Hydrocyclones have been used at the industries to
separate solids from liquids and sometimes to separate
liquids from liquids by the difference in density
between the fluid and the material to be separated
in this equipment. The principle employed is centrifugal
sedimentation, i.e., due to the fluid acquires a
spiraling motion caused by the tangent feeding,
the material of larger density is thrown against
the wall of the hydrocyclone and dragged to the
underflow while the one of smaller density proceeds
for the overflow, forming a free vortex and a forced
vortex to create the necessary force, the potential
energy of process slurry is converted to kinetic
energy at the cyclone feed inlet. The filtering
hydrocyclone has another stream imposed of filtrate
originating in the filtration in the conical area.
Hydrocyclone use small physical space in comparison
with flotation and gravity separators. Since there
are no moving parts, cyclones are relatively maintenance-free.
Hydrocyclones (
Deoiler
hydrocyclones ) are used in the oil industry
to remove oil from the produced water before the
water is disposed overboard or reinjected into the
formation.