Gravity separators
API-style separators that let free oil rise and heavy solids settle in a quiescent chamber.
Where it fits
Handles high free-oil loading cheaply, and is the right first stage on a heavy stream.
Equipment Solutions
Take the oil out before it reaches anything expensive
Coalescing and gravity separators that pull free and dispersed oil off the stream ahead of carbon, biology and the outfall — because oil blinds carbon beds, smothers biomass and fouls membranes, and removing it first is the cheapest protection available.
- 3
- oil states to design for: free, dispersed, emulsified
- In-house
- lab characterizing the oil before design
- 3
- ways to take it: rent, buy or build to spec
The design question
Which kind of oil are you actually removing?
Free oil floats on its own and a gravity separator will take it out. Dispersed oil is fine droplets suspended through the water, and needs a coalescing pack to merge them into droplets buoyant enough to rise. Emulsified oil is chemically stabilized and will not separate mechanically at any residence time.
Most disappointing separator installations are a design built for one of those states and fed a stream that is mostly another. Characterizing the oil first is what avoids it.
The range
Six stages, used alone or in series
Heavy streams usually need two of these; stabilized emulsions need three.
Coalescing separators
Plate or media packs that merge fine dispersed droplets into ones large enough to rise.
Where it fits
Removes the dispersed oil that a gravity separator alone will pass straight through.
Cone-bottom units
Cone-bottom vessels with flanged discharge and actuated butterfly valves for solids draw-off.
Where it fits
Sludge and grit come off concentrated instead of accumulating in the chamber.
Organophilic clay polishing
Modified hydrophobic clays downstream of the separator to strip emulsified hydrocarbons and surfactants.
Where it fits
Emulsified oil is what blinds carbon beds — this is the stage that protects them.
DAF for stubborn emulsions
Dissolved air flotation with chemical conditioning where the emulsion is chemically stabilized.
Where it fits
Some emulsions will not break mechanically at any residence time.
Built to spec
Custom vessels, materials and internals fabricated in Spectrum’s own shop.
Where it fits
For footprints, temperatures or chemistries no catalog unit covers.
Fabrication
Custom vessels from our own shop
Where no catalog unit fits the footprint, the temperature or the chemistry, separators are fabricated to spec in Spectrum's shop — custom geometry, materials and internals, modeled before steel is cut. The same building holds the process chemists who characterized the stream in the first place.
Inside the fabrication shopFAQs
What is the difference between free, dispersed and emulsified oil?
Free oil floats on its own and a gravity separator handles it. Dispersed oil is fine droplets suspended through the water — a coalescing pack merges them into droplets large enough to rise. Emulsified oil is chemically stabilized and will not separate mechanically at all; it needs chemical treatment, DAF or organophilic clay. Knowing which you have determines the whole design.
Why does oil removal matter so much upstream?
Because of what it protects. Oil blinds activated carbon beds, smothers biomass in biological treatment and fouls membranes. Removing it first is usually the cheapest thing you can do to extend the life of everything behind it.
How do I know which separator my stream needs?
From analysis, not assumption. Spectrum’s in-house laboratory characterizes the oil, and the design follows from whether it is free, dispersed or emulsified — and from the discharge limit you have to hit.
What happens to the recovered oil?
Often it is worth money. On-spec recovered oils go into Spectrum’s beneficial reuse program, which places them with vetted refiners and blenders as raw material or fuel rather than sending them for disposal.
Four buckets, one call
Four service lines. One phone call.
Water, Environmental, Carbon, and Equipment run as one team under one contract — so you brief a single crew and get an answer, not a referral.
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