JWC Environmental

CPI-Oil Water Separators

Oil Water Separators Engineered to Proactively Accelerate the Separation Process

Oil Water Separators (OWS) are used to recover and separate oil from water. For years, API separators have been the de-facto solution for oil separation, but advances in technology and process design have introduced more cost-effective methods.

It is upon these technological advancements that FRC has engineered its standard oil/water separator design: the Corrugated Plate Interceptor (CPI). The CPI is a high-rate OWS that comes in 11 pre-engineered sizes, with and without rotating skimmer systems.

Proper Oil Water Separator (OWS) Design

• Flow Rate: Soaps and detergents used to clean equipment are specially formulated to emulsify and disperse oil into water. Chemical emulsions caused by surfactants take significantly longer to separate in an oil/water separator, if they can be removed at all. Without the correct process design, chemically emulsified oils will pass through the oil water separator and remain in the effluent.

• Design Capacity: Oil Water Separators have a ceiling on the amount of oily material they can separate over a given duration of time. System designers are responsible for ensuring units are not overloaded with flow or solids.

• Wastewater Characterization: A system designer must also understand how free, dispersed, and emulsified oils behave in a gravity separation environment. An analysis of separation behavior will give the most accurate estimated removal efficiency of oil of a particular micron rating.

• Separation Media: Manufacturers of oil water separators use different mechanisms to accelerate the separation process, each with its own unique performance characteristics. The right media for the application depends on the volume and type of wastewater, project budget, and preferred maintenance schedule. No one media is perfect for all projects, though a couple designs perform better than the rest.

• Use of Surfactants: Soaps and detergents used to clean equipment are specially formulated to emulsify and disperse oil into water. Chemical emulsions caused by surfactants take significantly longer to separate in an oil/water separator, if they can be removed at all. Without the correct process design, chemically emulsified oils will pass through the separator and remain in the effluent.