Apparatus for separating oil and water

Claim 1

Apparatus for separating oil and water comprising a vertical treating chamber, an upwardly ascending helically coiled pipe disposed in said chamber, a plurality of parallel members in said pipe defining laminar flow passages therein, said pipe having first and second open upper and lower ends, means for supplying a mixture of oil and water to be separated from outside said chamber to one of said open ends of the pipe, said other open end of the pipe being open in said chamber for discharge thereto of agglomerated oil particles formed on said parallel members and separated water still containing fine oil particles, said treating chamber defining, above said other open end of the pipe, an oil accumulating portion for the agglomerated oil particles, means communicating with said oil accumulation portion for discharging oil particles externally from the treating chamber, a flow distribution section in said chamber below said other open end of the pipe for receiving the separated water from said pipe, distributing means at the bottom of the flow distribution section for distribution of the separated water therebelow, a fine separating section in said treating chamber below said distributing means for receiving the separated water for removal of fine oil particles from said separated water, and a cylindrical filter tube in said fine separating section including a wall constituted by a filter layer composed of a mixture of lipophilic and hydrophilic fibers through which said separated water flows such that the remaining fine oil particles in the separated water are adsorbed by the filter layer and agglomerate on one side of the filter tube and flow upwardly, means for receiving and discharging agglomerated oil particles externally of the treating chamber, and means for discharging water freed from the fine oil particles from the bottom of the fine separating section externally of the treating chamber.