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Equity Residential Agrees To Sell $1.5 Billion Of Assets To A Joint Venture Of Goldman Sachs And Greystar
Equity Residential (NYSE: EQR) today announced that the company has entered into an agreement to sell a portfolio of assets to a joint venture of the Real Estate Principal Investment Area of Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Greystar Real Estate Partners LLC for $1.5 billion. The transaction values the 27 properties at approximately $187,000 per apartment unit and a capitalization rate in the mid to high 5% range. Per the agreement, Equity Residential has granted the buyer the right to exclude up to 8% of the value of these assets from their purchase. As a result, Goldman Sachs and Greystar have the contractual right to acquire all of the assets for $1.5 billion but are obligated to purchase not less than $1.38 billion of assets. The buyers have deposited $150 million in escrow and have waived their due diligence contingency. The transaction is expected to be completed in two separate closings, both of which will occur in the first quarter of 2013.
"With this transaction we will have made significant progress selling assets in our exit markets and non-core assets in primary markets to fund our share of the acquisition of Archstone," said David J. Neithercut, Equity Residential's President and CEO. "Demand for multifamily assets remains very strong and we are pleased that our original pricing expectations were met by this transaction."
The assets under contract for sale are located in the following markets:
Purchase Price (millions)
Washington, D.C. and Northern N.J.
|Southern California
San Francisco Bay Area
Equity Residential is an S&P 500 company focused on the acquisition, development and management of high quality apartment properties in top U.S. growth markets. Equity Residential owns or has investments in 412 properties located in 13 states and the District of Columbia, consisting of 117,322 apartment units. For more information on Equity Residential, please visit our website at www.equityapartments.com.Forward-Looking Statements In addition to historical information, this press release contains forward-looking statements and information within the meaning of the federal securities laws. These statements are based on current expectations, estimates, projections and assumptions made by management. While Equity Residential's management believes the assumptions underlying its forward-looking statements are reasonable, such information is inherently subject to uncertainties and may involve certain risks, including, without limitation, changes in general market conditions, including the rate of job growth and cost of labor and construction material, the level of new multifamily construction and development, competition and local government regulation. Other risks and uncertainties are described under the heading "Risk Factors" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and available on our website, www.equityapartments.com. Many of these uncertainties and risks are difficult to predict and beyond management's control. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, results or events. Equity Residential assumes no obligation to update or supplement forward-looking statements that become untrue because of subsequent events.
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subset: commoncrawl


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Hans Scharler gets political while discussing the match up of McCain vs. Obama. Hans also takes a look at entertainment and sporting news on this week's episode. Segments include Online Dating Sponsor, Listener Email, Bad Joke, Ed McMahon Woes, Obama vs. McCain, Cindy McCain, Tiger Woods, Wedding, Love Guru, Finn the Dolphin, and Shameless Plugging. http://nothans.com/podcast
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In California, my home state, Democrats have dominated the capitol since roughly 1970. In the last four-plus decades, they've controlled both houses of the state legislature for all but two years. They dominate the state bureaucracy and the leadership of most major cities. And they've long dominated the vast majority of statewide offices, the governorship excepted: Since Ronald Reagan departed in 1975, it has gone back and forth between Democrats (like current and former governor Jerry Brown) and Republicans, most recently the moderate Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Despite this, Paul Krugman, the Nobel Prize-winning economist and New York Times opinion writer, has managed to write a column that proceeds as if, insofar as partisans can be blamed, Republicans are entirely to blame for the state's woes, which he thinks are exaggerated, while Democrats bear no responsibility. As a Californian who hasn't given up on his place of residence, I'm glad to see Krugman thinks there are good times ahead for the Golden State, but the analysis that precedes his conclusion is causing me to doubt him. It's true that supermajority rules have constrained Democratic legislative majorities, that California residents have added to the dysfunction of state governance with the cumulative effect of constraining ballot initiatives they've passed, and that California Republicans are failures in too many ways to list. But I'd be guilty of false equivalence, dear reader, if I didn't assure you that Democrats bear more blame, largely because they've had the opportunity and responsibility to exercise so much more power, and weren't exactly starved of revenue compared to what other states take in.
Fine, let's set aside the question of who is more at fault. Here is a weaker claim. Democratic rule in California has included serious sins of omission and commission by the progressive-liberal coalition that has more often than not been in charge, and the left would do well to learn from those mistakes so that it can govern better, instead of pretending, like Krugman, that they don't exist, and that everything would function smoothly if only they were able to raise state taxes.
Here are five examples of misgovernance for which they bear full or partial responsibility.
Lesson 1: Gerrymandering Polarizes
The Democrats who've long run the California legislature have used their control over legislative districts as politicians are wont to do: as an incumbent-protection racket. Over time, everyone was put into safe seats, and the cooperative Republican minority was coming from such ridiculously unrepresentative districts that the whole party shifted sharply to the right: The primary was all that mattered. Thankfully, California voters handed power to a nonpartisan redistricting commission in 2010. Then in 2011, state Democrats went about gaming that system too.
Lesson 2: Public Employee Pensions Can Bankrupt a State
In City Journal, Steven Malanga provides a recent history of public employee pensions in California:
In 1991, with the nation mired in a recession and the state in a fiscal crisis, the California legislature closed the existing pension system to new workers, for whom it created a second "tier." This less expensive plan no longer required the worker to make a pension contribution, and it lowered the value of his pension to 1.25 percent of his final average salary for every year he had worked; further, he could begin to receive the pension only at 65. A 40-year veteran with a final average salary of $50,000 would thus qualify for a $25,000 pension, plus Social Security benefits.
The state's public-sector unions hated the new tier, of course, and their growing influence over CalPERS's board of directors meant that it, too, was soon lobbying against the 1991 reform. Six of the board's 13 members are chosen by government workers, and as union power grew in California, those six increasingly tended to be labor honchos. Two more members are statewide elected officials (California's treasurer and controller), and another two are appointed by the governor--so by 1999, when union-backed Gray Davis became governor and union-backed Phil Angelides became state treasurer, the CalPERS board was wearing a "union label," noted the New York Times. As the newspaper added, critics worried that the board had become so partisan that its "ability to provide for the 1.3 million public employees whose pensions it guarantees" was in doubt.
The critics were right to worry about CalPERS's bias. In 1999, the fund's board concocted an astonishing proposal that would take all the post-1991 state employees and retroactively put them in the older, more expensive pension system. The initiative went still further, lowering the retirement age for all state workers and sweetening the pension formula for police and firefighters even more. Public-safety workers could potentially retire at 50 with 90 percent of their salaries, and other government workers at 55 with 60 percent of their salaries.
CalPERS wrote the legislation for these changes and then persuaded lawmakers to pass it. In pushing for the change, though, the pension fund downplayed the risks involved. A 17-page brochure about the proposal that CalPERS handed to legislators reads like a pitch letter, not a serious fiscal analysis. The state could offer these fantastic benefits to workers at no cost, proclaimed the brochure: "No increase over current employer contributions is needed for these benefit improvements." The state's annual contribution to the pension fund--$776 million in 1998--would remain relatively unchanged in the years ahead, the brochure predicted.
But the board members knew that there was a downside. CalPERS staff had provided them with scenarios based on different ways the market might perform. In the worst case, a long 1970s-style downturn, government contributions to the fund would have to rise by billions of dollars (which is basically what wound up happening). CalPERS neglected to include that worst-case scenario in its legislative brochure. And though the board later claimed that it had offered a full analysis to anyone who asked, key players at the time deny it. Even the state senator who sponsored the law, Deborah Ortiz, says that lawmakers received little of substance from the fund's representatives. "We probed and probed and asked questions 100 times," she told the San Jose Mercury News in 2003. "The CalPERS staff assured us that even in the worst-case scenario the state's general fund would take a $300 million hit," a manageable sum in a $99 billion state budget. (The actual cost to the state budget, it turned out, was more than ten times that estimate--and it's still climbing.)
The catastrophic pension deal that Davis presided over had ramifications, direct and indirect, for cities all over the state. For a staggering look at the end result, see Michael Lewis' November 2011 article.
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Nikon J1 10.1 MP Digital Camera - Silver (Kit w/ VR 10-30mm and VR 30-110mm...
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Bass Pro Shops® 5-3/4'' Heavy-Duty Split Ring Pliers
- Opens the smallest split rings
- Carbon sttel construction
- Cushioned handles
Bass Pro Shops® 5-3/4'' Heavy-Duty Split Ring Pliers 7 7
...great HEAVY DUTY plier... ...like...i have used this plier for yrs now...and as it is stated...and can be seen if in a bp store...they are *HEAVY DUTY* and for the LARGER split rings.. so please outsmart a plier and PAY ATTENTION to what you are buying/wanting...it is bright as day the differance in between the three bp split ring pliers..i have three all for DIFFERANT split ring usage... i dont get it...??...my review on this bp split ring pliers cannot be any more up front and clear on how to identify...HEAVY DUTY....leave all other rings out of these...uless you like bawling.... April 12, 2013
needed alterations While it works excellent on large split rings, it's too large to fit through the hole on small split rings. I modified it by grinding down the bottom to a smaller size. Works great now. March 29, 2012
Do not, never ever buy First review for me, background for me, many years of fishing. Internet provides a way to buy a lot of cheap lures. Cheap lures = shipped with no hooks. Needed a tool to help with split rings/hook insertion. Bought this at store. BAD CALL. 1. The point is too big to split a ring. 2. Dont buy, using a pair of long nose pliers would work 10x better. If you buy this, you are wasting your money. Some tools are less effective but you can still use them. This tool, if purchased, will become the most useless tool in you tacklebox. v/r MIT PHD, you have been warned December 28, 2011
Very Dissapointed I had several baits that I wanted to replace and change out hooks on. Normally I do this with my fingernails and an o-ring pick which works beautifully compared to these pliers. Save your money and aggravation by not purchasing these pliers. December 23, 2010
Need Help? 7 days a week: 7am to 10pm CT or call 1.800.227.7776 anytime


text:
All quotes by W. R. Inge
(204 quotes found)
"To be honest with you, with that same effort, that same game that we put together right there, we'll still beat a lot of people with that."
"Last year and the year prior, it was so uptight. This year, we need to do something different. This is a pleasant change."
"I have never understood why it should be considered derogatory to the Creator to suppose that he has a sense of humour."
"The nations which have put mankind and posterity most in their debt have been small states Israel, Athens, Florence, Elizabethan England"


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I'm Riveted Watching Senator Ted Cruz Filibuster on C-SPAN, I Didn't Look at MSM Crap at all TodaySubmitted by Michaelwiseguy on Wed, 09/25/2013 - 00:10
How about you?
- Login to post comments
it's just after 6AM
and Rubio must have napped 'cause he is really energetic. Poor Cruz and Lee sound tired.
I really enjoyed Cruz' reading of Bastiat. Not enough people know his work.
If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.
James Madison
Tell Senator Paul to get his
Tell Senator Paul to get his ass out of bed and get down there on the Senate floor!
So I am not the only one up
So I am not the only one up in the middle of the night listening
Senator Ted Cruz is recommending "Atlas Shrugged"!
I actually had to pinch myself
Is this real?
Because these two polished mofos are putting on a show so tight you'd think they rehearsed it.
The delivery is flawless. The legal ground they go over are impeccable.
Mike Lee has a photographic memory, and at moments has Captain Kirk's vocal cadence.
This is one of the most entertaining things I've seen in a while.
We have to make a documentary
We have to make a documentary of this exchange. It's Epic.
lol oh yeah, it still makes my jaw drop just remembering it
I was chillin' watching the two of them late night, wondering how many people watching really appreciated what they were seeing.
Granted they *are* thoroughbred lawyers and politicians, gleefully exercising courtroom style mind-games and practiced rhetoric.
So even though I was in awe of the presentation - AND I certainly agreed with the substance of most of their arguments ...
At the same time I always wonder at the true motivations of the people who train their whole lives to work their way into a position where they can show off like that.
Cause among that kind of person - that general type - among them are the very people that have always been the most dangerous people on earth:
Authoritarian Sociopaths
The devil is in telling who's who before it's too late and they bring the hammer down. So far this country pretty much sucks at that (telling the difference).
Ted Cruz still going strong.
Ted Cruz still going strong.
I'm loving this discourse on
I'm loving this discourse on the floor of the Senate chambers going on at this time.
Senator Mike Lee is really
Senator Mike Lee is really very good.
I think Cruz,
Mike Lee and Rand have figured out that you win when you stand on principle.
ObombaCare must be defeated. I called both my slimy Sinators (Portman(R) and Brown(D) in DC and in all of their offices, by phone, Email, and even fax! They are terrified.
The new media has arrived in a big way.
I think, in listening to
I think, in listening to these long filibuster sermons, you really get a sense of the character of the people you elected to serve you in congress.
The news sound bites and short interviews only serve to alienate these people from you, for the most part.
Boy oh boy this is good
Boy oh boy this is good stuff.
What if we had a minimal
What if we had a separate minimal national health care plan for people with pre-existing conditions?


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Respond to Review of Il Margutta RistorArte
by GAJ
Review: We found this via Happy Cow reviews - many thanks. We went there for lunch, (twice), and for dinner one evening during our recent visit to the city. Lunch is great value, and the atmosphere is lively without being overpowering with clientele ranging from students to serious business types. On both occasions we got in without a reservation, at 2.40pm the last time and we were still welcomed with a smile. Dinner is a more sophisticated affair with a choice of set menus or a la carte. We chose one of the former and enjoyed a very pleasurable evening as course after course of stylish delicacies were brought to our table. Dinner is more costly than lunch, but this is a very classy restaurant, rare for vegetarian establishments, and was worth every Euro. Please Margutta open a branch in London. We have some good veggie restaurants here but there is a very big gap waiting for you to fill.
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A process for separating liquid hydrocarbons from a wastewater using acoustic energy below cavitation is disclosed. The wastewater containing the residual hydrocarbons is introduced into a vessel which has at least two groups of acoustic transducers attached to it. Acoustic energy is applied to the fluid at an intensity below cavitation level and sufficient to induce at least one standing wave in the fluid. The liquid hydrocarbons are allowed to coalesce within the vessel to a coalesced droplet size of about 20 microns. These coalesced hydrocarbons are then separated from the wastewater.
1. A process for separating liquid hydrocarbons from wastewater; said process comprising the steps of:
introducing a continuous flow of said wastewater into a vessel sized to accommodate a large volume of wastewater; said vessel further having at least two groups of acoustic transducers attached thereto, wherein each of said acoustic transducer groups comprises two transducers attached to said vessel at positions opposite each other in the radial direction of said vessel; and wherein each of said transducer groups are positioned axially along said vessel;
applying acoustic energy to said wastewater within said vessel at an intensity below cavitation level and sufficient to induce at least one standing wave within said wastewater;
allowing a portion of said liquid hydrocarbons to coalesce within said vessel; and
separating at least a portion of said resulting coalesced hydrocarbons from said wastewater.
2. The process of claim 1 wherein said liquid hydrocarbons in said wastewater comprise oil and oil-in-water emulsions.
3. The process of claim 1 wherein said vessel is a pipe and wherein each of said acoustic transducer groups are attached to said pipe at the maximum amplitude of vibration locations along said pipe.
4. The process of claim 1 wherein said liquid hydrocarbons coalesce at at least one of said pressure antinodes of said standing wave.
5. The process of claim 1 wherein said liquid hydrocarbons coalesce at at least one of said pressure nodes of said standing wave.
6. The process of claim 1 wherein, prior to application of said acoustic energy, about 95% of said liquid hydrocarbons have a droplet size of less than about 10 microns, and wherein at least about 50% of said resulting coalesced hydrocarbons have a droplet size of at least about 20 microns.
7. The process of claim 1 wherein, prior to application of said acoustic energy, said liquid is hydrocarbons have a droplet size in the range of about 1.0 microns to about 150 microns, and wherein a majority of said resulting coalesced hydrocarbons have a droplet size of at least about 20 microns.
8. The process of claim 1 further comprising, prior to the application of acoustic energy, pretreating the wastewater to reduce surface charge repulsion between said droplets.
9. The process of claim 8 wherein said pretreatment step comprises adding chemical coagulants to said wastewater.
10. The process of claim 8 wherein said pretreatment step comprises applying an electric field to said wastewater.
The invention relates generally to a process for separating hydrocarbons from wastewater using acoustic energy. More specifically, but not by way of limitation, the invention relates to a process for separating hydrocarbons from wastewater by introducing a continuous flow of wastewater into a vessel which has been retrofitted with at least two groups of acoustic transducers and applying acoustic energy to the fluid at an intensity below cavitation level, sufficient to induce at least one standing wave within the fluid, whereby the liquid hydrocarbons coalesce to a large enough size that they can then be separated from the fluid using conventional separation equipment.
In oil and gas producing operations, as produced fluid is delivered to the surface from the well, the fluid must be treated at the site to separate the crude oil and natural gas from the other fluids prior to their entry into the pipeline system. Basic sediment and water, which are initially present in the produced fluid in varied quantities, are considered by-products and impurities in produced petroleum. In addition to containing basic sediment and water, recovered petroleum is a complex mixture of many different compounds of hydrocarbons, all with different densities, pressures and characteristics which vary from well to well. This is further complicated as hydrocarbons are mixed in varied combinations with other fluids and sediment. As a result, the produced fluid from each well will have its own characteristics which determine the specific type of treating facilities that will be required to remove any by-products and impurities.
FIG. 1 illustrates the different types of equipment used in a representative field processing system. The produced fluid from the wellhead 1 flows into a separator 2 for the first stage of separation. These horizontal or vertical separators 2 are used to separate gases from liquids. Additional first stage separator units include freewater knockout units and settling tanks, which take advantage of the weight differences of oil, water and other impurities in the produced fluid to facilitate their separation. A significant portion of the gas, water, and sediment will be removed from the produced crude using first stage separator units. The second stage of separation will often use some type of heater-treater 3 to break emulsions of water and oil. After treatment, the produced fluid will be stored in units 4, and the wastewater which was separated from the produced fluid will eventually be disposed of.
The disposal of the produced wastewater should be done in an economically feasible manner consistent with current environmental regulations, with consideration given to the particular.type and location of the operation. To meet current environmental regulation requirements on acceptable hydrocarbon levels in discharged wastewater, it may be necessary to treat produced wastewater (as well as any other wastewater, such as rain water, wash-down water, and drain water) to lower its hydrocarbon content below that normally obtained from the crude-oil separation process described above. Another important incentive for lowering hydrocarbon concentration in produced wastewater is that the wastewater, in many cases, will need to be reinjected back into the reservoir for disposal, for maintaining reservoir pressure, or for increasing recovery through water flooding. To avoid plugging and permeability reduction, the dispersed oil concentration in the produced wastewater should typically not exceed about 50 mg/l.
The basic technical challenge in separating hydrocarbons from produced wastewater is how to economically separate the micron size oil droplets and/or oil-in-water emulsions (collectively referred to hereinafter as "droplets") from the water continuous phase. These very small droplets result in significant part from the severe shearing that occurs as pressure is reduced from the wellhead through producing equipment on the surface. The severe turbulence, aggravated by gas breaking out of the solution, results in very small oil droplets or oil-in-water emulsions being left in the produced wastewater. This situation can be aggravated further when centrifugal pumps are used to move the wastewater between process vessels. Valves used to control flows can also cause shearing of droplets into smaller ones, thus making removal of the oil droplets from the produced wastewater even more difficult.
Typical primary treatment processes for the removal of oil and other impurities from produced wastewater utilize standard separation equipment such as skim tanks, skim vessels, and corrugated plate interceptors (CPI's). However, these primary treatment processes will only remove oil droplets which are about 20 microns or larger in diameter. Depending on the severity of the problem, secondary treatment using CPI's (if none were used in the primary treatment), gas floatation units, chemically-assisted flotation units, hydrocyclones, matrix/grid type coalescers, multi-media filtration processes, centrifuges and biotreatment processes may also be needed to reduce oil concentration to allowable discharge limits. Depending on which type of treatment is used, oil droplets as small as 5-10 microns may be removed.
Each of these secondary treatment processes have problems associated with their use, and none of them are cost effective or simple to operate. For example, flotation units generally do not handle rate surges or oil slugs well and they, as with centrifuges, entail high capital and operator costs along with a high degree of operator skill. Biotreatment processes are also expensive due to the cost of the micro-organisms required and the associated storage problems. Additionally, none of these secondary processes are flexible because, to be cost effective, the wastewater will be pretreated using the primary equipment described above to ensure that the larger (20 microns or larger) oil droplets are removed prior to further processing with secondary equipment. For example, prior to utilizing a centrifuge, the wastewater will typically be treated with a skim tank or a CPI in order to efficiently separate the oil from the wastewater. This is done because, with most secondary treatment processes, only a fraction of the entire wastewater stream can be processed at a time. Thus, processing without prior primary treatment would be inefficient and expensive.
Acoustic energy, which is a form of mechanical vibration energy that propagates in a fluid as pressure oscillations or pressure waves, has been applied, below cavitation level, on a laboratory scale to a fluid in order to coalesce and agglomerate the particles entrained in the fluid and thus enhance the separation of these particles from that fluid. Acoustic separation, for the most part, has been limited to laboratory applications because of the difficulties associated with implementing a large scale process. Problems include determining what type and geometry of separation vessel to use and how to generate the acoustic energy (what type and arrangement of acoustic sources) within the vessel to ensure that the acoustic energy applied to the fluid does not attenuate significantly within the fluid, otherwise the coalescence of droplets will likely be inhibited. Also the application of acoustic energy should be controlled in order to avoid cavitation, which generally is the formation, growth, and implosive collapse of microbubbles in a liquid medium: The shock waves from the imploding bubbles may produce high enough shear forces to disperse or emulsify the droplets entrained in the carrier fluid. Other acoustic separation problems include contaminants (e.g., a surfactant) in the fluid which may act to inhibit coalescence of the droplets. All of these problems can be significant deterrents to both large and small scale acoustic separation.
One laboratory separation process is described in the article "Acoustic Radiation Pressure-Principles and Applications to Separation Science" (Forstschritte der Akustick, DAGA, pp. 19-35, 1990). In that article, Apfel states that "some experiments have been performed in the Yale Lab using flowing systems of oil drops in water in which small drops (1-50 microns) have been collected and coalesced into quite large drops (>1 cm)" and that "this observation suggests that this process may have a role in large-scale separation processes". Apfel, however, did not teach or suggest the type and arrangement of equipment necessary to implement a large scale process for separating oil from produced s wastewater or the necessary parameters for the application of acoustic energy to such a large scale process. To the contrary, Apfel indicated that there are several questions which "must be addressed if the science is to be applied fruitfully" including:
� "What geometries are conducive to continuous flow systems?"; and
� "What are the appropriate ranges of acoustic frequency and acoustic intensity for different types of particle separation, and what apparatus is most appropriate in each case?"
Apfel also did not discuss the benefits to applying acoustic energy below cavitation to a wastewater containing both large (20-150 microns) and small (1-19 microns) hydrocarbon droplets in order to enhance the coalescence of the smaller droplets with the larger droplets, thereby allowing for more efficient oil-water separation using standard first stage separation equipment: Apfel focuses on applying acoustic energy to a fluid containing only very small oil droplets in order to enlarge these small oil droplets.
Although Apfel mentions that they have used "flowing" systems, the "cells" actually disclosed in Apfel are for use in a laboratory, batch, process and not a continuous flow process (see FIG. 1 of Apfel @ p.20). There is no suggestion that these cells could be scaled-up to work in a large scale, continuous flow, separation process. Even if there were such a suggestion, it is unlikely that they could be scaled-up to work in a large scale process, such as an on-line production wastewater treatment process, because such a process typically has a very high volume of fluid (40,000 to 100,000 bbl/day/unit) needing treatment. Finally, to reiterate, Apfel's statement that there is a need for exploring what type of geometries are conducive to continuous flow systems suggests that the cells he actually discloses were not intended for a scaled-up process.
Another laboratory process is described in an article by Tolte and Feke entitled "Separation of Dispersed Phases from Liquids in Acoustically Driven Chambers" (Chemical Engineering Science, Vol. 48, No. 3, pp. 527-540, 1993). This article discusses applying acoustic energy, on the laboratory scale, to separate water-in-olive oil emulsions from pure olive-oil having no additives or contaminants which could inhibit coalescence. The focus of this article is on the design and operation of a laboratory separation "cell" which utilizes an acoustic field to separate water from pure olive oil. The separation cell consists of one source transducer bonded to one end of a glass or an aluminum tube (up to 4 cm in diameter and 25 cm in length, and ranging from 0.9 to 2 mm wall thickness) and one reflecting transducer bonded to the other end of the tube. In the laboratory application, acoustic energy was applied to the olive-oil carrier fluid within the cell to trap water-in-olive oil emulsions, which were then moved to either end of the cell and removed through an exit port. This cell would be difficult to adapt to a large scale operation because it has an acoustic source mounted on one end and a reflector mounted on the other end, which will allow only a very small amount of fluid to be processed. For a large volume (over 15,000 bbl/day), continuous flow process, the cell, and thus the transducer and reflector, would have to be very large. In any event, there is no suggestion of using the Tolte and Feke process for either a large scale separation or for separating oil from production wastewater, which often contains impurities which can inhibit separation.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,257,997 issued to R. E. Barnes describes a method for separating residual water from crude oil using ultrasonic vibrations. The Barnes method utilizes a quartz crystal vibrator which is placed between two electrodes and is supported on the bottom of a closed vessel. The water-in-oil emulsion is passed through a conduit connected to headers at either end of the vessel. The conduit is adjacent to one or more of the vibrators, and water separated from the crude oil is removed by settling. The problem with this process is the likelihood that the acoustic intensity applied will attenuate in the crude oil host fluid because of its high viscosity. As a result, the separation of the residual water actually achieved will likely be hindered. Furthermore, Barnes does not teach or suggest applying this method to the on-line separation of oil from production wastewater nor the benefits of applying acoustic energy to enhance the coalescence of the smaller oil droplets with larger oil droplets prior to separation with standard first stage wastewater treatment equipment.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,339,247 issued to Faulkner et, al., an acoustic degasification process and apparatus are used for separating dissolved gases from hydropressured or geopressured liquids. The apparatus used is a hollow chamber, through which the liquid containing the dissolved gas passes. The apparatus has acoustic transducers mounted on the outside wall for application of acoustic energy to the liquid. This process and the parameters necessary to ensure its effective use are based on a rectified defraction mechanism. With this mechanism, when acoustic energy is applied, the gas bubbles in the carrier fluid will expand and contract, and if they come into contact, they may expand into a larger bubble.
From the operating parameters disclosed in Faulkner and literature on rectified diffusion (Senapati, et al), it is believed that Faulkner's method is for degasification at intensity-levels in the range of a few watts/cm2 and at frequencies in the range of 20-37 kHz, which put operation near or at the threshold for inducing cavitation in liquid media. This belief is supported by Faulkner's discussion of the complication associated with rectified diffusion in degasing applications (erosion of pipe walls that accompanies rectified diffusion whenever vaporous cavitation occurs near a solid surface) and suggested ways to minimize the cavitation damage. It is therefore believed that the Faulkner disclosure is limited to operation at or near cavitation level.
In any event, Faulkner does not teach or suggest the use of this apparatus for anything other then degasification. Furthermore, the operation of the Faulkner apparatus is focused on controlling the rate of gas bubble growth: With an oil-in-water emulsion, the oil droplets will not grow as much as a gas bubble because oil is much more incompressible than gas. Thus the mechanism disclosed in Faulkner would not apply to a process for separating liquid hydrocarbons from wastewater at an intensity below cavitation, and Faulkner thus teaches away from such an application. Also, nowhere in Faulkner is there a teaching or suggestion that the gas-separation process or apparatus disclosed be used to separate oil from production wastewater.
In view of the foregoing background information and description of the related art, there is a need for an economically efficient method for removing and/or enhancing the removal of liquid hydrocarbon droplets from wastewater in a continuous flow, large-scale application.
The present invention relates to a continuous flow process for separating liquid hydrocarbons from wastewater by first introducing a continuous flow of wastewater into a vessel which has at least two groups of acoustic transducers to provide the energy source. The acoustic transducer groups are positioned axially along the vessel and each group comprises two transducers positioned opposite each other in the radial direction of the vessel. Acoustic energy is then applied to the wastewater in the vessel at an intensity below cavitation level and sufficient to induce at least one standing wave within the fluid. A portion of the liquid hydrocarbons are then allowed to coalesce within the vessel to a large enough coalesced droplet size to allow separation of the coalesced hydrocarbons from the wastewater using conventional equipment.
The advantages of various embodiments of the present inventive process for separation of liquid hydrocarbons form wastewater will be better understood by referring to the following detailed description and the attached drawings.
FIG. 1 illustrates a typical field processing system used in separating gas, water, sediments and other impurities from produced oil.
FIG. 2 is a block flow diagram which illustrates the steps and associated equipment used in removing liquid hydrocarbons from produced wastewater and several of the possible position(s) for application of acoustic energy using the process of the present invention.
FIG. 3A is a schematic of a vessel retrofitted with two groups of acoustic transducers for use in one embodiment of the process of the present invention, and FIG. 3B is schematic end view of FIG. 3A.
FIG. 4 is a schematic of another embodiment of the vessel having seven groups of acoustic transducers for use in the one embodiment of the process of the present invention.
FIG. 5 is a graph which illustrates the dependence of the intensity on the frequency required to prevent or produce cavitation in water using acoustic energy.
This invention is generally applicable to any process for separating liquid hydrocarbons from a wastewater (any aqueous based fluid). The liquid hydrocarbons in the wastewater can consist of oil droplets and/or oil-in-water emulsions (hereinafter collectively "droplets"). The wastewater may include water produced with crude oil, rain water, and washdown water and may also include wastewater from the use of test equipment or from drains and the like. The wastewater could also contain salts, suspended solids, paraffin, and corrosion inhibitors. The practice of one embodiment of this invention is described below as a method for separating hydrocarbons from oil and gas production wastewater. However, the invention should not be unduly limited to this application and can be used and modified as necessary by one skilled in the art to provide or enhance separation of oil from any wastewater (e.g., wastewater from an industrial storm water facility).
FIG. 2 illustrates the steps and the associated equipment often used in processing produced wastewater from an oil and gas well and how several embodiments of the inventive process interrelate with these standard steps. As previously discussed, the wastewater removed from the produced petroleum by the initial field processing will typically still contain some hydrocarbon droplets and may therefore need further treatment prior to disposal to achieve an economically and environmentally acceptable hydrocarbon discharge concentration. This wastewater will usually have some form of primary treatment to further separate remaining hydrocarbons. As previously described, the equipment typically used in primary wastewater treatment processes are listed in box 37 and can be used to separate oil droplets (and/or oil-in-water emulsions) which are about 20 microns or larger in size. Droplet size can be determined using methods well know to those skilled in the art, such as with Malvern or Coulter Counter analyzers.
If after processing through this type of primary equipment, the oil concentration in the wastewater still exceeds the allowable environmental discharge limit, then a secondary wastewater treatment process (typically using one or more of the equipment listed in box 38) may be used in an effort to meet the discharge criteria. Current secondary wastewater treatment processes may be able to reduce the oil concentration further (5-10 microns or greater in size, depending on the equipment used), but these secondary treatment processes may be costly, difficult to operate and maintain, and are not s flexible. After primary and secondary treatment, the wastewater can be disposed of in various ways as indicated in box 39.
Referring now to FIGS. 3A & 3B, in one embodiment of the inventive process, a continuous flow 16 of the wastewater is flowed into a vessel 13 which has at least two groups of acoustic transducers 11 and 12 attached thereto. The vessel 13 shown in FIGS. 3A & 3B is a hollow tube, such as a pipe. Each of the acoustic transducer groups include two transducers attached to vessel 13 at axial positions and are opposite each other in the radial direction of the vessel 13. Acoustic energy is applied to the wastewater within the vessel 13 at an intensity below cavitation level and sufficient to induce at least one standing wave in the fluid. A portion of the hydrocarbon droplets are allowed to coalesce within the vessel 13, preferably to a coalesced droplet size of at least about 20 microns in diameter. The coalesced hydrocarbons can then be separated from the wastewater using conventional equipment.
As indicated by the position of box 17 in FIG. 2, the application of acoustic energy can also be a pretreatment step to enlarge oil droplet size before the fluid enters conventional primary treatment separation units, all of which currently tend to be inefficient for droplets less than about 20 microns. In one embodiment of the inventive process, the liquid hydrocarbons will have a droplet size of about 1.0 to about 150 microns prior to application of acoustic energy, and the majority of the resulting coalesced hydrocarbons will have a droplet size of at least about 20 microns after the application of acoustic energy.
Acoustic energy can also be applied as an integral part of the primary treatment or secondary treatment, as shown by boxes 18 and 19, and can be used with successive treatment units. In one embodiment of the inventive process, about 95 cumulative volume percent of the liquid hydrocarbons will have a droplet size of less than about 20 microns prior to application of acoustic energy, and about 50 cumulative volume percent of the resulting coalesced hydrocarbons will have a droplet size of at least about 20 microns in diameter.
Although the greatest potential use for this acoustic coalescence process is in removing smaller size oil droplets (less than about 20 microns), this technology may also be used to remove larger droplets at a lower cost by enhancing the separation efficiency of existing primary treatment. For example, one or more acoustic coalescers may substitute for skimmers in conventional primary treatment processes after application of acoustic energy. It is also possible that the inventive acoustic process may completely replace conventional secondary processes. Thus this inventive process is inherently more flexible then typical secondary treatment processes: In centrifuge, hydrocyclone, and media filter operations, there is no such flexibility. These conventional devices, which are capable of removing droplets down to about 5-10 microns, must be positioned at the end of the secondary treatment process because they are not cost effective for removal of droplets larger than about 20 microns, due in part to the low flow rates required for operation of these units.
For produced water contaminated with additives (such as emulsifiers or scale inhibitors), the surface charge imparted by a film of surfactant coating on the oil droplets will typically prevent or inhibit coalescence of the droplets due to surface charge repulsion. An additional treatment step may therefore be required prior to or along with the application of acoustic energy. For example, chemicals, such as sufactants, or an applied electric field may be used to suppress or neutralize any surface charge of the droplets prior to the application of acoustic energy.
The basic mechanisms believed to cause particles or droplets in a fluid to agglomerate or coalesce when acoustic energy below cavitation level is applied to the fluid are described briefly below. Acoustic energy is a form of mechanical vibratory energy that propagates in a fluid as pressure oscillations or pressure waves. Depending on the type of fluid and the intensity and frequency at which the acoustic energy is applied, at least one standing wave having nodal and antinodal positions will result in the fluid. To achieve separation of oil from wastewater, the acoustic energy must be applied at an intensity and frequency which will prevent cavitation within the fluid. As previously discussed, cavitation can cause the oil droplets within the fluid to disperse or emulsify within the fluid rather than coalesce. FIG. 5 is a graph which illustrates the dependence of the intensity on the frequency required to prevent cavitation in water: To avoid cavitation in water (in an aqueous based fluid), the intensity and frequency applied should result in a position on the graph below curved line 15. The position of curved line 15 will vary depending on the concentration of dissolved gas, if any, in the aqueous based host fluid.
The primary acoustic force which will result from the acoustic energy applied is the Radiation Force "Fr ". This force propagates in the direction of the sound wave. This force will drive droplets towards the node or antinode planes of the applied alternating acoustic field, depending on the acoustic properties of the dispersed phase. The antinodes are the positions on the standing wave of maximum pressure amplitude, and the nodes are the positions of minimum pressure amplitude. Some of the droplets will be effected by the Radiation Force and will thus follow the vibratory motion of the sound wave. But the droplets which have a cross-sectional diameter that is much smaller than the wave length of the ultrasound in the wastewater and which also have a density higher than the wastewater will remain essentially stationary with respect to the motion of the ultrasonic wave. However, as described further below, the secondary Orthokinetic and Bernoulli Forces will work to bring about droplet-droplet collisions and coalescence of these droplets to a large enough size that the Radiation Force can take effect.
The Orthokinetic Force can be described as follows. When a sound wave impinges on a suspension of droplets, it will impart a vibratory motion, or oscillation, to the droplets. Generally, the smaller droplets will follow the vibratory motion of the sound wave more easily than the larger droplets, and the intermediate sized droplets will move with intermediate velocities and phase lags. The differences in oscillation amplitude among the droplets will cause the droplets to collide and coalesce. Additionally, due to Bernoulli's effect in the constricted zone located between two droplets, the velocity of the fluid in the constricted zone will increase and the static pressure in that zone will drop. This increase in velocity and decrease in pressure will result in an attractive force between the droplets. As a result, the droplets will tend to coalesce if the attractive force due to Bernoulli's effect is higher than any repulsive force from the surface of the droplets.
Referring again to FIGS. 3A and 3B, line 8 represents the acoustic wave generated by transducers 12A and 12B. Positions 5, 6 and 10 show the nodal positions of the wave 8. This wave 8 represents, for illustrative purposes, the most simple wave form which applicants believe could be generated by the transducers 12A and 12B. The suspended droplets 9 will migrate towards antinodes 5 and 6 (as shown in FIG. 3A & 3B) or node 10 (migration to node 10 not shown in FIGS. 3A & 3B), depending on the density and compressibilty of the suspended material. Referring now to FIG. 3B, it is believed that a circular pattern of nodal and antinodal positions (as shown by the positions of droplets 9) will be created which extend radially outward from the center of the pipe 13. Standing wave 8, as previously mentioned, is shown in its simplest form, but could consist of several nodes and antinodes, in which case several rings of nodal and antinodal positions would be created. Standing wave 8 could also consist of several separate waves in phase generated by transducers 12A and 12B.
To summarize, the Secondary Othokinetic and Bernoulli's Forces will tend to cause droplets to coalesce within the standing wave field, while the Primary Radiation force will work to drive these coalesced droplets to nodal or antinodal positions. Thus although a suspension of droplets may initially consist of droplets too small to be directly effected by the Radiation force, the Orthokinetic and Bernoulli's Forces may cause the particles to coalesce to a larger size, at which point the Radiation Force will then be able to act on the droplets to move them towards the nodes/antinodes.
As illustrated in FIG. 5, the acoustic intensity "I" needed to achieve a at least one standing wave below cavitation in a wastewater is a non-linear function of the frequency "f". The optimum frequency "f" can be estimated by knowing:
� that the relation between droplet size and frequency which is required to maximize the Orthokinetic Force can be determined with the following equation: ##EQU1## where "υ" is the viscosity of the fluid in Newton sec/m2, "R", is the droplet radius in meters, and "ρp " is the density of the hydrocarbon droplet in grams/centimeters3 ; and
� that to capture hydrocarbon droplets at nodal/antinodal positions in the pressure field, the acoustic Radiation Force Fr exerted on a droplet must be greater than the vector sum of the Buoyancy Force Fb and the Gravitation Force Fg acting on the droplet. Accordingly, the following vector sum must exist:
Fr >Fg +Fb (Eq. 2)
An example determination of the optimum frequency "f" is illustrated in the following hypothetical Example 1:
Although the relative importance of the primary Radiation Force Fr and the secondary Orthokinetic and Bernoulli's Forces are not well known, Applicants theorize that the Secondary forces play a very important role. The effects of these Secondary Forces should be maximized in order to maximize the effects of the Radiation Force. Recall that Secondary Forces acting on the droplets, particularly very small droplets which may not be affected by the Radiation Force, are believed to promote oscillation and collisions and thus coalescence with nearby droplets. At some point, the coalesced droplets will be large enough to be affected by the primary Radiation Force. Thus Applicants believe that the preferred method for determining the frequency and intensity is to first determine the optimum frequency for applying the acoustic energy.
As described further below, the optimum frequency "f" for droplet coalescence due to the Orthokinetic Force is believed to occur when the droplet vibration amplitude is one-half that of the fluid vibration amplitude around the droplet. The Orthokinetic Force depends on the particle size "R2 " particle density "ρp " and the viscosity of the fluid "υ". These physical properties together with a radian frequency "ω" of the ultrasonic vibration are used to determine the velocity of the hydrocarbon droplets relative to the velocity of the wastewater. Neglecting the gravitational force and equating the inertial force with viscous drag forces, the relative displacement or particle entrainment factor "PEF" between hydrocarbon droplets and wastewater can be determined using the following equation: ##EQU2## In most suspensions, the hydrocarbon droplets well differ in size over a wide range. For very small particles, the PEF will equal one and the particles will move with the sound wave. But as particle size increases, the PEF decreases. Therefore, in order to maximize the number of collisions between the droplets, it is believed that the sound frequency f should be selected to yield a particle entrainment factor PEF of 0.5. Substituting 0.5 in Equation 3 and solving for ω, the radian frequency, yields Equation 4 where ω is related to the particle size, particle density, and the wastewater viscosity as follows: ##EQU3## Given that the radian frequency ω is related to frequency f by the equation ω=2πf, and then solving Equation 4 for f yields Equation 1 for the optimum frequency: ##EQU4##
Assuming the produced fluid to be processed has a mean oil droplet radius of 1.5 microns (1.5�10-6 meters), a fluid viscosity of 0.001 Newton sec/meters2, a droplet density of 0.83 grams/cc, then using Equation 1, the estimated optimum frequency "f" for maximizing the Orthokinetic Force is 680 kHz. Generally, to maximize the Orthokinetic Force for a mean droplet size between 1 and 20 microns, acoustic frequencies should vary from around 20 kHz to around 1 MHz. It should be noted that attenuation of acoustic intensity may be a problem at high acoustic frequencies, particularly with high viscosity fluids.
This estimated optimum frequency value f can then be used to estimate the Radiation Force Fr acting on the droplets. The Radiation Force can be approximated by the following equation: ##EQU5## This equation represents a time-averaged one-dimensional Radiation Force acting on a compressible sphere a distance "x" from a pressure antinode in a nonviscous fluid. "E" is the acoustic energy per unit volume of the sound field in Joule/m3 : The time-averaged acoustic energy density for a plane wave traveling in one dimension is given by: ##EQU6## where: "I" is the acoustic intensity below cavitation level in watt/cm2 ; Cf is the compressional sound velocity in the wastewater in m/sec; and "10,000" is the conversion factor to yield "E" in Joule/m3. Referring back to Equation 5, "k" is the wave number given by the following: ##EQU7## where "λ" is the wave length and "Cp " is the compressional sound velocity in the droplet in meters/second. "R" is the radius of the droplet in meters and ρp and ρf are the mass density of the droplet and the wastewater in g/cm3. The factor in the square brackets in Equation 5 controls whether the entrained droplets are directed toward the nodes or antinodes of the standing wave, depending on the density and the compressibility differences of the droplets and the wastewater.
For example, considering the same 1.5 microns radius oil droplets with a specific gravity ρp of 0.83 g/cm3 and a compression sound velocity Cp in the droplet of 1000 m/sec in a 680 kHz standing wave in a produced wastewater (ρf =1.035, Cf =1531 m/sec) with acoustic energy E of 45.7 Joules/m3, then the maximum Radiation Force [i.e. when the maximum Sine function=1=sin(2kx)] acting on each droplet is estimated to be 3.81�10-7 dynes.
The Buoyancy and Gravitational Force "FBG " acting on the droplet can be approximated by the following equation:
FBG =|980 Vo (ρf -ρp)|; (Eq. 8)
where "Vo " is the volume of the droplet. As calculated below, for the same droplet size, the sum of these two forces "FBG " is 2.7�10-9 dynes. The Radiation Force Fr is then roughly 140 times the sum of the Buoyancy Fb and Gravitational Fg forces.
To estimate an appropriate intensity "I" given the estimated optimum frequency f of 680 kHz, calculated above, reference is made again to FIG. 5, which illustrates the dependence of intensity on frequency required to prevent cavitation in pure water. Although this Figure is for pure water, it should be a conservative estimate for the intensity value required to avoid cavitation even in wastewater having various contaminants. At an estimated optimum frequency of 680 kHz, a proposed acoustic intensity of 7 watts/cm2, will yield a point 14 on FIG. 5 which is well below the cavitation threshold line 15.
Therefore, assuming an acoustic intensity "I" of 7 watts/cm2, then: ##EQU8## This satisfies the oil droplet trapping criteria set forth in the Equation 2: The acoustic Radiation Force Fr exerted on the droplet is greater then the vector sum of the Buoyancy Force Fb and the Gravitational Force Fg acting on the droplet.
TO summarize the example, the forces on micron and submicron size hydrocarbon droplets suspended in production wastewater due to high frequency elastic waves in the wastewater were calculated using the following equations:
__________________________________________________________________________R = 1.5 � 10-6 Radius of the droplet in meters.ρp = 0.83 Density of the droplet.ρf = 1.035 Density of the fluid. ##STR1## Mass of the droplet in grams.M = 1.17 � 10-11Cf = 1531 Velocity of sound in water in m/sec.Cp = 1000 Velocity of sound in the droplet.f = 680000 Frequency of sound/ultrasound cycles/sec.I = 7 Intensity in watts/cm2. Note in FIG. 5 that the ultrasonic cavitation threshold (line 15) increases with frequency, (e.g., at 20 kHz, the ultrasonic cavitation threshold is 1 watt/cm2, and at 680 kHz, it is about 7 watts/cm2 (see point 14). ##STR2## Acoustic energy density in Joules/m3E = 45.7 ##STR3## ##STR4##CR = -0.7 ##STR5## ##STR6##Fr = 3.81 � 10-7FBG = |980 Vo (ρf - ρp)| Buoyancy and gravitational forces on the droplet (in dynes).FBG = 2.7 � 10-9 ##STR7## ##STR8##FRATIO = 14__________________________________________________________________________
As previously indicated, the effects of the Orthokinetic and Bernoulli's Forces will cause small particles to coalesce to the point at which the Radiation Force becomes important and will work to move those droplets towards the nodes or antinodes. Because |Fr | is proportional to the droplet size R3 and acoustic intensity I, the Intensity "I" below cavitation can be varied experimentally to determine the optimum for capturing droplets at the pressure nodes/antinodes.
Referring now again to FIGS. 3A & 3B, the vessel 13 is shown as a hollow tube or pipe. However, the vessel 13 could be any hollow vessel which would allow wastewater to flow continuously through it at the is required production rate. For example, typical production wastewater processing rates range from around 40,000 to 100,000 bbl/day/unit, but can be as low as 1000 and as high as 150,000. These rates, and thus the size of the vessel 13 will vary according to the particular application. The vessel 13 should also be designed to withstand the operating pressure and temperature of the particular application as well as the corrosive property of the production brine or chemical additives. Those skilled in the art will be familiar with the materials which will work well for high temperature, high pressure, corrosion resistant applications (e.g., schedule 80 stainless steel pipe).
In one embodiment of the vessel 13, the acoustic transducer groups 11 and 12 each are comprised of two transducers (11A & 11B; and 12A & 12B, respectively) attached to the vessel 13 at positions opposite each other in the radial direction. Looking to acoustic transducer group 11, the transducer 11A is positioned opposite transducer 11B in the radial direction of the vessel 13. Also, the transducer groups 11 and 12 are positioned axially along the vessel 13. However, as described further below, the number of transducer groups per unit length of the vessel 13 or pipe and the number of transducers per group needed for separation of the oil from the water will vary with the amount of oil to be removed, the types of fluid, the thickness of the vessel or pipe, and the distance for the half-intensity node.
The half-intensity node is the distance "z" (as shown in FIG. 4) from a transducer where the acoustic intensity generated by that transducer reaches 50% of its initial value. This value is useful in avoiding attenuation of the acoustic energy within the fluid by helping to ensure optimum placement of each transducer group. The velocity of the acoustic wave will depend on the mode of propagation and characteristic properties of the fluid medium. The depth of penetration of the acoustic wave into a medium is limited by the wave attenuation as shown by the following equation: Ix =Io e-αx ; where Ix is the ultrasonic intensity at a distance "x" from the acoustic source; Io is the ultrasonic intensity; and α is the Intensity attenuation coefficent, which is a larger number for more viscous media.
Referring now to FIG. 4, the optimum position for each transducer group (21-27) can be determined experimentally by mounting the first group of transducers (group 21) at the center of the pipe 13 and then placing the remaining groups (22-27) at one or more of the maximum amplitude of vibration locations (at resonance; when transducers 12A and 12B are in phase) along the pipe 13 (shown by "▪" in both FIGS. 3 & 4). In order to maintain the acoustic intensity level in the pipe 13, the placement should be an equal distance "y" (or 2Z) on either side of the center of the pipe 13. To estimate these maximum amplitude vibration locations ▪, a slurry of water and clay powder can be applied to the surface of the pipe 13. The clay particles will collect at the minimal amplitude vibration locations on the pipe 13 (shown by "�" in both FIGS. 3 & 4), and the maximum amplitude vibration locations ▪ will be located about halfway between two minimum amplitude vibration locations �. Each transducer in a group may consist of two piezoelectric rings commonly referred to as a "Langevin Sandwich". Each such ring is capable of producing 110 watts of power. To reduce the number of transducers in a group needed for a particular application, it is feasible that the transducers could be mounted inside the pipe or vessel, rather than on the outside.
The following hypothetical Example 2 provides more details on determining the number of transducer groups and the number of transducers needed for a particular application.
For a thin wall pipe (4" ID and 4.5" OD) and low viscosity producing fluids (1.0 Centipoise), four transducers (mounted 90 degrees apart in the radial direction of the pipe) per group (only two transducers per group shown in FIG. 4) should be sufficient to generate a peak intensity near the center of a hollow pipe of 4.5 inches in outer diameter and 4 inches in inner diameter. It is anticipated that a total of seven groups of transducers will be needed for a 14 foot section of pipe assuming 1 foot half-intensity distance z, and given the following conditions:
15,000 bbl/day/vessel of produced water to be treated
Treatment time--30 seconds
Inner pipe Diameter--4 inches
Total pipe length--14 feet (including mounting elements, 17 on FIG. 4)
4 transducers per group
7 groups of transducers per 12 foot pipe
For a treatment time of 30 seconds, the total vessel or pipe volume needed is 29.3 ft3. Since each pipe has a volume of 1.22 ft3, a total number of 24 pipes is required to process the wastewater. These pipes can be mounted on a rack and bundled together. The pipe bundles should be designed to be rigid and self contained and should be mounted so that they expand independently so as not to impart vibration energy to the support structure. It is anticipated that each acoustic oil/water treatment unit will contain 24 pipe bundles retrofitted with transducers, with each pipe consisting of a a 14 foot section (including the mounting elements). Feed should be distributed evenly to all pipes. One group of four transducers will be mounted at antinodal locations in the same phase of the hollow pipe, and will be tuned so that they resonate at the same frequency as the pipe.
In this manner, a total of seven groups of transducers will be placed on either side of the center in the longitudinal direction of the pipe. Each transducer assembly may consist of two piezoelectric rings, where each ring is capable of producing 110 watts of power. Thus, a total power of 6160 watts can be generated and delivered to each pipe from 28 transducers or 56 piezoelectric rings. Although seven groups of four such transducers per pipe are used in this example, any number may be used depending on the properties of the fluid (e.g., viscosity), the pipe thickness, and the half intensity node distance. The type of transducer used may vary depending on the application. The length, diameter, geometry, and number of pipes can also be varied depending on other constraints such as space and maintenance requirements. This type of assembly should be easy to manufacture and maintain. It should also be easy to mount without significant modification to the wastewater treatment facility.
The optimum treatment time will vary with the initial droplet size distribution and chemical additives contained in the fluid, which may facilitate or retard the coalescence of oil droplets. Applicants believe that the treatment for a native produced water (no chemical additives) may range from seconds to minutes. More treatment volume (or pipes) may be needed if a longer treatment time is required. In this example, for a treatment of 30 seconds, the number of pipes needed to process 15,000 bbl of produced water is roughly 24. For a shorter treatment time of 10 seconds, it is possible that the number of pipes in the bundle may be reduced to 8.
As described and illustrated herein, the present invention satisfies the need for a practical method for separating liquid hydrocarbons form a wastewater. It should be understood that the invention is not to be unduly limited to the foregoing which has been set forth B for illustrative purposes. Various alterations and modifications of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art without departing from the true scope of the invention as defined in the following claims.
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Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee Bennie Thompson sent Transportation Security Administration Director John Pistole a letter on Friday expressing concern that the TSA did not review privacy and civil liberty concerns before implementing the new "gate rape" procedures at airports. The letter demands additional information on the pat-downs and calls on Pistole to reconsider them.
House Committee on Homeland Security Expressed Concerns about "Gate Rape" on September 22
|By: emptywheel Saturday November 20, 2010 5:08 am


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"Not Great, Quite Good, No need to Shoot"
Narration was good but the story was not as engrossing as I was expecting. I thought he would be discussing in more detail the great, good and awful. Instead there was a huge amount of self satisfaction (I should have known better, this is a Hollywood Insider after all) about some very spurious links to great films and very little discussion on the really bad ones, which is where the interest really would have been.
I thought I had read the book 5 - 6 times but actually listening to the stunning unabridged version I heard pieces of the book that I hadn't read before or certainly don't recall. Owen Meany sounded exactly as he should, John Wheelright as dull as he should. Everything was as it should have been. I couldn't recommend it higher.
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NRS Urethane Fabric for Bandit IKs
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Visit NRS's Urethane Fabric for Bandit IKs page.
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Urethane material used to make NRS Bandit Inflatable Kayaks 2008 and newer.20 oz./840-denier fabric Urethane coated nylon fabricMatches material on Bandits 2008 and newer. This material will still work with older boats but the colors will not match exactly.This urethane material can also be used on NRS Revolution series rafts and catarafts.Sold in 8" x 10" sections.
NRS Urethane Fabric for Bandit IKs
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talented that they nearly stole the spotlight from the leggy models they shared the runway with. While Justin Timberlake , Rihanna , and The Spice Girls have all graced the Victoria's Secret stage in the past, this year the honor belonged to Taylor Swift
9 Things You Never Knew About 'Pitch Perfect'
Cynthia Rose, is an accomplished Hollywood singer-songwriter , responsible for hits like 2009's "Drop It Low" and Rihanna 's "S&M", which she actually sang during the Riff-Off. 9. Pitch Perfect 2 will feature real college and professional
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are a girl's best friend! When Rihanna steps on stage to perform next month at ..... black-tie fundraiser, which benefits Rihanna 's Clara Lionel Foundation (CLF ..... Founded in 2012, CLF is named in honor of Rihanna 's grandparents, Clara and Lionel
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company. Previous performers who've rocked the catwalk at the sexiest fashion show in the world include Justin Timberlake, Rihanna , Fall Out Boy, Katy Perry and The Spice Girls. This will be the second consecutive year that Taylor Swift will lend her talents
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glorious return to Instagram, pop star Rihanna has flooded our timelines with snapshots ..... played by Darby Stanchfield). And Rihanna 's entire posse got in on the fun ..... the photos with #DayatTheWhiteHouse, Rihanna admitted that her and the squad "wanna
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Since 1964, MJ Insurance has grown to become one of the top 100
ranked insurance agencies in the United States. We've
accomplished this by counseling our clients on ways to mitigate
risk and providing comprehensive, tailored solutions that lessen
their exposure to loss, all with one focus of helping them achieve
their business and personal goals.
We value relationships because without them we can't do what we
do. In fact, it's the trust, loyalty and integrity - the bonds we
build with our clients, as well as within our organization and
industry - that define us as a company.
Responsive, innovative and committed, we use our strengths to
your advantage. We take the time to understand the unique
challenges and finer nuances of our clients' businesses.
Additionally, we offer specialized knowledge, industry expertise,
competitive pricing, unparalleled service and access to the best
carriers in the industry.
Partnering & Consulting
As the marketplace changes so must businesses. Which is why you
need solutions, not just products. Solutions allow for
contingencies. Products don't. Which is why we monitor, assess,
measure, guide and provide insight - all with the goal of
helping your business mitigate risk, lessen exposure to loss and
manage human resource needs. Just as many of our clients consider
us an extension of their business, we strive to be more than your
broker - we work with you as a partner.
Proactive & Passionate
We don't rest until we've found the right solution for your
business. Always 100% committed and passionate, our team will be
your strongest advocate for your risk management, insurance,
employee benefit and human resource matters.
Whether it's an advanced technology tool or a groundbreaking
risk management solution, we consistently provide creative methods
of transferring risks, communicating information to our clients and
developing service enhancements to bring new approaches to our
business partnerships.
Help us support the efforts of Dayspring to bring much needed
services to the homeless families of Indianapolis.
Read More
When is the last time someone went out of their way to tell you
"Thank You?" I don't mean a "Thank You" for holding the door
for them or something casual like that. Rather, a written
note or a phone call just to say "Thank You?"
Read More
A team of MJ associates had the pleasure of serving at United Cerebral
Palsy of Central Arizona for this year's Super
Service Challenge.
Read More
A team of MJ associates had the pleasure of serving at Dayspring Center for this
year's Super Service Challenge.
Read More
The positive energy one receives by helping and serving others
is second to none,
Read More
MJ Insurance President & COO, Jon Loftin, speaks on risk
management and the impact of health care reform on employee
Read More
The direct risk of Ebola to most Americans remains low, yet very
real fears exist, particularly with a new case confirmed in
America's largest city.
Read More
Cut a dollar; save a dollar. If it were only so straightforward,
Read More
Unable to afford the clothing items, especially shoes, to meet
their school's dress code, many homeless children living in
shelters or transitional housing programs are prohibited from
attending school.
Read More
Work-life balance. Many businesses give this buzzword mere
lip service; others have a genuine interest in helping employees
achieve it.
Read More
You may be unknowingly funding a drug habit. The reality is that
over 77% of all U.S. adults with substance abuse issues are
employed full or part time.
Read More
Consider the phrase from the well-known Serenity Prayer
seeking acceptance for the things you cannot change, courage to
change the things you can and the wisdom to know the
Read More
November 11, 2014 Business Insurance Broker Beat video featuring MJ Insurance President & COO Jon Loftin
November 4, 2014 Employee Benefits Consultant, Kevin Sliwa featured on Money Sense - An Ounce of Prevention - Health Insurance
September 22, 2014 Agency recognized for outstanding workplace culture and best practices
September 3, 2014 Agency continues to grow as it celebrates its 50th anniversary
August 28, 2014 MJ Insurance included in 'Insurance Journal' 2014 ranking of top private insurers
August 8, 2014 AZ Business Leaders: MJ Insurance Named One of the Largest Brokers in U.S.
August 5, 2014 Business Insurance names agency No. 97 in 100 Largest Broker List
July 22, 2014 Agency adds Director of Strategic Risk Management
Have a question? Need an answer? Get in touch
Our associates play an integral role in our success as a
business. We are always in the market for talented
professionals to join the MJ team. Get in touch
View all
About MJ
Insurance, Inc.


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|1. 3D Technology Microtexture surface reduces surface friction, improves flotation, and eliminates tangling.
|2. IS (Integrated Slickness) additive is integrated throughout the PVC layer to provide lubrication for maximum distance, performance and durability.
|3. Orvis Line ID Quickly and easily identify your line, no more guessing. All of our lines will be printed with the taper, weight, and functionality.
|4. Enhanced Welded Loops New sleek and durable welded loops make leader attachment quick and easy while holding up to repeated use. Helps to transfer energy more efficiently to the leader allowing better turnover.
|5. Core Braided multifilament core provides excellent performance over a wide range of conditions.
|6. Environmentally Responsible Packaging Our new paper pulp spool, made from recycled cardboard and kraft paper, is 100% compostable and further enhances our commitment to protect our natural resources.
Overall: 4.6 / 5 based on 23 reviews
21 of 23 reviewers would recommend this product to a friend.
What a line! -
By: NorthwoodsBirdHunter from NH
I haven't had a chance to use my new line yet, but I've used the same line on another rod. It sinks fast, Love it!
Great Purchase -
By: trouthookup1 from California Delta
If you ever spend a lot of time fishing stipers or largemouth bass in the fall when temperatures go from warm to cold this line is great for that transition time. Its one of the only lines that I have found that do not twist up in the warm to cold transition and works better than most during the winter cold time.
By: matiasgri
Goto Line -
By: woozyboy from Flagstaff, AZ
Top 1000 Contributor
I love my Hydros 3D Depth Charge line. I have had a few over the years and recently had this one loaded up by Orvis with the backing on a ClearWater LA reel. When ever I am fishing the surf zone this is my goto line. It get's the flies down to the fish quick and is tough as nails. If i had to go with one line this would be it!
Mid Arbor meets the challenge -
By: Greenal from Pittsburg, NH
I just purchased the Mid Arbor 3 reel and had the 3D sinking line spun into it. Fished Northern New England and was delighted. Landlocked Salmon and Rainbow trout fought hard, but the drag system was smooth and well balanced for the conditions. I like to get down too this time of year and the Orvis sinking line was easy to cast and got down to the fish. Recommend to anyone.
Good for Getting Down -
By: OnTheRiseFlyFishing from Southeast PA
I use this line to drop unweighted muskie flies as well as to get down when I am lake fishing. The line shoots like a dream with minimal bulk and good texture to help maintain grip when double hauling.
Best sink tip line -
By: BigAl1945 from Auburn,ME
Used this line in labrador in very fast water. It casts like a dream and gets down in current. I have a depth charge now in 5,6,& 7 wt and could not be happier. It even handles a sinking polyleader in 7 wt without much hinging.
Best sinking line I have used -
By: TenaciousP from NJ
Top 500 Contributor
I have the 350gr for my 9wt. I tried the 300gr, it cast well but I worried it would get beat-up by wind on a cast with a large un-weighted fly. I use this when I want to fish any further under the surface than a heavy fly and floating line. My use so far has been for Stripers in small channels. It is very easy to cast. If the wind is down, you can cast to the backing. The running line portion of this flyline is a bit noisy through the guides, but it shoots like a dream. The line sinks fast, true to the chart on the website. It has held up to saltwater so far without a problem.
performs well -
By: nevek from Gloucester, MA
Top 250 Contributor
I fish for stripers off the rocks and need a line that sinks fast and can be cast in less than ideal conditions. I bought the 350 grain for my 9wt. It casts well and sinks fast. Caught some stripers on my first trip, so it performs the way i need it to. It did cut into my finger as i stripped the fly in. Bought a finger gaurd and would recommend the same for anyone buying this line.
Excellent lake line -
By: LuisL from Las Vegas, NV
I originally bought the 300 gr. version of this line to use on my 8-wt. Access rod in deeper Colorado stillwater, but really put it to the test in a smaller mountain lake in southern Utah. It was absolutely a difference-maker when it came to reaching splake hanging out near 20-25' in depth. A friend had good luck using another brand of intermediate sinking line to catch the cutthroats and tiger trout suspended in the upper and middle depths, but simply couldn't hook into the splake because of how long he would have to sit around waiting for his line to get low. The Hydros 3D Depth Charge on my reel had no trouble getting down quickly and allowing fast retrieves using Clouser minnows and wooly buggers. I did have some issues with tangles, but bear in mind that I was stripping into a lap basket in a float tube. With a little more space, I think the issue goes away. Overall, this line is an excellent casting, deep running winner for lake fishing.


text:
Track #35 della serie,
The Osho Upanishad
"Govind Siddharth, it is not a question. It is a realization, and it is a declaration."Whatever you have experienced was not a dream. Your whole life may have been a dream, but this experience..."
"Jealousy is comparison. And we have been taught to compare, we have been conditioned to compare, to always compare."
Osho, The Book of Wisdom #27
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Arizona Cardinals
Cards' Jay Feely: Player safety is primary goal of NCAA teams unionizing
Players on the Northwestern University football team now have the right to unionize.
So, will they?
Scholarship players will vote within 30 days on whether they want to unionize and be represented by the College Athletes Players Association.
If the team decides to unionize, Arizona Cardinals kicker Jay Feely says the move will tackle a variety of issues concerning today's collegiate and professional players.
"What they're trying to accomplish with unionizing is to create workplace safety, workers' compensation, injury protection, as well as a collective rule governing practices and what you can do at practices," Feely told Doug and Wolf of Arizona Sports 98.7 FM.
"I think that's one of the biggest things. You still have college coaches that have the autonomy to create whatever practice format they want. If you look at the last collective bargaining agreement, we may have gave up some financial gains, potentially, as players and as the NFL Players Association, that we could have attained in exchange for a safer workplace environment."
The most recent NFL CBA introduced revisions to practice scheduling, including eliminating two-a-day practices, setting a maximum of 4.5 hours on field per day in training camp and enforcing unannounced inspections by NFLPA staff to ensure compliance.
After suiting up for the University of Michigan for three years, and as a 13-year NFL pro, Feely suggests that the college game doesn't look out for a player's long-term health compared to the NFL.
"I've had conversations with athletic directors that wish they could change their college coach's philosophy on practice, where they're hitting still everyday, where they're in full pads everyday and you're putting players at risk from a health standpoint," Feely said. "Those athletic directors don't have the power to go to a coach, for example, Nick Saban, and say �Hey, we're not going to practice this way anymore'. But, if you had a union and you were able to as college players create a uniform collective rule that would dictate what college coaches could do, you would create a safer environment."
Northwestern announced they would appeal the decision of the National Labor Relations Board making football players employees of the school, but if the decision stands, the case could be taken to a higher level court.
Most Popular
Cardinals Audio
- Brock Huard, ESPN 710 Seattle host - Friday December 19Brock Huard believes Sunday's Cardinals-Seahawks game is going to be a brawl.
- Cardinals Indestructible Montage - Friday December 19A montage of 2014 Arizona Cardinals' highlights set to "Indestructible" by Disturbed.
- Danny O'Neil- ESPN 710 Seattle - Friday December 19Danny O'Neil describes the feeling in Seattle leading up to this weekend's game.
- Bickley Blast - Friday December 19This Sunday will be quite the spectacle, with the Cardinals taking on the Seahawks.
- Warren Moon, Seahawks radio analyst - Friday December 19What should the Cardinals expect to see from the Seahawks this Sunday?


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The Silver Lake Experience is a four-day summer event designed by members of the Silver Lake Institute and Asbury Camp and Retreat Center to bring cultural, educational and spiritual opportunities to the Silver Lake communities as well as to the greater general public. Through workshops, presentations and performances, participants will be able to learn and enjoy various aspects of art, music, literature, spirituality, culinary arts, antiques, cottage crafts, nature and history.
Saturday, April 26, 2014
Our Spring 2014 Newsletter Is Here!
1 comment:
Hard copies of this SLI Newsletter will be arriving in your mailboxes shortly! We are hoping to eventually email all future Newsletters to folks that are interested in receiving. We will have a few hard copies available at the Office, Hoag, Stoody, & Epworth or by request if you prefer. With the ever expanding costs of printing and mailing and of course thinking of preserving a tree or two by "Going Green", we would like to take advantage of services such as emailing and blogging in the near future. Any thoughts or comments would be greatly appreciated!ReplyDelete


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the sound your friend makes to indicate you have said or did something stupid, uncoordinated, or downright idiotic
B: I totally just busted face in front of that hottie.
S: Drr dr drrr!
S: Drr dr drrr!
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Krispy Kreme Announces Development Agreement For Houston
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C., Dec. 2, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Krispy Kreme (NYSE: KKD) announced today that it has signed a development agreement with Dulce Restaurants, LLC, to develop 10 new Krispy Kreme shops in Houston over the next five years.
(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130905/CL71298 )
Dulce Restaurants, LLC, a subsidiary of Dallas-based Sun Holdings, LLC, currently operates three Krispy Kreme locations in Dallas, and has plans to open an additional 15 Dallas shops through 2018.
"Seeing the response and admiration for Krispy Kreme and our Original Glazed® doughnuts in Dallas has been a rewarding experience for me and my team," said Guillermo Perales, President and CEO of Sun Holdings, LLC. "With our plans to continue developing the Dallas market now finalized and underway, we are excited by the opportunity to expand our relationship with Krispy Kreme and to make our one-of-a-kind sweet treats available in Houston.""We are thrilled that Dulce Restaurants has chosen to add portions of Houston to its development plans," said Patricia Perry, Vice President – Domestic Franchise Development at Krispy Kreme. "Mr. Perales and his team bring extensive guest relations and operational experience, as well as a longstanding and successful history in the market." The new Houston shops will offer more than a dozen varieties of Krispy Kreme's one-of-a-kind doughnuts, including the signature hot Original Glazed®, as well as a complete menu of coffee, Krispy Kreme Chillers®, iced beverages and specialty drinks. Krispy Kreme currently has over 240 shops in the United States, of which approximately 150 are franchised. Additionally, the Company has over 560 locations in 22 countries outside the United States, all of which are franchised. About Sun Holdings, LLCIn 1997, Mr. Perales founded Sun Holdings, LLC, and opened his first Golden Corral restaurant. In just 16 years, Mr. Perales has guided his company through rapid growth by instilling a strong foundation for strategic business development. His expertise in restaurant operations and his development choices quickly vaulted Mr. Perales to become the largest Latino franchisee in the United States and one of the top ten in the country with almost 400 restaurants in his portfolio, including, in addition to Krispy Kreme, the Burger King, Popeye's, Arby's, CiCi's, and Golden Corral brands. The company also operates 13 T-Mobile stores. About Krispy KremeKrispy Kreme is a global retailer of premium-quality sweet treats, including its signature Original Glazed(R) doughnut. Headquartered in Winston-Salem, N.C., the Company has offered the highest-quality doughnuts and great-tasting coffee since it was founded in 1937. Krispy Kreme is proud of its Fundraising program, which for decades has helped non-profit organizations raise millions of dollars in needed funds. Krispy Kreme can be found in over 810 locations in 23 countries around the world. Information contained in this press release, other than historical information, should be considered forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are based on management's beliefs, assumptions and expectations of our future economic performance, considering the information currently available to management. These statements are not statements of historical fact. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause our actual results, performance or financial condition to differ materially from the expectations of future results, performance or financial condition we express or imply in any forward-looking statements. The words "believe," "may," "forecast," "could," "will," "should," "would," "anticipate," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "objective," "seek," "strive" or similar words, or the negative of these words, identify forward-looking statements. Factors that could contribute to these differences include, but are not limited to: the quality of Company and franchise store operations; our ability, and our dependence on the ability of our franchisees, to execute on our and their business plans; our relationships with our franchisees; our ability to implement our international growth strategy; our ability to implement our domestic small shop operating model; political, economic, currency and other risks associated with our international operations; the price and availability of raw materials needed to produce doughnut mixes and other ingredients, and the price of motor fuel; our relationships with wholesale customers; our ability to protect our trademarks and trade secrets; changes in customer preferences and perceptions; risks associated with competition; risks related to the food service industry, including food safety and protection of personal information; compliance with government regulations relating to food products and franchising; increased costs or other effects of new government regulations relating to healthcare benefits; and risks associated with implementation of new technology platforms. These and other risks and uncertainties, which are described in more detail in the Company's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and other reports and statements filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, are difficult to predict, involve uncertainties that may materially affect actual results and may be beyond the Company's control, and could cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by any of these forward-looking statements. New factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for management to predict all such factors or to assess the impact of each such factor on the Company. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which such statement is made, and the Company does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after the date on which such statement is made. SOURCE Krispy Kreme Doughnut Corporation
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