Category:Oil Water Separators

Description

There are many misconceptions in the market place concerning "oil / water separators", "oil/ water interceptors" and "oil traps". Interceptors, or traps, are empty tanks with baffled walls that rely on gravity to separate oil from water as the mixture courses thru the tank. These look great on paper and appear to be most affordable but baffled walls alone cannot separate oil efficiently. They simply trap some of the oil, which is floating on the surface of the water in the tank, but they do not separate the oil which is in the water below the surface. Hydrocarbon discharge limits to sewers and to storm drains are usually set at 10 to 15 Parts per Million (10-15 PPM).

An oil water separator using coalescing media can separate free non-emulsified oil, hydrocarbons, diesel, gasoline, fuels, from water with a greater degree of separation. Permanent filter / coalescing media can be washed by hand with a water hose. As the oily water passes through the coalescing media, oil droplets begin to coagulate and become larger drops, which then rise to the surface of the tank. This represents an advantage over other equipment (such as oil traps) in that the accumulated oil at the top collects much fasters, which then an operator can extract the pure oil and recycle it for free and in some cases even get paid for it.