Multiphase Desanders for oil and gas

Key Benefits

Protect downstream equipment from wear and damage
Prevent build-up of solids in equipment and pipelines
Improve uptime through greater wear life
Compact design reduces footprint and weight
Protect personnel from sand buildup exposure

One of the greatest challenges in oil and gas production is solids accumulation. The latest generation in hydrocyclone technology, gMAX® is designed to meet the harsh conditions of the upstream market. KREBS gMAX Desanding Cyclones, produce finer and sharper separations and increased throughput at lower pressure drops.

What we offer

Our desanding cyclones will stop sand before it stops you

Production of sand from oil and gas wells is an unwanted by-product, and an all-too-common headache for processing facilities. Often caused by unconsolidated reservoirs, high production rates or the failure of gravel packs and other control measures, sand can become pervasive within your processing equipment, increasing wear, reducing uptime and increasing risk to your personnel as they must address the problem. Our desanding cyclones will efficiently remove sand and solids in all phases of oil and gas production.

KREBS Desanding Cyclones typically remove solids from the process in these locations:

At the wellhead, upstream of the choke
Downstream of the choke, and before the production separator
From the separator, in the aqueous phase or sand jetting effluent

Our multiphase desanding cyclones will remove sand from combined gas/liquid flows with gas flows up to 100%. They work within several locations in the production train to protect downstream equipment. When installed upstream of the production choke, these multiphase desanding units are called “wellhead desanders.” Models that operate downstream from the choke are known as “wellstream desanders.”

Wellhead desanding
We typically recommend wellhead desanding cyclones for high-pressure, multiphase, harsh-duty applications that can severely challenge the reliability and performance of your separation equipment. These wellhead desanding systems employ single cyclone or multiple liner designs with design pressures up to 15,000 psig.

Wellstream desanding
If placement upstream of the choke is not possible, we then recommend the optimum location is in the wellstream prior to the production separator. Wellstream desanding can be a multiphase application that is similar to wellhead applications, but typically at much lower operating pressures.

Both methods are field-proven and include an integral or separate accumulator for solids collection. Service valves and instrumentation allow for extra-safe operation and isolation from the process flow when the solids are dumped.

Each engineered system is designed to meet or exceed applicable standards. We can offer almost any construction material for the units, including carbon steel and exotic alloys. The hydrocyclone liner material is wear-resistant alumina ceramic or silicon carbide, depending on the application and size of the unit.

Key benefits

Desanders designed with your protection in mind

Protect downstream equipment from wear and damage: By effectively removing sand and other solid matter from your product prior to downstream equipment, desanding cyclones work to protect your capital investment from abrasion, erosion, corrosion and ultimate failure. Using our gMAX Cyclone technology, we can deliver high capacity in a small footprint, high g-force separation and high efficiency.
Prevent build-up of solids in equipment and pipelines: Blockage and clogging of pipelines and processing equipment not only reduces your production, but also can lead to equipment failure. Efficient desanding prior to processing eliminates this problem.
Improve uptime through greater wear life: While KREBS Desanding Cyclones work to eliminate solids erosion on downstream process equipment, including pipelines and valves, they also are highly wear-resistant in and of themselves. This protects your entire process and investment. Wear areas in the cyclones feature replaceable abrasion-resistant liners.
Compact design reduces footprint and weight: Desanding Cyclone systems are compact, reducing capital and installations costs as they easily fit within your process.
Protect personnel from exposure to processes and equipment: Because they prevent sand buildup and erosion in your downstream equipment, KREBS Desanding Cyclones also reduce the amount of time your team spends in cleaning out pipelines, valves, valve seats and other process equipment. With no moving parts, cyclones are simple to operate and maintain.

Product features

Efficient solids separation in oil and gas: KREBS Desanding Cyclones

KREBS Desanding Cyclones and multiphase desanding cyclones are available in our advanced gMAX Hydrocyclone design.

The latest generation hydrocyclone technology, the gMAX Hydrocyclone is designed with an innovative geometry that produces finer separations and increased throughput at lower pressure drops. Constructed of wear-resistant alumina ceramic and nitride-bonded silicon carbide, gMAX Hydrocyclones will easily meet the harsh conditions of the upstream market.

By adding our detailed knowledge of fluid properties, multiphase flow regime, and allowable pressure drop, the gMAX Cyclones will provide you with a winning design for sand removal.

We offer a variety of hydrocyclone sizes, designed to achieve the most efficient separation while managing pressure drop in any given system. Sizing options include: 25 mm, 51 mm or 76 mm (1-in, 2-in or 3-in) diameter hydrocyclones (liners) made of alumina ceramic and housed inside a larger pressure-containing vessel.

If your application requires coarser separations, we recommend the larger D-Series gMAX Hydrocyclones.

The separation that a cyclone can achieve is dependent on the characteristics of the feed fluid and the allowable pressure drop.

Additional features:

Extremely compact size
A variety of construction materials
Ability to be ASME code-stamped for any temperature and pressure
Cyclone “blanks,” allow for operational flexibility where flow rates may change from the design conditions
Continuous or intermittent solids discharge

TurnDOWN™

When turndown requirements exceed the normal hydrocyclone ratio of 3:1, we offer our TurnDOWN™ design, which can achieve turndown ratios that exceed 50:1 by dividing the inlet and overflow sections of the cyclone vessel into multiple compartments. Each compartment is isolated on the outside by valves on the compartment nozzles. By opening or closing the valves, different numbers of cyclones can be brought online or taken offline. The system’s differential pressure determines the number of operating cyclones required. The process can be manual or automated.

Our wellhead and wellstream units are similar in design, and both operate ideally in multiphase flow. The main difference in each is in the mechanical requirements. We typically design our wellhead desander for 1,500-15,000 psi API. The wellstream desander is generally designed for 150#-900# ANSI and to ASME & NACE specifications.

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