Sabian® Black Walnut Shell Filtration

Patented technology to attain cleaner water in the most challenging processes.

Greater filtration beyond produced treatment water using our tertiary water treatment processes.

Exterran® Water Solutions

Sabian® Black Walnut Shell Filtration

Sabian® Black Walnut Shell (BWS) Filters remove the smallest traces of oil and solids that remain in produced water after other treatments. The system removes oil in water and total suspended solids (TSS) achieving a target water quality of <5ppm. capacities range from 2,000 to 150,000 bwpd with a turndown capability of 45%.

Sabian filters are high-efficiency, cost-saving performers. A single vertical vessel can deliver throughputs up to 50,000 BWPD and horizontal configurations are designed up to 150,000 BWPD. Each small-footprint, easy-to-install unit incorporates a patented internal backwash cycle that uses no moving parts and minimizes backwash volume. These features save you capital, auxiliary equipment, site space, energy, filter media and downtime.

Key Benefits

High single-vessel capacity, less piping and auxiliary equipment, and fewer controls lead to lower installation costs.
Conservative flux rate, lower backwash frequency, and reduced energy consumption and media attrition reduce operating costs.
No failure-prone internal scrubbers, pumps or other moving parts minimize maintenance costs.

Better Performance

Negligible upstream surge capacity is required because the same pump and water are used for feed and backwash, allowing use of existing tanks with no flow diversion.
Large horizontal configurations are available without the dead zones, tar balls and wormholes common with other products.

High Flexibility

Turndown capacity to 45% of maximum flow gives you predictable results in unpredictable flow conditions.

How It Works

Process

As produced water flows through the filter, oil and solids are trapped in a media bed of ground black walnut shells. When the media becomes saturated, a backwash cycle is triggered by either a preset time or pressure drop. A mixture of compressed air and water is injected to fluidize, agitate and quickly clean the media inside the filter. Oil and oily solids are easily shed from the water-wet walnut shell media. The cleaned media then resettles for one minute and the filter is back in service. The system is completely hydraulic with no mechanical agitators or scrubbers. The media settles much more evenly than with other systems, thus eliminating dead zones, tar balling and wormhole (channeling) problems.