CYCLONIXX Wellhead Desander Hydrocyclones

Our award winning CYCLONIXX Wellhead Desander Hydrocyclones offer a solids-separation technology specifically aimed at multi-phase well streams that is suitable for all wellhead gas/liquid ratios from 100% liquid to 100% gas. Our hydrocyclones are designed to withstand extremely harsh wellhead conditions including exposure to very high pressures, elevated temperatures and highly erosive flows.

Custom Engineered Systems 

Each system is custom engineered to fit your application, including providing for a wide operating envelope to meet the changing conditions that are common in multi-phase well streams. CYCLONIXX Wellhead Desanders come in a range of sizes, including some of the largest commercially available, to accommodate the vast majority of wellhead flows in a single cyclone. In addition, the cyclones are specifically designed to separate large and irregular shaped particles, as well as the more common small, round particles, without blocking.

Innovative fabrication techniques 

We developed new fabrication techniques in order to cast wellhead desanders in only a few ceramic pieces rather than the traditional method of manually grouting individual ceramic tiles to form the desander. This enables us to manufacture wellhead desanders up to 700 mm diameter; the largest available on the market.  

This approach results in more robust hydrocyclones with minimal joins, and therefore, few points of failure. For our clients this means you can rely on Wellhead Desander Hydrocyclones to operate reliably under the extreme conditions experienced at wellheads. 

Advantages 

Removing solids (e.g. frac sand, proppant) at or near the wellhead offers a number of advantages including:

• Protecting downstream equipment from erosion damage 
• Preventing solids build up in vessels and pipelines 
• Preventing sand and other solids damaging valve seats
• Reducing the overall risk to on-going production 
• Increasing production above previous limits

Applications

CYCLONIXX Wellhead Desander Hydrocyclones are applicable for: 

• Frac. sand/proppant removal from shale gas and/or oil
• Well clean-up operations
• Well start-up operations
• Under-balanced drilling operations

Materials

We offer CYCLONIXX Wellhead Desander Hydrocyclones in our TUNGSTONE materials range so you can be sure that they are suitable for your application no matter how severe the service. TUNGSTONE cyclones are available in tungsten carbide, silicon carbide, ceramic, or stellite

Solids Management System Design

Solids are often present in production facilities that, if not removed periodically, can lead to significant problems including: 

• Solids accumulation in separators, vessels and tanks 
• Reduced production capacity/capability 
• Reduced equipment performance 
• Instrumentation failure 
• Erosion and damage to pumps, valves, and other equipment 
• Increased corrosion potential 
• Increased maintenance and lost in production 

In developing a Solids Management scheme for your application, Process Group considers three distinct stages: 

• Stage 1: Solids collection and removal from the process 
• Stage 2: Solids handling and cleaning 
• Stage 3: Solids disposal 

We then custom design a Solids Management system for the range of operating conditions, taking into account factors such as: 

• Solids type, size and concentration
• Continuous or batch solids removal
• Method and location of solids disposal
• Presence of hazardous materials e.g. mercury, arsenic, NORM (Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material)

The customized Solids Management system could include solutions pertaining to: 

• Wellhead and/or Desander Cyclones
• Vessel flushing
• Solids washing
• Solids containment for transport/disposal
• Handling of hazardous materials