Kelburn Engineering - Compact Cyclone Separators and Gas Filters

Kelburn Engineering is a world leader in liquid and solid particle separation / filtration from gas, air or steam flows.

Kelburn Engineering produce a comprehensive range of compact cyclone separators for effective liquid removal with efficiencies of more than 99.5%, for all gas, steam or air applications over all pressure ranges. Our gas filters and filtration packages can be supplied with liquid and solid removal levels down to 0.1 microns.

Compact cyclone separators

Kelburn high-efficiency compact cyclone separators utilise profiled deflector blading, which imparts powerful centrifugal forces on the liquid slugs, streams and droplets. All liquid entering the cyclone is driven from the separator inlet section by the accelerating gas velocity across the deflector blades; the stream then enters the separation zone, where the rotational flow subjects the fluid stream to a high gravity 'g' field, which separates all the liquid streams and droplets from the gas flow, forcing them to the separator outer wall. A liquid boundary layer forms on the outer wall, which captures the smaller liquid droplets as they move outwards due to the centrifugal motion.

The liquid layer moves along the separator wall and exits the separator from a volute-contoured large bore drain. The attached reservoir gives the additional liquid storage capacity in the event of intermittent slugs at the separator; the reservoir allows the liquid to be held up, stored and drained in a controlled manner through the reservoir small bore drain line by means of a control valve or liquid drainer.

High-efficiency compact cyclone separators

Kelburn high-efficiency compact cyclone separators are suitable for the following applications:

• Replacement of high-volume gravity separators / scrubbers
• De-bottlenecking
• Gas compressor protection
• Two-phase separation
• Bulk gas liquid separation for metering applications
• Gas preconditioning to filters or scrubbers
• Heat exchanger protection
• Molecular sieve protection
• Pressure reducing valve, control valves and flow meter protection
• Flare system protection / KO drum replacement
• Condensate removal from gas cooler outlet

Compact cyclone separator benefits

Kelburn compact-separation technology offers the following advantages:

• Reduction in space, weight and cost compared to traditional separator systems
• Maintenance free: having no moving parts there is no maintenance requirement for the separator except for routine piping inspections
• Low pressure drop: the operational pressure drop is typically less than 1% of the operational pressure
• Inline arrangement: the separator has a horizontal inline inlet / outlet configuration, making installation very straight forward and is particularly advantageous for de-bottleneck retrofit applications
• Turndown: the separator has a typical turndown ratio of 5:1 over the full pressure and gas flow ranges
• Liquid slug-handling capacity due instantaneous gas / liquid centrifugal separation and large bore drain providing immediate liquid removal to large volume holding reservoir
• Solid particle removal: the separator is also extremely efficient in the removal of entrained solid particles from gas flows both with wet and dry as applications

Coalescing gas filters / fuel gas conditioning packages

The Kelburn range of high efficiency gas filters removes both liquid and solids from gas flow lines, and are offered as stand alone units or as integrated packaged skids.

Applications of Kelburn coalescing filters / skid packages:

• Liquid hydrocarbon removal from fuel gas lines
• Reciprocating equipment protection
• Heat exchanger protection
• Glycol contactor upstream water / liquid removal from gas
• Oil removal from refrigerant gas
• Gas turbine / compressor protection
• Liquid removal from process gas
• Oil removal from gas turbine breather systems
• Molecular sieve / catalyst bed protection

Features and benefits of Kelburn coalescing filters / skid packages:

• High liquid / solid removal efficiency
• High-capacity large surface area element
• Minimised vessel size/ space required for installation
• Reduced and maintenance capital costs
• Low pressure drop
• Reduced element change outs frequency
• Consistently high liquid removal efficiency
• Optimum protection of downstream equipment