids the upward flow of liquid and small particles toward the cone’s upper discharge, while the spiraling stream of liquid and larger particles flows downward along the cone wall toward the lower discharge. Large solids leaving the lower discharge may be further processed for removal of remaining small particles and liquid, while the upper discharge from the hydrocyclone is often routed to desilters having 4-inch hydrocyclones for removal of finer particles.

Besides mud cleaner, GN Solids Control is capacity to make shale shaker, decanter centrifuge, mixing system, cuttings skips and other separation equipment with DNV2.7-1 lifting certificate for offshore rigs.

The mud agitator is high-efficiency mud-mixing units offered in a wide array of custom sizes and configurations to accommodate virtually any mud tank. Both horizontal and vertical drive mud agitators are available for all sizes of mud tanks.

The horizontal drive mud agitator is designed for installations having limited space above the mud tank, like drilling mud solids control system mud tanks, desanding plant mud tanks, mud recycling system mud tanks, etc…. The vertical drive agitator employs an all helical gearing system, and the horizontal drive agitator utilizes a helical-bevel system to drive the agitator shaft, which may have one or two straight or canted mixing impeller(s). Canted mixing impeller is more popular.

Mud agitator design should be based on tank dimension, inner depth and mud condition. GN horizontal mud agitators utilize helical bevel reducer. Clients can also choose worm and gear reduce for saving the cost.

If tank inner height is more than 1500mm, a tank bottom shaft stabilizer is recommended to support the lower end of the shaft. But anyway, GN Solids Control equips tank bottom stabilizer for all sizes mud agitators.

GN mud agitator is composed of explosion-proof motor, coupling with star elastic coupling, helical bevel reducer, impeller, mounting plate, and rigid coupling, etc…. Explosion-proof motor and reducer are installed on the mounting plate. Explosion-proof motor shaft and reducer input shaft is connected by elastic coupling. Agitator shaft and reducer output shaft are connected by rigid coupling.

When the explosion-proof motor is running, the reducer input shaft is driven to rotate through the elastic coupling, the reducer output head drives the agitator shaft to rotate through the rigid coupling, and the agitator shaft and the impeller are connected by bolts for transmission.

When the blade of the impeller impinges on the drilling fluid, it is forced to produce a vortex motion, thereby preventing the solid particles of the drilling mud from settling, and achieving the effect of uniform mixing of solid and liquid phases and uniform density. The connecting disc sandwiched in the middle of the blade can prevent the solid particles of the mud from depositing at the lower part of the impeller after shutdown, thus reducing the resistance of the solid phase material to the blade when restarting, and avoiding the accident of burning the motor due to starting overload.

GN Solids Control mud agitator is designed for stirring drilling mud and slurries in an open tank. GN Solids Control makes vertical mud agitator and horizontal mud agitator for various kinds of mud tank, especially used for drilling mud solids control system.

The main function of mud agitator used in a drilling mud solids control equipment is to stirring drilling mud, to prevent drilling fluids from settle down. In this case, the solids and liquid phase of drilling fluids can be mixed equally, the viscosity and density are qualified to meet the standard of drilling activity.

After ensure the drilling mud qualified, pumps can be used to pump drilling mud from one tank to separation equipment, like feed to shale shaker, mud cleaner, desander, desilter, degasser, decanter centrifuge, or other processing equipment. Mud agitator is also used in drilling mud mixing system.

GN mud agitator utilizes heavy duty Helical Bevel reducer. Compared with normal design worn and gearbox agitator, it has the following characteristics:

A) The helical gear reducer has the advantages of compact structure, good meshing performance and reliable operation.
B) The helical gear reducer runs smoothly and has low noise.
C) The gear surface of the helical gear reducer has a large coincidence degree, which reduces the load of each pair of gears and improves the loading capacity of the gears.
D) The helical gear reducer and explosion-proof motor are suitable to work under harsh conditions in the field.
E) The explosion-proof motor is directly connected to the input shaft of the reducer through an elastic coupling instead of a belt drive, so the speed of the agitator impeller is constant.
F) The stirring intensity is large, the spread range is wide, and the structural design can prevent the motor from current overload during starting.
G) The explosion-proof is replaced horizontally, which is convenient for to be placed, installed, or replaced.

GN Solids Control makes whole solution for Oil sludge and contaminated soil processing.

Their first inquire is Soil Washing System, the general information of the soil washing processing system is as below:

1) The clients are planning to have a contaminated soil washing system at their yard site to treat the contaminated soil with actual treatment of 15 tons per hour (treatment capacity of the contaminated soil). Whereas up to 20 % of the said material is contaminated silt. TPH on soil input is about 7% average.

The clients inquired GN Solids Control in order to know what does GN Solids Control have as latest separation equipment for treating oil sludge and contaminated soil with silt, and the clients want to know what kinds of washing equipment with disilter treatment.
In addition to the contaminated soil / mud pumps for 15 tons/hr capacity. And the sludge as per the contract is fresh sludge (recently generated) and should be pumpable.

The clients also want to know GN Solids Control the latest design for vertical contaminated soil washing tanks.

Major separation equipment of soil washing system is coarse separation shale shaker, normal API screen shale shaker, hydra cyclone separator, decanter centrifuge, agitators, various pumps, etc …

The 2nd request of the clients is to ask for Treatment of Recovered oil from Sludge Treatment:
The clients are in need for chemical injection pump / dozer (ppm) for dewatering treatment. The recovered oil content is Heavy oil with water with silt that should be separated. The recovered water will be reused in the system for washing, and for dilution. The clients want to know What equipment does GN Solids Control have to do this mechanical separation

Major processing equipment to treat Recovered oil from Sludge Treatment is high speed centrifuge, 3-phase decanter centrifuge, dewatering unit, inclined plate clarifier, oil water separator, etc…

GN Solids Control offer turn-key solution for Soil Washing, 3-phase separation system, and dewatering treatment system.

FHD decanter centrifuge is precision separation decanter centrifuge with high speed rotating up to 3600RPM. As there are logical protection on the control panel for the FHD decanter centrifuge, operators are requested to start and stop the centrifuge accordance with the right Operation procedures.

Below are the procedures to start the FHD centrifuge. It is different with VFD centrifuge operation procedures.

1. Connect the main power supply to the FHD centrifuge control panel.

2. Turn the bowl speed adjustment handle and gearbox speed adjustment handle on the hydraulic control panel clockwise to close it. And then rotate the gearbox speed adjustment handle counterclockwise to open it at around 1/3 stroke position. Turn on the main power switch and power control switch, make sure that the emergency stop button is in the reset state.

3. Turn on the conveyor start switch on the electrical control panel, rotate the conveyor speed adjustment handle counterclockwise, observe the conveyor flow meter on the hydraulic control panel, and observe the conveyor speed on the control panel to adjust the conveyor speed to the demanded work Value.

4. Turn on the bowl start switch on the electrical control panel, then rotate the bowl speed control handle on the hydraulic control panel, observe the bowl flowmeter on the hydraulic control panel, and observe the bowl speed on the electrical control box to adjust the bowl speed to the value needed for actual work.

5. Start the feed screw pump motor until it runs normally.

6. Gradually open the feed valve to achieve the required processing capacity (do not suddenly open the feed valve).

Operators should follow below procedures to shut down the FHD decanter centrifuge and its feeding screw pump:

1. Stop the feeding pump and close the feeding pipe valves.

2. Open the flush valve and let the centrifuge continue to run for 5-10 minutes. Observe the liquid outlet. When the outlet liquid is clear and the solids discharge port no longer discharges solids, close the cleaning valve to finish the flush.

3. Stop the bowl.

The bowl can be stopped only after the feed pump is stopped for 200s.

4. Stop the conveyor.

The conveyor can be stopped after the bowl is stopped for 20s.

5. Disconnect the pre-stage power.