Case study · Oil, Gas & Energy · 2012
200,000 L/day hybrid refinery, solvents recovered at pervaporation scale
An innovative multi-process refinery in Virginia, USA. Petro Sep engineered, fabricated, and deployed AQUA-SEP®, AZEO-SEP®, and VOC-SEP® systems on the same site. Featured as one of the largest pervaporation deployments of its kind.
- Industry
- Oil, Gas & Energy
- Location
- Virginia, USA
- Year
- 2012
- Technology deployed
- PV + VP + VMD
Outcomes
The numbers that mattered.
Independently verified at commissioning, tracked in operation.
- Project capacity
- 200,000 L/day
- Multi-process refinery scope.
- Technologies combined
- 3
- AQUA-SEP®, AZEO-SEP®, and VOC-SEP® on the same site.
- Scope ownership
- End to end
- Design, fabrication, installation, and commissioning by one team.
01
The problem
The operator needed a refinery configuration that conventional solvent recovery and water treatment could not deliver in one footprint. Distillation alone could not break the relevant azeotropes economically. Reverse osmosis could not handle the high-TDS aqueous side. The exhaust stream carried VOCs at concentrations where carbon-based capture became uneconomic. Three separation problems, one site, one capex envelope.
02
Why a hybrid AQUA-SEP + AZEO-SEP + VOC-SEP design
Petro Sep's three productized platforms each target one of the three problems. AQUA-SEP® (vacuum membrane distillation) handles the high-TDS aqueous streams that RO cannot touch. AZEO-SEP® (pervaporation) breaks the azeotropic and close-boiling solvent mixtures distillation alone cannot resolve, with no entrainer column required. VOC-SEP® (pervaporation and vapor permeation) recovers the volatile organic compounds from the exhaust stream and returns them to the process as virgin-equivalent. Designed as one integrated train rather than three bolt-on units, the hybrid hit the operator's capex envelope while consolidating maintenance and operator training under a single vendor.
03
The build
Engineering, FEED, and detailed design at Toronto (Mississauga), where the membrane skids are fabricated as part of our membrane production and factory-acceptance tested before shipping. Site erection and mechanical integration coordinated with the operator's EPC partner. Commissioning and operator training by the same Petro Sep team that engineered the system. The hybrid configuration is documented in PSC's own marquee project list as a benchmark of what the three platforms can do when deployed in concert.
04
Outcomes in operation
200,000 L/day combined throughput across the three separation systems. The membrane train has remained the operating backbone of the site since commissioning. PSC has continued to support performance optimization, membrane replacement, and operator training under a multi-year services agreement.
Gallery
From the field.
Photographs from fabrication, installation, and commissioning.
Industry
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Technology
How Pervaporation works.
Selective separation of liquid mixtures, including the azeotropes that distillation cannot break.
Specs and applications
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