Oil/ Water Separation Is Custom-Built
Oil/ Water Separation requires advanced, engineered-to-order equipment built around your exact water conditions, flow rate, and site requirements — that’s why we don’t list generic units online. Request a quote and one of our engineers will call you to walk through your application and build a solution designed specifically for it.
Frequently Asked Questions
What oil concentrations can AMPAC USA oil-water separator systems achieve in treated effluent?
Our gravity coalescent separators can reduce free and dispersed oil to below 10 mg/L, which meets many industrial discharge limits and is a common pretreatment target before membrane polishing. For tighter discharge requirements below 5 mg/L or 1 mg/L, we follow the coalescer with ultrafiltration or dissolved air flotation to capture emulsified oil that gravity separation cannot reach. Effluent quality guarantees are available for systems designed to meet specific permit limits.
What is the difference between free oil, dispersed oil, and emulsified oil in wastewater treatment?
Free oil rises naturally to the surface due to density difference and is easily removed by gravity skimmers or API separators. Dispersed oil consists of small droplets at 20-150 microns that rise slowly and can be captured by coalescent media that causes droplets to merge and float. Emulsified oil has droplet sizes below 20 microns, often stabilized by surfactants, and requires chemical demulsification, dissolved air flotation, or membrane filtration because gravity and simple coalescing cannot break the emulsion.
How do coalescent media separators work, and what media types does AMPAC USA use?
Coalescent media presents a high-surface-area matrix of oleophilic material that oil droplets preferentially wet and merge on. As droplets combine into larger ones, buoyancy overcomes the media's hold and the coalesced oil rises to the surface for skimming. We use corrugated polypropylene plate packs for most industrial applications and oleophilic polyurethane foam or fibrous media for systems requiring very small footprints or handling low oil concentrations.
Can your oil-water separators handle water with high solids content alongside the oil contamination?
Yes, but solids must be addressed before the coalescent stage to prevent media blinding, which rapidly reduces separation efficiency. Our systems for high-solids applications include an upstream settling tank or hydrocyclone to remove settleable solids before the coalescer. Failing to pretreat for solids is the most common cause of premature coalescer fouling and disappointing separator performance in field installations.
What flow rate range do AMPAC USA oil-water separation systems cover?
We build oil-water separators from 5 GPM for small equipment wash pads and maintenance shops up to 2,000+ GPM for refinery and produced water applications. The design approach differs by scale: smaller systems use prefabricated skids with plate-pack coalescers, while large systems combine multiple treatment stages in a sequential process we engineer site-specifically. Contact us with your flow rate and inlet oil concentration for a preliminary system selection.