Oil sludge treatment refers to the sludge and waste generated during the production process of oilfields due to oil and gas drilling, crude oil extraction, oil storage, transportation, processing, and drilling mud recycling. These wastes all contain crude oil and some components of crude oil.

Oilfield sludge and oily waste is mainly divided into: oil sludge pit generated by the mud treatment system, sludge generated by tank cleaning, flotation scum, etc.

GN Solids Control utilize heating and chemical washing technology to treat various sizes and various designs of oil sludge and oily waste. This month, GN Solids Control is making a Modular Oil Sludge Washing and Separation System for an Uzbekistan Customer.

The modular Oil Sludge Washing and Separation System for the Uzbekistan customer includes the following modules:
Module 1: The Material suction vacuum pump module: it is including air compressor, air tank and vacuum pump. The vacuum pump is a special pump focusing on solids and liquid transfer. It suits for long distance discharge.

Module 2: The Premix and hot washing module. There are heating pipes on the mud tank and equipment to heating the oil sludge at a suitable temperature. This is to reduce the density and viscosity of the oil sludge.

Module 3: The Vibrating screening module. There is a double deck shale shaker for the module. There are jetting nozzles on each deck of the shale shaker for heating the oil sludge. The system can use hot water and hot steamer to heat the material.

Module 4: The Decanter centrifuge separation module. It is for solid and liquid separation, the purpose of the decanter centrifuge is to remove the ultra fine solids.

Module 5: Oil-water-slag three-phase separation module. There are 3-phase centrifuge to separate the oil, water and soil.

Module 6: Chemical dosing module. The chemical dosing module is to supply chemicals for the whole system.

GN Solids Control makes various types of decanter centrifuge for oil and gas drilling rigs. There are different models and various standard decanter centrifuge designed for onshore and offshore drilling rigs, as well as for water well drilling rigs, workover drilling rigs, development drilling rigs, high temperature and deep drilling rigs, etc…

Based on the bowl diameter of decanter centrifuge, GN Solids Control makes mini size 9 inch decanter centrifuge which is mainly used for mining and slurry treatment. GN Solids Control has hundred 9 inch decanter centrifuge running in Canada for mining slurry separation. And 14 inch, 18 inch, 22 inch for oil ans gas drilling, as well as for industry liquid / solids separation. The largest size decanter centrifuge GN Solids Control makes is 30 inch huge bowl centrifuge which is used for mining and industry slurry separation.

Based on the type of control panels, GN Solids Control offer below type of decanter centrifuges:

1) Fixed speed decanter centrifuge. The bowl speed and conveyor speed of the centrifuge is fixed. For this type of centrifuges, GN Solids Control can offer additional pulley and belt. If clients want to run the centrifuge at another fixed speed, they can choose another set of pulley and belt. It is the most economic solution to run the centrifuge at different speeds. And the fixed speed centrifuge is easy for operation and maintenance.

Even on the fixed speed control panel, GN Solids Control can offer the control function for feeding pumps. There must be interlock function between centrifuge control and pump control for over load protection.

2) Variable frequency drive centrifuge, which is short for VFD centrifuge. GN Solids Control offers Explosion Proof Pressurized Control Panel for centrifuges. The VFD panel can be either cooling by vortex tube cooling system, or explosion proof air conditioner system, to ensure the internal of the VFD panel stay at 25C degree around. It is the most suitable temperature to ensure the lifetime and performance of electrical components. Normally, GN Solids Control offer 3 VFD control on the VFD panel: VFD control for main drive, for back drive motor and pump drive motor.

3) Full hydraulic drive FHD decanter centrifuge. And the supplier from Switzerland are leading brand for centrifuge hydraulic driving system.

GN Solids Control makes full line solids control equipment for onshore and offshore drilling rigs, like shale shaker, mud cleaner, desander, desilter, decanter centrifuge and drilling mud mixing system.

Recently, GN Solids Control just finished 3 sets Drilling Mud Desander and Desilter Assembly for offshore drilling company. It is 3-in-1 mud cleaner which is shale shaker complied with desander and desilter assembly. The model is GNZJ594F-3S12N. It is 1500GPM mud cleaner. The 3 sets 1500GPM mud cleaner is specially designed with lifting frame. And it is tested by authorized third party for CCS lifting certificate. It is specially designed to suit for marine offshore platform.

Unlike onshore drilling mud solids control equipment, the offshore drilling mud solids control equipment is usually higher standard. Below are some of the difference, which make the equipment cost for offshore drilling rig mud system is higher than offshore.

1) It’s up to the end users. Some end users can accept normal explosion proof motors. Some offshore rig projects requests equipment which are equipped with marine explosion proof motors and control panels. It is higher standard for anti-corrossive from sea water and mist.

2) The painting for offshore drilling is different with offshore projects. Powder painting is widely used for onshore equipment. Powder electrostatic spraying can get thicker coating, and the coating has good corrosion resistance. In addition, dusting can cover up some marks that can’t be done by spray paint, and it is not easy to scratch. The important thing is that the dusting powder is an environmentally friendly material, does not contain VOC, is non-toxic, and does not pollute the environment; But powder painting is not suitable for offshore platform. It is not as good anti-corrosive performance as normal painting.

3) Most offshore platform have special request on lifting design and lifting certificate. The lifting design and lifting certificate is up to the project request. GN Solids Control can offer offshore lifting certificate by DNV or by CCSI. If clients prefer certificates issued by other parties, please check with GN sales engineers.

GN Solids Control makes various sizes drilling mud solids control system for various sizes workover rigs. The most popular drilling mud systems are made for 550 hp workover rigs and 750HP workover rigs.

There are the active mud tank system, mud mixing system and mud reserve system equipped for workover rigs.

1) The Trip tank with trip pump and a small mud agitator.

2) Active tank system is equipped with separation and mixing equipment. Below are the popular equipment used in active mud tank:

1 ~ 3 Shale shakers and mud cleaner. If for 550 hp workover rigs and 750HP workover rigs, clients can choose a shale shaker. Or choose 2 shale shakers: one for use, the other one is for back up.

Some times, clients will choose a vacuum degasser after shale shaker and before mud cleaner. GN Solids Control vacuum degasser is self-suction type. There is a small vacuum pump inside the mud vacuum degasser. Clients do not need to equip a separate feeding pump. It saves power and save space.

The mud cleaner can be 1000 GPM and 1500 GPM models to suit for the mud system handling capacity. For the 2 mud cleaner models, the under flow shale shaker model is the same. For 1000GPM mud cleaner, there is 2 no. 10 inch desander cones with 12 no. 4 inch desilter cones. For 1500 GPM mud cleaner, there is 3 no. 10 inch desander cones and 16 no. 4 inch desilter cones.

Mixing hopper or mud shearing hopper with mixing pump to prepare qualified new mud for the drilling rigs.
3)Mud suction tank. There is charging pump / pumps connected to suction tank and feed mud for drilling rig mud pumps.

4) Centrifugal pumps are widely used in the drilling mud recovering system. The pump can be used to feed for desander and desilter cones. And the centrifugal pump is also used as charging pump for mud pump, and mixing pump for the mixing system.

There is a mini size shale shaker and a mini size vacuum degasser are finished. They will be shipped to a South America client.

The mini size shale shaker is with 2-panel. The model is GNZS752. It is used with composite frame pretension shaker screens for reliable service and longer life time.

GNZS752 series Mini shakers is widely used in trench-less HDD, water well drilling, diamond core drilling etc.. It is the best option for compact mud system and low flow rate. Shale shaker is a popular pre-separation equipment in liquid and solids separation system.

GN Solids Control has other big size shale shaker models for oil and gas drilling mud system, like 3-panel shale shaker, 4-panel shale shaker, 5-panel shale shaker with single deck. GN Solids Control also has double deck shale shakers.

The mini size vacuum pump can be used for solids and sludge transfer. It is a 100% air driven transfer device. There are manual control and auto-control for the electrical control equipment. While used for solids and sludge transfer, operators can use the auto-control function: the pump can be running with the set time for suck and discharge. GN Solids Control will offer another set of suction head for the mini size vacuum pump. The operators can use the pump as an industry vacuum cleaner, to suck the spilled mud on the ground.

GN Solids Control Sludge vacuum pump is also named as solids transfer pump. It is a pneumatic slurry transfer vacuum pump for liquid, slurry, sludge and solids transfer. GN Solids Control has another 2 big model vacuum degassers. It is a high vacuum loading solids transfer pump, and it is a 100% air driven pump with any electrical components. So GN Solids Control vacuum pump can be used at tough environmental for solids and sludge transfer with high working performance. And there is no rotating parts on the pump, it means stable operating and less maintenance. Another big advantage of GN Solids Control vacuum pump is that, the pump can transfer material with high gravity and high density. And it can transfer sludge with solids content max. up to 80%.

GN Solids Control makes various sizes drilling mud cleaning system, as well as mixing systems. The most popular size mud recycling and mixing system are 200GPM, 500GPM and 1000GPM.

GN Solids Control has standard design mud cleaning system to offer customer fast supporting. And also, GN Solids Control can make customized mud system according to clients special requests.

Recently, GN Solids Control just finished 2 sets high standard mud cleaning system for HDD rigs. The capacity of the systems are 1000GPM and 500GPM. They are customized for SINOPEC international projects. The high standard of the 1000GPM and 500GPM system design enable the maximum liquid recovery of drilling activities, and it further can reduce the wastes volume.

Below are the major equipment list of the 1000GPM and 500GPM high standard mud recycling system complete with mixing unit.

GN Solids Control is capacity to make customized mud treatment system to suit for clients’ demands. You can contact GN engineer team to ask for support.

The 1000GPM high standard HDD system includes:
1. 2 sets of linear motion Shale shaker, Model GNZS703F. It is a 3-panel shale shaker.
2. Desander mud cleaner. It is composite of 2 × 10 inch desander cone and a GNZS703F under flow shale shaker
3. Desilter mud cleaner. It is composite of 12 × 4 inch desilter cone and a GNZS703F under flow shale shaker
4. A high speed 22 inch big bowl decanter centrifuge with a chemical dosing unit. Mostly, clients choose 18 inch middle speed decanter centrifuge to ultra fine solids removal in HDD mud recycling system. But in the project, the client requests a bigger bowl centrifuge with bigger volume and high speed. It can greatly improve the ultra fine solids removal result.
5.  A separate mixing unit is equipped for the 1000GPM mud system.
6. 4 mud tanks with pipelines and accessories.

The 500GPM high standard HDD system includes:
1. Shale shaker GNZS703F× 1 set
2. Mud cleaner. It is composite of 1×10 inch desander cone,  8×4 inch desilter cones, and a GNZS703F shale shaker
3. A middle speed 18 inch big bowl decanter centrifuge
4.  A separate mixing unit
5. 2 mud tanks

This week, a 1000GPM mud cleaning system and a 500GPM mud system package have finished the fabricating work and factory testing. They will be packed and shipped to Sinopec for their HDD rigs. The mud cleaning system is combined with the function of mud recycling, mixing and storage.

The 2 sets mud cleaning system are both designed for 240m3/h (1000GPM) handling capacity. It can be used for HDD rig, CBM drilling, as well as water well drilling.

The 1000GPM mud cleaning system is customized with client’s color. It is a very high standard system including following separating equipment:

Shale shaker: The first stage separation equipment is 2 sets shale shaker model GNZS703F. It is the most popular shaker model utilized in mud system. It is a single deck 3-panel shale shaker. Although it is 3-panel, the screen area is up to 2.63 m². The big screen area can support big handling capacity of shale shaker. While the 3-panel design can save clients’ operating cost on replacement screens compared with 4-panel or 5-panel shakers.

Desander mud cleaner: After the 2 shale shakers, there is a desander mud cleaner which is mounted on a GNZS703 shale shaker.

Desilter mud cleaner: in order to maximum the separation performance, Sinopec does not use 3-in-1 mud cleaner, but using a separation desander cleaner and desilter cleaner, which with the same model underflow shale shaker as the 1st stage shale shaker.

Decanter centrifuge: Mostly, clients use 18inch middle speed decanter centrifuge in HDD system for fine solids separation. But in the Sinopec mud recycling system, they are using a 22 inch high speed big bowl decanter centrifuge, which is equipped with VDF panel.

Mud mixing unit: it is composite of mud mixing hopper and mixing pump.

Mud tank package: There are totally 4 mud tanks in the 1000GPM mud recycling system for allocation all separation equipment and accessory items.

GN Solids Control offers complete electrical control system for all items inside the system. All connection inside the system are provided for turnkey solution.

GN Solids Control make screw conveyors with auger diameter 10 inch, 12 inch, 14 inch, and 18 inch. Each screw conveyor can be laid either in horizontal or inclined with a angle less than 40 degree.

The most popular auger diameter is 14 inch, which is mostly used at oil and gas drilling mud systems to transfer drilling cuttings from drilling mud solids control shale shaker, mud cleaner, decanter centrifuge, and drilling waste management equipment, like high G drying shaker, vertical cuttings dryer. Etc… With different auger diameter, GN Solids Control can make various models with transfer length 12 ft, 24 ft, 36 ft and 48 ft.

The most popular model GN Solids Control sold for oil and gas drilling mud system is GNSC14-48, which with 14 inch auger diameter and 48 transfer length. The advantage of the model is that:

1) 48 ft transfer length auger is combined by 4 auger sections, each auger section is with standard transfer length 12ft. The job site operators can remove 1 middle section or both the 2 middle sections to use the screw conveyor with transfer length 24ft or 36ft.

2) Each section of GN augers are combined by hanger bearing and shaft assembly. It is easy and fast to assemble each section at job site, and the design is with less maintenance.

Unlike other auger suppliers, GN Solids Control hanger hanger hearing are assembly parts. Users can replace each part separately in case of need, they do not need to replace the whole hanger bearing unit while repair. It can reduce the maintenance cost much.

If not specified by clients before order, GN Solids Control screw conveyor is with fixed rotating direction, and it is equipped with a feeding port and a discharge port. In some cases, clients may need dual direction screw conveyors. GN Solids Control is capable to make customized screw conveyor with dual rotating direction. Operators and users can change the auger rotating direction at the auger control panel. And there will be 2 feeding ports and 2 discharge ports on the 2 ends of the special design screw conveyor. Operators and users can change the auger feeding and discharge direction in case of need.

GN Solids Control makes various sizes screw conveyor augers for oil and gas drilling field. The auger diameter has 10inch, 12inch, 14inch, and 18inch for optional. GN Solids Control offers augers with transfer length 12ft, 24ft, 36ft and 48ft, which is combined by standard 12ft per section.

The transfer length of GN auger screw conveyors can also be customized per jobsite request for carrying cuttings from solids control equipment in drilling mud solids control system eliminating water-jetting, like collect drill cuttings from shale shaker, desander, desilter, mud cleaner, decanter centrifuge. And then transfer to drill mud and drill cuttings waste pits.

GN Solids Control screw conveyor is also widely used in drilling waste management system, it can be used to feed cuttings to drilling waste management equipmente, like high G drying shaker, vertical cuttings dryer. And it can also be used to collect drill cuttings from high G drying shaker, vertical cuttings dryer, and high speed decanter centrifuge, and then discharge the cuttings skips (as well as waste containers).

The top covers of GN Solids Control screw conveyor can be made from metal plate, or gratings. Normally, it not specified by clients, GN Solids Control will offer metal plate type top covers. Some time, clients will prefer half metal plate and half grating covers. GN Solids Control can also offer. Clients do only need to appoint it before order. The top Covers on the top of GN Solids Control screw conveyor can be equipped with hinges on one side, and provided with locks or bolts on the other side. It is for easy open and close.

For safety, GN Solids Control offers full length Grab wire / pull cord switch connected to cable / wire rope looping on top of the auger covers. It is for automatic power trip when the top cover is opened up from closed position, or when automatic power trip while the top covers are not closed in right position.

GN Solids Control finished a package of oil base mud and cuttings treatment unit for an overseas client. The major separation equipped in the drilling waste management system is vertical cuttings dryer and high speed decanter centrifuge.

The vertical cuttings dryer model is GNCD930. GN Solids Control drilling waste Vertical Cutting Dryer applies centrifugal force to separate and recover oil based mud and cuttings, as well as synthetic base mud and cuttings.

The stainless steel screen basket with rotor assembly traps “wet” solids and accelerates them up 900RPM with G force to 420G. Usable drilling mud or oil slurry will be forced through the screen basket openings, and the oversize solids phase are extracted by the angled flights attached to the cone, which rotate slightly slower than the bowl. Tungsten carbide protects the scrapers from abrasive solids and ensures long operational life.

There is a gap with certain distance between the screen basket and rotor assembly, keep the accurate gap between them are essential for proper separation.

The decanter centrifuge model used in the drilling cuttings treatment system is 14inch, the model is GNLW363. It is the most popular size centrifuge model used in oil and gas drilling field. There are 2 decanter centrifuges used in the drilling waste management system. One centrifuge is used for drilling mud solids control, another decanter centrifuge is used after vertical cuttings dryer to further clean the recovered liquid phase. The 14inch decanter centrifuge design speed is 3900 rpm, and the typical bowl speed can up to 3600RPM. As the too fast speed request more frequency check and maintenance on the centrifuge. And if over 3200rpm, the high G force may damage the mud composite. But mostly when delivery from GN Solids Control factory, the max. Typical bowl speed is set up to 3200rpm.

The drilling cuttings treatment system is customized per client’s request. The vertical cuttings dryer and decanter centrifuges with accessory device are all allocated in a fabricated container for keeping temperature and for easy movement.