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condensate. These include gravity settlers,knock-out vessels with meshpads, electrostatic desalters and cartridgecoalescers. All technologies havespecific features which make themsuitable for a given set of operatingconditions. For instance, not all technologiesare capable of separating stableemulsions with low interfacialtensions (IFTs). To improve the condensatedehydration process, the selectionof the appropriate technologyor combination of technologies requiresa thorough understanding oftheir advantages and limitations.FIELD TEST RESULTSWater carryover from condensateseparators was evaluated in the field.The results from four different condensatedehydration plants in the MiddleEast and North Africa region are providedbelow. All four plants faced variousproduction issues in theirstabilizers. The plant operators implementedtroubleshooting programs, includingthe evaluation of condensatecontamination. Condensate was testeddownstream of the existing separators,which consisted of two gravity separators,a knock-out drum with a meshpad, and a glass fiber cartridge coalescer.See Table A for a summary ofcondensate contamination levels.In addition, the condensate wastested downstream of a pilot-scale highefficiency PhaseSep® polymeric cartridgecoalescer. The performance datais reported in Table B. Typical visual resultsare shown in Figure 2.Figure 2: Condensate samples collectedfrom a polymeric cartridge coalescerduring a typical field survey.These field surveys illustrate thatwater carry over downstream of separatorsis an ongoing challenge in theoil and gas industry, and that performancewill vary among different types ofseparators in the presence of stableemulsions.CARTRIDGE COALESCERSCartridge coalescers use a fibrousmedium to coalesce finely disperseddroplets. To achieve the separation,they do not require the use of chemicalsor electricity. Instead, separationwww.filtnews.com • October 2011 • 35occurs when the medium capturesdroplets on the fibers through adsorption.Next, the droplets coalesce toform larger ones and then release due