Modern Application of Decanter Centrifuge in Drilling Mud System

A good quality decanter centrifuge should meet several features, such as anti-corrosive and anti-explosion. Actually, as the name implies, decanting centrifuge is used for separating something in drilling fluids, therefore, it should have excellent separation performance.

Much current drilling centrifuge application with drilling fluids is not only unproductive, but is counterproductive. One example of misuse is the practice of running two centrifuges in parallel to "recover the barite" with the first and "discard the drilled solids" with the second. The first stage is traditional centrifuging, returning the underflow to the active mud system. Rather than discarding the overflow, it is routed to the second centrifuge running at a higher speed, where the low-gravity solids supposedly are discarded and the "clean" liquid is returned to the mud.

Modern Application of Decanter Centrifuge
This process cannot, does not, and will not work! It is based on two erroneous assumptions:
1. the first centrifuge is capable of separating barite from low gravity solids;
2. the second centrifuge is capable of producing a solids-free liquid for return to the mud.

The centrifuge may be chosen according to the size and concentration of the strong particles within the suspension liquid or the drilling flare ignition device, density contrast of two liquids, the viscosity of the liquids, the qualities regarding the residue or the sediment, coupled with the separation requirement, at the same time, the requirements concerning the moisture content materials about the residue or the sediment and the clarity of the filtering liquid as well as the separated liquid will be taken into consideration to decide the choice of the centrifuge.

After that, the kind and the specification connected with the centrifuge might be determined and tested by thinking about the processing capacity and additionally automatic operation specifications. More often than not, the tiny or compressible particles inside the suspension liquid can employ the decanter centrifuge.