ENERGY-SAVING HEAVY CRUDE OIL EMULSION-TREATING APPARATUS

A treater for electrostatically separating emulsified water from oil duri ng longitudinal flow through a horizontally elongated coalescing section has a number of baffles with adjacent electrostatic wing grids therein. The electrostatic wing grids are externally connected to two or more transformer s so that a higher voltage may be applied to subsequent grids along the coalescin g section. Each of the electrostatic wing grids includes a front face and perpendicular side edges and a perpendicular bottom edge to extend the electrostatic field out beyond the front face, so as to enhance the electrostatic action and more efficiently remove water from the emulsion. The baffles preferably extend downwardly to a water/oil interface, so as to increase the efficiency of the emulsion flowing through the coalescing section and ensure that the electrostatic field is applied to the emulsion: