Category: drilling waste

GN Decanter Centrifuge System for Africa Oilfield Waste Water Treatment

A complete package of a wastewater treatment centrifuge unit has been fully manufactured and is now ready for delivery to an oil and gas drilling project in Africa. This system is designed specifically to treat wastewater generated during drilling operations, where effective separation of ultra-fine solids is critical to meeting environmental discharge and reuse requirements. Oil and gas drilling wastewater typically contains fine particles, residual drilling fluids, and chemical additives, which require a high-performance dewatering solution with stable and continuous operation.

This centrifuge unit represents a high-standard wastewater dewatering system, engineered to handle ultra-fine solids from treated water streams with high separation efficiency. At the core of the system is a high-speed, large-bowl decanter centrifuge. The large bowl diameter and optimized bowl length provide an extended clarification area and higher centrifugal force, allowing the centrifuge to effectively remove very fine solids while maintaining high throughput and low moisture content in the discharged solids.

To ensure smooth and controlled feeding into the decanter centrifuge, the package is equipped with a matched feeding screw pump. The screw pump is specially selected for its ability to handle variable flow rates and abrasive slurry without causing excessive shear, ensuring stable operation and protecting both the pump and the centrifuge from premature wear.

The system also includes a complete chemical dosing unit, which allows precise injection of flocculants or other treatment chemicals into the wastewater stream. Proper chemical dosing enhances particle agglomeration, significantly improving the separation efficiency of ultra-fine solids and reducing the load on the centrifuge.

In addition, a clean water tank with a dedicated transfer pump is integrated into the package. The clarified water separated by the centrifuge can be collected, stored, and transferred for further treatment, reuse, or safe discharge in accordance with local environmental regulations.

All components of the centrifuge unit are mounted on a telescopic skid structure designed to support and secure the entire package. This skid-mounted design ensures ease of transportation, installation, and on-site integration, while providing structural stability during operation. The complete system reflects a reliable and efficient solution for wastewater treatment in oil and gas drilling fields.

2 Sets 1000GPM HDD mud cleaning system for Australia Customer

Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD) is a widely used trenchless construction method for installing underground pipelines, cables, and utilities with minimal disturbance to the surface. This technology is especially advantageous in urban areas, river crossings, road crossings, and environmentally sensitive zones. During HDD operations, drilling mud plays a critical role by lubricating the drill bit, stabilizing the borehole, suspending and transporting drilled cuttings, and maintaining overall drilling efficiency. Effective management and recycling of drilling mud are therefore essential to ensure safe, economical, and environmentally responsible HDD operations.

An HDD mud recycling system significantly enhances operational efficiency and sustainability by continuously cleaning and reusing drilling fluid. Through a combination of solids control separation equipment—such as shale shakers, desanders, desilters, mud cleaners, and mud tanks—the system removes drilled solids of various particle sizes while maintaining optimal mud properties, including viscosity and density. This process reduces fresh water and chemical consumption, minimizes waste disposal volumes, lowers overall project costs, and helps prevent environmental contamination. As a result, a reliable mud recycling system is a critical component of modern HDD projects.

GN Solids Control is capable of designing, manufacturing, and supplying drilling mud cleaning and recycling systems in various sizes and configurations to suit HDD and other trenchless applications. The systems are engineered to meet different flow rate requirements, geological conditions, and local environmental regulations, while ensuring high separation efficiency and operational reliability.

Recently, GN Solids Control delivered two (2) sets of customized no-dig mud cleaning systems for an Australian client. Each system is designed with a handling capacity of 1000 GPM (approximately 240 m³/h), suitable for large-diameter and long-distance HDD projects. The systems are equipped with the following major separation and support equipment:

Two (2) sets of double-deck shale shakers, providing high fluid handling capacity and efficient coarse solids removal.

Two (2) units of 10-inch desander cone assemblies mounted on top of the shale shakers, designed for solids separation with a cut point of approximately 47 microns.

Ten (10) units of 4-inch desilter cone assemblies installed on the second double-deck shale shaker for fine solids separation with a cut point of approximately 27 microns.

Two (2) centrifugal feed pumps to supply slurry to the desander and desilter units.

One (1) centrifugal mixing pump with a 6-inch mixing hopper for preparing fresh, qualified drilling mud.

Complete auxiliary equipment including mud agitators, mud guns, an 11.5 m³ mud tank, and an integrated electrical control system for centralized operation.

This customized HDD mud recycling system ensures efficient solids removal, stable mud performance, reduced environmental impact, and reliable operation throughout the drilling process.

GN Decanter Centrifuge and Cuttings Dryer for Africa Drilling Company

Vertical cuttings dryers and decanter centrifuges are core processing equipment used downstream of the drilling mud solids control system. After the shale shakers, desanders, desilters, and mud cleaners separate the coarse and medium solids from the drilling fluid, a significant amount of fine solids and liquid remains trapped in the drill cuttings. To meet environmental regulations, reduce drilling waste volume, and recover valuable drilling fluid, further treatment of these drill cuttings is required. Vertical cuttings dryers, together with high-speed and low-speed decanter centrifuges, play a critical role in achieving this objective.

The vertical cuttings dryer is primarily designed to treat drill cuttings discharged from shale shakers when drilling with oil-based or synthetic-based mud. By utilizing high-speed centrifugal force, the dryer effectively removes residual liquid from the cuttings, significantly reducing oil-on-cuttings (OOC) and producing drier solids suitable for disposal or further handling.

Meanwhile, decanter centrifuges are used to process the liquid phase recovered from the dryer, as well as overflow from the solids control system, enabling fine solids separation and efficient recovery of drilling fluids. High-speed centrifuges focus on ultra-fine solids removal, while low-speed centrifuges are applied for barite recovery and density control, ensuring optimal mud performance and cost efficiency.

GN Solids Control offers a complete range of high-quality vertical cuttings dryers and decanter centrifuges designed to meet the diverse technical, operational, and regulatory requirements of different markets worldwide. The equipment is engineered with robust mechanical design, wear-resistant materials, and reliable control systems to ensure stable operation in harsh drilling environments.

Recently, GN Solids Control successfully delivered one (1) vertical cuttings dryer model GNCD930G and two (2) variable-speed decanter centrifuges model GNLW363D-VFD to an African drilling company. The decanter centrifuges are equipped with electrical variable frequency drives (VFD), allowing precise adjustment of bowl speed and conveyor differential speed. This flexibility enables the centrifuges to adapt to various applications, including fine solids removal, barite recovery, and fluid clarification, under different mud types and operating conditions. The supplied system provides efficient cuttings treatment, reduced environmental impact, and improved overall drilling fluid management for the project.