The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 31, 2002
Filed:
Dec. 14, 2000
Robert Frank Dee, Amsterdam, NL;
Marinus Van Zwienen, Amsterdam, NL;
Shell Oil Company, Houston, TX (US);
Abstract
A process for treating waste water streams containing at least hydrocarbons and salts to yield a clean water product, a concentrated brine product and a hydrocarbon-rich product, which process includes the steps of: (a) feeding the waste water feed into a first distillation column at a stage in the range of from 0.05 to 0.15 from the top, wherein n represents the total number of theoretical stages of the first distillation column and has a value in the range of from 20 to 40; (b) drawing off a vapor stream at a stage in the range of from 0.55 to 0.75 from the top and feeding this vapor stream into the bottom of a second distillation column having m theoretical stages, with m having a value in the range of from 3 to 10; (c) drawing off the clean water product as the top fraction from the second distillation column and drawing off a bottom stream from the second distillation column, which is fed back into the first distillation column below the draw off of the vapor stream in step (b) at a stage in the range of from 0.60 to 0.85 from the top; (d) drawing off the concentrated brine product as the bottom fraction of the first distillation column; and (e) drawing off the hydrocarbon stream as the top fraction of the first distillation column.