Production Separators

A production separator is used to separate the produced well fluid from a well, group of wells, or a lease on a daily or continuous basis. Production separators can be vertical, horizontal, or spherical. They can be two-phase or three-phase.

Separators can be classified into :

• Two-phase (only for oil and gas)

• Three-phase separators (commonly called free-water knockout). Handles oil, water and gas. 

Additionally, separators can be categorized according to their operating pressure:

• Low-pressure units handle pressures of 10 to 180 psi [69 to 1241 kPa]. 

• Medium-pressure separators operate from 230 to 700 psi [1586 to 4826 kPa]. 

• High-pressure units handle pressures of 975 to 1500 psi [6722 to 10,342 kPa]

Note diagrams are also available - MM