Society 363 / 2013

How to separate oil
from water
Green Society
Environment
Franz Frey is a pioneer in environment engineering. He is the
owner of Austria’s leading company specialized in water treatment
systems such as oil-water separators and wash water
recycling units.
Text: SOCIETY
rates of up to 5,000 litres per second and perform
according to all international guidelines and European
standards (EN858). They can achieve an
oil outlet concentration below 5 mg/litre (5 ppm)
which is a very low value.
The coalescing plates (know-how of all oil-separators)
are made of durable materials to ensure
high quality performance over a very long lifetime
with a minimum of 20 years.
Mobile oil
separator
Franz Frey, who founded his company in
1983, in an era when only a few people
were considering environmental issues,
was ahead of his time. After visiting a
German exposition for green technology
in the early 1980s he was convinced that environmental
engineering would be the future. But
nobody in the company he was working for was
willing to support his ideas. “Some friends were
even hostile to me because of my plans”, he recalls.
He therefore decided to become self employed and
started to develop the Freylit oil separator for gas
stations by modifying and improving polypropylene
coalescent plates which can separate oil from
water.
•
Worldwide activity
Nowadays, more than 90 percent of gas stations
in Austria are equipped with Freylit oil separators.
In addition, Freylit separators are exported
to more than 40 countries worldwide for a wide
range of clients who use them for the treatment
of oily process waters at oil and gas fields (e.g. in
Libya, Egypt and Pakistan), in refineries (e.g. China),
in power plants (e.g. Germany), harbours (e.g.
Azerbaijan) and airports (e.g. Norway).
Freylit’s industrial oil separators have flow
Info
Freylit
Umwelttechnik
GmbH
Inkustrasse 1-7
A-3400 Klosterneuburg
Tel.: +43-(0)2243-30833
Fax: +43-(0)2243-30833-14
office@freylit.com
www.freylit.com
•
Oil spill removal
Another asset became Freylit’s mobile oil spill
separators which can be used for oil spill removals
on surfaces, water surfaces, in groundwater,
in bilge water from ships, in basements and transformer
oil pits. Most prominently, Freylit mobile oil
spill separators are used in operation with the BP
oil spill “Deepwater Horizon” in the Gulf of Mexico.
•
Water recycling
To reduce water consumption in vehicle washing
operations for cars, busses, trucks, trains and
airplanes, Franz Frey has also developed a wash water
recycling system for all types of wash machines
and high pressure washers. 85 to 90 percent of water
can be saved with this water recycling system,
which is compatible with all washing units available
on the world market. For this invention, Franz
Frey was awarded the Environmental Prize of the
Vienna Economic Chamber. With his success he
proved that good ideas will prevail and that economy
and ecology go hand in hand. •
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