Drilling mud Equipment

A drilling waste dewatering unit and a solidification unit is finished the installation at job site in Africa. The client start to use the dewatering unit and the drilling cuttings solidification unit to treat the waste slurry.

It is a 20ft containerized dewatering unit used at this job site. There is a 3-tank automatic polymer dosing system and a single tank PE tank for liquid chemical. The single PE tank is for manual operation. Client can choose to use both dosing system or either of them.

A 14 inch decanter centrifuge is used together with the chemical dosing system for dewatering treatment. Normally, there will be a shale shaker or high G drying shaker used before decanter centrifuge for reducing the solids content and remove the big size solids. But at this job site, there is no big size particles, and the solids content is small. The client does not need to use shale shaker separater, but use dewatering centrifuge separation directly.

After decanter centrifuge dewatering treatment, the client will use the solidification unit to make the solids waste dry. GN Solids make automatic drill cuttings solidification unit, all auger inside the solidification unit are equipped with VFD control panel. The operators can set up feeding speed before start the solidification unit.

Besides the containerized dewatering dosing system, GN Solids Control offers different sizes of 3-tank automatic polymer dosing system and single tank liquid chemical dosing unit. Clients can choose different models and modular to use it separately, or use more sets for bigger capacity.

GN Solids Control makes various sizes dewatering centrifuge, the bowl size is varying from 9 inch, 14 inch, 18 inch, 22 inch and up to max. 30 inch. And GN Solids Control offers fixed speed control, VFD control and FHD control to various size centrifuges to meet clients’ demands.

GN Solids Control also makes screw conveyor, sludge and solids vacuum pump, vertical cuttings dryer, oil sludge separation unit and waste oil/water treatment unit to meet different applications.

The annual China Environmental Expo was held in Shanghai International Expo Center in April. As the brand of environmental separation and transportation equipment of GN Solids Control, GN Separation brought the latest technology and equipment to participate in the 22nd China Environmental Expo of IE Expo China 2021. GN team just got back from the exhibition.
Below is the the main products of GN Separation taking for the Environmental Expo in Shanghai.

1. A complete set of oily sludge treatment equipment was taken by GN Separation.

GN Solids Control apply heating and chemical washing technology to treat oil sludge and oil base drilling cuttings. The system is used to recover oil and water, and reduce the oil content of solid waste to 2% through heating and chemical hot washing technology. The main equipment includes: high G drying shale shaker, sludge solid-liquid separation decanter centrifuge, three-phase centrifuge separator to get oil, water and soil cakes.

2. Large bowl decanter centrifuge with large rotating drum for sludge dewatering.

The diameter of the large bowl dewatering centrifuge is 30 inch. The large rotating drum decanter centrifuge provides high efficiency and large capacity sludge dewatering solution. It has the advantages of small area, large capacity, high efficiency and high automation.

3.  Solid / sludge vacuum pump

GN Solids Control take the big size skid mounted solids and sludge vacuum pump for the Environmental Expo. The crown energy solid and sludge vacuum pump is a pneumatic vacuum suction and positive pressure pump. The suction capacity is strong and the discharge distance is far. The suction length can up to 50m, and the discharge distance can up to 1000m. It can be used for solid, solid-liquid mixture, sludge and other material transportation. GN sludge and solids vacuum pump is widely used in various fields and different industries. The application of the pump includes but not limited to suction, solid waste transportation, kitchen waste treatment, river dredging and so on.

Centrifuge separator is a relative complex separation equipment. Centrifuge manufacturing have high request on production machines and the design ability of the companies. In this situation, few solids control manufacturer have the capability to design and make centrifuge separators. GN Solids Control is among the few companies who can make full line solids control equipment and drilling waste decanter centrifuge.

Besides solids control equipment, centrifuge is a major separation equipment designed and made by GN Solids Control. Besides the oil field decanter centrifuge to treat drilling fluids and drilling cuttings, oil field oil sludge, GN Solids Control also design and make 2-phase and 3-phase decanter centrifuge and disc centrifuge to treat sewage waste and industry waste water.

This week, GN Solids Control factory is working on the assembly and commissioning of a package of decanter centrifuge. The decanter centrifuge package is customized and made for chemical engineering projects for clients in China. It is a customized decanter centrifuge specially designed for chemical industry separation. The bowl design is much different with the oil field decanter centrifuge and sewage waste centrifuge.

It is a big bowl high speed decanter centrifuge equipped in the industry engineering project. The decanter centrifuge will be used to treat liquid chemicals. Besides oil industry separation and chemical engineering separation, GN Solids Control centrifuge can also be used in below applications:
1) GN Solids Control makes centrifuge separator for sludge dewatering, mud dewatering and suspensions.
2) GN Solids Control can design and make centrifuge to clarifying different types of liquids.
3) GN Solids Control can design and make centrifuge for sludge / mud thickening.
4) GN Solids Control designs and makes 3-phase decanter centrifuge / disc centrifuge to separate 3-hase mixtures, it is mainly two immiscible fluid phases and a solid phase. E.g.: oil, water and soil.
5) GN Solids Control designs and makes centrifuge to classifying solids in a wet suspensions to recover a certain size solids.
6) GN Solids Control designs and makes centrifuge for the separation of solids according to various densities

In April, a full set of drilling cuttings washing system is ready for commissioning for a China client at client’s job site. The drilling cuttings washing system is used to wash and separate oil base drilling cuttings and oil sludge generated from oil and gas drilling, and refinery.

There are 7 treatment modular in this drill cuttings treatment washing system:
1.Pre-treatment: A set of coarse shale shaker is used in this modular for crushing the big rocks and for pre-seperation. It is the pre-treatment before all separation steps.
2.Screening separation modular. There is a high G drying shale shaker used in this step to remove the big size particles.
3.Washing modular with static mixing for mixing and preparing solids and liquid mixture. After that, the liquid mixture can be separated by next step separation equipment.
4.Liquid and Solids separation modular with decanter centrifuge for 2-phase separation. It is the 1st time liquid and solids separation.
5.The 2nd time washing modular with dewatering treatment to remove the fine solids in the liquid.
6.The 2nd time 2-phase decanter centrifuge separation unit for ultra fine solids separation.
7.The liquid recovery modular.

It is a a full function oil based drilling cuttings washing and separation system with a full set of separation and treatment equipment. Below list is the major treatment equipment used in this oil based drill cuttings washing system:
1.A Drum shale shaker is used in the pre-treatment unit to crush the big rocks and remove it.
2.A high G drying shale shaker is used in the screening separation modular to remove the big size particles. It is the most hot sale shaker model GNZS594F which is widely used in oil and gas drilling solids control systems.
3.2 sets of static mixing unit are used in the 2 stage washing modular.
4.A inclined plate clarify is used for soil settle down in the oily liquid, which is discharged from decanter centrifuges.
5.Screw conveyor and belt drive conveyor are used in the system to feed for shaker and for solids discharge from decanter centrifuges and shale shakers.

High G drying shaker and vertical cuttings dryer are the major products for drilling cuttings treatment. This week, some sets of high G drying shaker are vertical cuttings dryer are packed for shipping to an offshore drilling company. The high G drying shaker are installed on a small holding tank. There is a centrifugal pump used as transfer pump to transfer mud out from the small holding tank.

The different is that, high G drying shaker is mainly used to separate water base mud and water base cuttings. While vertical cuttings dryer are used to treat oil base mud and oil base cuttings. In some cases, vertical cuttings dryer can be used to treat water base cuttings. But it is easier to be blocked than high G drying shaker.

High G drying shale shaker utilize API RP13C complied shaker screen. Operators can choose suitable API screen to reach the expected cut point. But vertical cuttings dryer use screen basket. Most supplier can only offer 2 sizes of bigger opening screen baskets. GN Solids Control offers 3 options of screen basket: 0.25mm, 0.35mm and 0.5mm. Operators can choose the suitable size per his job site situation and their performance demands. Generally speaking, the fine opening can get more clean liquid, and it may cause more block than big size screen opening. And the more the feeding flow rate, the wetter in the solids discharge.

Vertical cuttings dryer itself cost higher than high G drying shaker. And its motor power is much higher than high G drying shale shaker. But while be used to treat oil base mud, Vertical cuttings dryer can reduce the oil on the cuttings to 3% ~ 5%. But the high G drying shaker can only reduce oil on cuttings to 10% ~ 15%. There is a much difference.

Normally, water base mud is used at the the early drilling sections, and oil based mud is used at deeper drilling. In this case, some clients will choose both high G drying shaker and vertical cuttings dryer to treat WBM and OBM separately. Clients can also choose neither high G drying shaker or vertical cuttings dryer per their job site situation.

GN Solids Control is a professional manufacturer on drilling mud solids control system and drilling waste management equipment. GN Solids Control has branch companies in Russia with branding name GN Solids Russia, and a branching company in Houston U.S.A with branding name GN Solids America. GN Solids Control also has a sister company GN Solids Separation which is focusing on conveyor and separation equipment.

Although the COVID-19 damage the worldwide economic, with the application and promotion of vaccine, the situation becomes better and better, and our world start to get to normal. The oil field and industry field is also recovered.

Drilling mud mixing tank and drilling mud mixing unit are widely used in various kinds of drilling rigs and engineering works. In the middle of March, GN Solids Control finished the manufacturing of a dual mixing system which is complete with a mixing hopper unit and centrifugal pump. The drilling mud mixing system is prepared for an engineering company in China.

Below is the flow line description of the drilling mud mixing tank unit.

The drilling mud mixing system includes 2 small vertical circular tanks. The jet mud mixing hopper and centrifugal pump is used to transport the drilling mud chemicals to the first tank. Two centrifugal pumps connected in parallel are connected to the tank through manual butterfly valves.
Through the opening and closing of the butterfly valve, any centrifugal pump can be used to transport chemical agents. After the first mud tank is fully stirred, the qualified mud is transported to the second tank through the connecting pipeline, and the mud can be directly used for the drilling rig. In order to ensure uniform mixing of drilling mud, each mud tank is equipped with a mud agitator.

Besides the dual tank mixing system, some sets of jet mud mixing unit are ready for delivery to clients’ job site. The mixing unit is composed of Venturi hopper and centrifugal mixing hopper, which are located on a skid and connected by pipelines. GN Solids Control can also makes EX control panel to complied with different market standard. GN Solids Control has EX certificate to accordance with CNEX, ATEX and IECEX.

For any questions or inquires, clients can contact GN engineering team to get solution.

As the oil sludge treatment is a new trend. It means a new business scope for many companies. Many clients do not have much experience before they run GN waste management plant.

In order to ensure they have enough knowledge to operate the unit and reach good performance, GN Solids Control will send engineer to job site to help for the first time commissioning. GN engineer will support to test the treatment unit with real oil sludge and to train their stuff about how to adjust the system based on the material situation in order to reach a good performance. And GN engineer will give training about normal maintenance and trouble shooting if requested by clients.

Recently, GN Solids Control engineers just finished the commissioning job of an oil sludge treatment plant. The treatment plant is for a China domestic client which is used in China. It is a middle size oil sludge treatment system with 14inch centrifuges to treat oil contaminated wastes. And it is also the most popular size oil sludge treatment plant.

It is a complete oil sludge treatment plant for 2-phase and 3-phase separation. Below is the major separation plant of the oil sludge treatment plant for this project:

1) The 1st modular of the oil sludge treatment plant is premixing and heating tank package. The solids and liquid inside the raw oil sludge is not equal. Or some time, the solids control is too much high. The first stage is to prepare the sludge and make it suitable for separation. The processes which maybe be used in this stage are: mixing, dilution, heating, chemical dosing. Clients and chose 1 or more process based on the material situation.

2) The 2nd modular is drying shaker tank unit for coarse separation. The drying shaker is customized with rubber sealing cover and steam nozzle pipelines for heating. Clients choose the right API shaker screen to remove particles above a certain sizes.

3) The 3rd modular is decanter centrifuge C/W a holding tank for 2-phase separation.

4) The 4th modular is 3-phase centrifuge C/W holding tanks

5) The 5th modular is containerized dosing system to supply chemicals for the whole treatment process.

Vertical cuttings dryer (vertical centrifuge) and decanter centrifuge are major separation equipment for drilling mud and drilling cuttings treatment. A set of vertical cuttings dryer can decanter centrifuge are ready for shipment in GN Solids Control factory. They will be shipped to an international drilling company for waste management.

Vertical cuttings dryer in this project is GN latest model GNCD930E-VFD with advanced design. Mostly, fixed speed control is used for vertical cuttings dryer. For this project, client choose VFD control panel for the vertical cuttings dryer to control the rotation speed and G force.

Vertical cuttings dryer is also called as vortex centrifuge or vertical centrifuge. It is the major separation equipment to treat oil base mud and oil base cuttings. It can used to treat drilling cuttings discharged from shale shaker, desander and desilter. But it cannot treat drilling cuttings from decanter centrifuge. As decanter centrifuge is used for fine solids separation. GN Solids Control offers 3 options for screen basket opening of vertical cuttings dryer: 0.25mm, 0.35mm and 0.5mm. The soil cake from decanter centrifuge is too fine. They will all go through the screen basket. No solids can be removed while treat decanter centrifuge solids.

As the screen opening of vertical cuttings dryer is big opening. The solids control and mud weight will be high for the mud recovered from vertical cuttings dryer. In order to reduce the mud weight for reuse, decanter centrifuge will be used after decanter centrifuge for fine solids separation. Cut point of high speed decanter centrifuge is 2~5 microns. After centrifuge separation, the mud can be qualified for reuse.

Decanter centrifuge used in this project for the international drilling company is a big bowl model GNLW553C-VFD. It is a big bowl big volume centrifuge with VFD control panel for variable speed control. The big bowl centrifuge is usually used for waste management.

Mixing unit is widely used for trenchless machine and trenchless rigs, like for  pipe injection, tunneling or micro tunneling, etc…

Depends on the kind and size of the trenchless machine and limitation of the job sites, various sizes of mixing tank and various capacity of mixing units are equipped to suit for the trenchless activities.

Centrifugal pump is widely used at drilling mud mixing unit. It can be used as water pump, mixing pump, or transfer pump. Mixing tank and transfer pump is the most popular used for drilling mud tank unit.

Some mixing tank unit use 1 centrifugal pump, while some drilling mud mixing unit are equipped with 2 centrifugal pumps. The 1 centrifugal pump mixing unit also have the function of mixing and transfer. The cost of 1 centrifugal pump unit is surely lower than 2 centrifugal pump units. Why there are some clients prefer 1 mixing pump unit, while some clients prefer 2 centrifugal pumps unit. What is the major difference of the 2 proposals?

In the 1 centrifugal pump unit, the mixing pump can be used as transfer pump as well. There will be a T-pipe equipped at the outlet of the mixing pump. In this case, the mixing pump is also transfer pump. But in this conditions, mixing and transfer function cannot be used at the same time. While the pump used for mixing, the transfer must be stopped. While the pump used for transfer, mixing must be stopped. The shift of transfer and mixing can be switched by operators, or controlled by level meters or sensors.

In the mixing tank unit with 2 centrifugal pumps, a pump used for mixing, another pump is used as transfer pump. There is a separate transfer pump in the system. Some clients prefer a separate transfer pump, although their cost will be higher compared with single pump mixing tank unit. But in this conditions, the clients can use the other tank as backup pump. The mixing unit can mix mud and transfer mud at the same time. There is level gauge for high level transfer and lower level mixing.

Some sets of drilling mud vacuum degasser and centrifugal pumps are ready for shipment last week. The equipment will be shipped to an Indonesia client to service at their drilling rig mud systems.

GN Solids Control makes 2 types of drilling mud degasser for oil and gas solids control system: centrifugal degasser and vacuum degasser. All degassers in this project is vacuum type degasser model code GNZCQ270B. It is a 1200GPM capacity drilling mud vacuum degasser. Besides 1200GPM vacuum degasser, GN Solids Control has another vacuum degasser model for 1600GPM to service for big size deep drilling rigs.

ZCQ series Vacuum Degasser is a special-purpose solids control equipment for the treatment of gas in the drilling fluids. It can get rid of various gas of invasive drilling quickly. Vacuum degasser is very important for returning mud gravity, stabilizing mud viscosity and reducing drilling cost. Also, at the same time vacuum degasser can be used as a heavy-power agitator and supported applicable to all types of mud circulation purification system. The vacuum degasser design of the structure is scientific and rational. So it is able to achieve an effective gas-liquid separation, filter out impurities and to ensure that the exhaust pipe is always smooth.

Some centrifugal pumps are included in the shipment. Centrifugal pump is the most popular transfer device in drilling mud treatment system. It can be used as water pump to transfer water in water tanks. It can be used a trip pump at trip tanks. It can be used as feed pump for desander and desilter. It can be used as supercharging pump for triple mud pumps. In the mixing system, centrifugal pump can be used as mixing pump, as well as transfer pump to transfer mud between tanks and different tank compartments.

Besides vacuum degasser and centrifugal pump, GN Solids Control is also capable to make full line drilling mud solids control separation equipment, like shale shaker, mud cleaner, desander, desilter, decanter centrifuge, …. and different type of drilling mud processing equipment, like high G drying shale shaker, vertical cuttings dryer, screw conveyor auger, dewatering centrifuge, solidification unit, etc…