Ultrasonic cleaning 500 hydrocyclones from an offshore platform in the Norwegian North Sea

Business Need

Our customer, NOV, delivers technology-driven solutions that are critical to the safe, efficient and reliable operation of the global energy industry.

This project involved the cleaning of hydrocyclones that are used to separate oil from water, within a produced water treatment system, on an offshore platform in the Norwegian North Sea.

To replace each hydrocyclone would cost between £1,000 – £2,000 each and include a lengthy procurement and delivery cycle. Given that the platform only had a tight 13-day window for shipping, cleaning and restoring, the project required a partner that could act quickly to meet strict timeframes. And at a cost of around £100 for us to clean each hydrocyclone, there were huge cost efficiencies to be had, especially when they had 500 parts.

Our Role

The client sent 500 hydrocyclones at a time that were contaminated with oil through the separation process. If there is built up oil or excessive oil slugs within the deoiling hydrocyclone this can reduce the efficiency of the separation process and lead to oil being carried over to the clean water stream.

Our role was to remove this built-up oil and restore the high function of the part. As the parts are incredibly fragile, the cleaning process used a combination of neutral chemicals and ultrasonic cleaning. Special care and individual attention was delivered to ensure that no damage was caused. Ultrasonics, a manual rinse and a final rinse in demineralised water was completed before each part was hand dried with compressed air to ensure the delicate parts were protected and no contamination was introduced.

The Outcome

We were able to restore the parts to precision working conditions within the 13-day period, which included port collection and delivery.

The client was pleased with the process as it was conducted within the designated shipping dates, at a significantly reduced cost to replacing the parts and all without any damage to the hydrocyclones.

So, before you look to replace whole parts talk to our team to see if we can save time, cost and the environment through our industrial cleaning solutions.