Oil Recovery Tanks

HWSB® Oil Recovery Tank Benefits

Maximize your oil recovery with the world’s most efficient oil-water separation system. KBK’s HWSB®

Up to 78 times more hydraulically efficient than traditional Gunbarrels, KBK HWSB® oil recovery tanks are at the heart of every KBK oil recovery solution. This tank is best utilized for high water cut applications such as salt water disposal facilities or production sites.

They are proven to:

Improve recovery rates by as much as five times
Separate virtually all oil from water, to an average of less than 30 ppm
Improve SWD profitability
Pay for themselves within just a few months
Better clarify water for injection, reducing well plugging and well bore damage
Dehydrate separated crude to pipeline quality
Reduce the need to use costly chemicals in your Salt Water Disposal separation process

KBK DFSD® Desanders complement our oil recovery tanks. Using patented technology, our desanders reduce maintenance costs by removing the suspended, abrasive solids that adversely impact pump and piping life. See the desanders tab for more information.

Driving Water Quality

Injecting 500-1000 ppm oil into the SWD well is the equivalent to pumping 3,000 to 6,000 pounds of well plugging “goo” into the injection well every day. That’s 547.5 to 1,095 tons of “goo” annually. The KBK HWSB® oil recovery tank in conjunction with the DFSD® desander significantly improve injection water quality which extends well life and increases your businesses profitability.

Revolutionary design for high water cuts

KBK HWSB® Oil Recovery tanks feature overall hydraulic efficiency approaching 72% (considered the real-world maximum). This compares with 3-5% for gunbarrels. There’s no better oil recovery system in the world than one based on KBK HWSB® skim tanks and configured by KBK engineers.

Consulting/Service: Support at every step

Our engineers and service team work with you from concept to startup and beyond. Let our oil-water separation experts provide a custom oil recovery solution, optimized for your input and production requirements through proper piping design recommendations and the selection of pumps and associated equipment.

Where possible and preferred, some of your existing equipment may be able to be reused. KBK also offers stair and walk, tank pads and engineered water legs.

KBK HWSB® OIL RECOVERY TANK

KBK HWSB® Oil Recovery tanks are the centerpiece technology of our oil-water separation system. Featuring a patented design that is becoming the industry standard for SWD plants, water floods and production separation applications. The HWSB® captures 5x more oil versus traditional gunbarrel tanks.

Designed for high-water cut applications, our HWSB® oil recovery tanks are proven to:

Separate virtually all oil from water, to an average of less than 30 ppm
Improve pad site and SWD profitability
Pay for themselves within just a few months
Better clarify water for injection, reducing well plugging and well bore damage
Dehydrate separated crude to pipeline quality
Reduce the need to use costly chemicals in your SWD separation process

KBK HWSB® oil recovery tanks are engineered to meet your specific requirements and are available in a wide range of sizes and are complemented by high-quality fittings – flanges, couplings, manways, thief hatches and gaskets. Gel coats and pigments are available in a variety of colors, to protect the exterior of the tank from ultraviolet (UV) rays.

HWSB® with DISSOLVED AIR FLOTATION (DAF)

Further enhancing the HWSB® is the addition of a dissolved air flotation system. The process works as follows:

Air or gas is dissolved in water under pressure
Bubbles chemically interact with oil in water
Kinetic energy of large bubbles cause solids to attach to bubbles enhancing oil recovery
Alters the physical separation characteristics enhancing Stokes Law separation rates.
Results in removing virtually all of the effluent oil and grease from the water stream

These tanks are mostly commonly used in front of oilfield water recycle treatment plants to clean the water prior to treatment. Using the HWSB® DAF lowers overall treatment costs.

Gunbarrels are available in capacities ranging from 100 to 1,500 barrels. Standard gunbarrels come with center flume and spreader table, and are complemented by high-quality fittings and flanges, couplings, manways, thief hatches and gaskets. Gel coats and pigments are available in a variety of colors, to protect the exterior of the tank from ultraviolet (UV) rays.

GUNBARRELS

Gunbarrels are used for the economically efficient and low-maintenance treatment of oil in low water cut applications. Gunbarrels are best used when oil volume exceeds water volume in the produced fluids. KBK manufactures gunbarrels in lined steel or high-quality fiberglass.

API Gunbarrels Include:

8 threaded fittings
Standard manway
Round thief hatch
Dogbone in flume
Spreader Table
Lift lugs
Walkway brackets
Internal siphon
Ladder (optional)

HIGH EFFICIENCY GUNBARREL (HEGB®)

Oil Treating Tank

KBK’S HIGH EFFICIENCY GUNBARREL, OR HEGB, is 21st century adaptation of the 100+ year old industry standard “Gunbarrel Tank”.

One hundred years ago industry founders and operators had little knowledge of hydraulics or the value of uniform fluid distribution. Today, however, most of us understand that a major key in processing is retention time, and that the best way to achieve it is through uniform distribution of fluids.

The design of the HEGB focuses entirely on the uniform distribution and collection of fluids. The result is very high hydraulic efficiency; thus, the name High Efficiency Gunbarrel, or HEGB.

The HEGB® uses a series of open bottom troughs sized to slow the flow rate of the fluid. The HEGB® is more than four times more efficient than an equivalently sized gunbarrel.

Gel coats and pigments are available in a variety of colors, to protect the exterior of the tank from ultraviolet (UV) rays.

Fiberglass Free Water Knock Outs (FWKO)

Fiberglass Free Water Knock Outs (FWKO) are horizontal pressurized vessels that provide a space for free water to settle out of a well stream.

They provide a low-viscosity flow with a large oil/water interface area that allows the maximum amount of water to settle out. A free water knockout reduces the water load on a treating system where a large volume of water is present. KBK designs free water knockouts to meet your working pressure requirements. Each tank is pressure-tested to 75 lbs, mounted on two fiberglass stands and engineered with a 10:1 safety factor.

KBK free water knockouts are available in a wide range of sizes to meet your specific requirements.

Standard free water knockouts include:

Female threaded fittings
Flanges
Trunnion
Float
Lift brackets

KBK’s free water knockouts have been heavily adopted in areas of lower pressure wells with corrosive produced fluids. These fiberglass FWKO’s offer a significantly longer life than a steel alternative in this application.

HIGHLY RETENTIVE AUTOMATICALLY SKIMMABLE TANK (HRAST®)

The goal of the design of this water collection/storage tank is to 1) maximize retention time by redirecting the inlet flow to minimize that flow through the normal path of least resistance, and 2) to provide for the automatic skimming of oil from the top of the water collected/stored water layer below.

The result is for an oil layer to accumulate on top of the water, regardless of the tank’s fluid level. As more water flows through the tank more oil accumulates, building an ever-thicker (deeper) layer of oil above the water. Since the throughput rate of the inlet water stream in most process plants is rarely 100% consistent, the overall level in tanks used for this purpose is ever changing.

Automating the skimming function is the key to maximizing oil recovery and preventing tank overflows and resulting oil losses. Automating this skimming function also takes the human element out of the skimming process, freeing up operation personnel to perform other tasks which may require less precision.

The automation system necessary to accomplish automatic skimming employs a transmitter, a valve, and a pump. When setup per KBK’s patented design, this system will pump the oil directly into the oil storage tanks.

This allows all freely separable water to separate from the oil according to Stokes’ Law when it reaches the oil storage tanks, rendering the oil emulsion free.

Contact Us Today

If you're looking for an experienced, reliable storage tank manufacturer for your project, KBK Industries is here to help. Contact us today and we'll be happy to answer any questions you have, and our expert team can provide you with a custom estimate.

Saltwater Disposal / Produced Water Recycle Facilities

KBK Saltwater Disposal and Recycle Facilities utilize KBK’s technology tanks to maximize revenue and profitability. The KBK SWD has all of the fluid entering the facility directed to the Desanding, Flowsplitting, and Degasing Tank. The DFSD tank is tallest tank in the photo above. The DFSD removes suspended solids and gas from the fluid stream and is a hydraulic flow splitter allowing equal flows to multiple trains of tanks. The oily water is gravity fed to the Hydrodynamic Oil Water Separation Breakthrough Tank (HWSB®) tank, where oil is removed from the water. The water stream gravity flows into clean water tanks and oil into the oil sales tanks. Today, there are more than 2,200 SWD, waterflood and recycle facilities using KBK’s system with consistant and predictable results.