SPE Technical Section

SPE Separations Technology Technical Section

Advancing separation technology through technical exchange, practical insight, and a stronger professional community across industry and academia.
STTS provides a forum for technical professionals and academia working in separations to share knowledge, identify priority issues, promote awareness of separation-related technologies, and strengthen technical competencies that meet the needs of the petroleum industry.
Separations Technology Technical Section Logo
Our Mission

Why STTS Exists

Knowledge Exchange

STTS creates a technical forum where professionals and academia can share knowledge, operating experience, lessons learned, and best practices across the full spectrum of separations technology.

Focus on What Matters

The section helps identify major issues, emerging challenges, and high-value technology areas where greater technical cooperation and deeper discussion can move the industry forward.

Industry Awareness

STTS works to maintain and promote industry awareness of separation-related issues and technologies, with attention to both proven practice and innovation in design, operations, troubleshooting, and debottlenecking.

Professional Growth

Through regular technical programming, the section helps members enhance competencies that directly support the needs of the petroleum industry and the next generation of separation specialists.

How We Deliver Value

We accomplish this mission through the transfer of knowledge at study groups, monthly meetings, webinars, forums, workshops, and technical publications. STTS is built around practical dialogue: connecting design theory with field experience, equipment performance with operational reality, and long-standing industry wisdom with new ideas.

Chairperson's Words

A Community Built on Practical Separation Knowledge

Separations remains one of the most fundamental disciplines in petroleum processing and production, yet it is also one of the most interdisciplinary. Good separation performance depends not only on vessel design, internals, and equipment selection, but also on fluid behavior, control philosophy, sampling quality, operations, debottlenecking strategy, and the quality of technical dialogue across teams.

The role of STTS is to create that dialogue. We want this section to be a place where experienced practitioners, young professionals, researchers, operators, service companies, and technology developers can exchange ideas openly and constructively. Our goal is not simply to discuss separators as isolated pieces of equipment, but to strengthen the broader technical understanding needed to make separation systems work better in the field.

Through ShopTalk discussions, webinars, technical papers, and future events, STTS will continue to highlight real operating experience, sound engineering judgment, and practical solutions to separation challenges. We welcome everyone with an interest in the discipline to join us in building a stronger technical community around separations.

Flagship Programs

How STTS Shares Knowledge Publicly

Savvy Separator ShopTalk Series

A practical, discussion-oriented series focused on recurring separation challenges, field experience, design considerations, and lessons that help practitioners connect engineering principles with operational reality.

No recordings are posted for ShopTalk sessions so participants can engage in more open, candid technical discussion.

#6   August 26, 2025
"Chemical Treating Emulsions and Produced Water" — Operator and Chemical Supplier Perspectives and Experiences
ShopTalkers: Paul Brickhouse (retired Chevron), Bruce Horne (Stepan Co.) | Moderator: Wally Georgie
ShopTalk #6
#5   June 17, 2025
"Inline Separation Technology" — Operational Experience & Insights
ShopTalkers: Olav Kristiansen (Equinor), Ricker Deeg (BP) | Moderator: Henri Witteveen (Kranji Solutions Pte Ltd)
ShopTalk #5
More ShopTalk Events
#4   March 11, 2025
"Inline Separation Technology" — Key Concepts and Applications
ShopTalkers: Robbert Pos (TechnipFMC), Dr. Khalil Sharara (Sulzer) | Moderator: Jimmie Riesenberg
ShopTalk #4
#3   October 08, 2024
"Proper Sampling Techniques, Internal and External"
ShopTalkers: Tayo Fagade (Expro), William Mixon (Tracerco) | Moderator: Ed Grav (Separation Technologies Solutions)
ShopTalk #3
#2   August 06, 2024
"Effect of Pressure on Mist Eliminators"
ShopTalkers: Michael O'Dell (Koch-Glitsch), Moize Turkey (AMACS) | Moderator: Peggy Lane
ShopTalk #2
#1   May 14, 2024
ShopTalkers: Ed Grave (Separation Technologies Solutions), Logan Grim (Saudi Aramco) | Moderator: Bob Chin (Padden Engineering)
ShopTalk #1
"Vortex Breakers"

  STTS Webinars

STTS webinars bring together subject-matter experts to discuss current separation technologies, design philosophy, operational experience, troubleshooting, and emerging opportunities for process improvement.

These programs are designed to be accessible, technically useful, and relevant to engineers and scientists working across upstream, midstream, and processing applications.

dec 10, 2025
SPE Live: Understanding and Predicting Oil-Water Separation Performance
Wally Georgie (Maxoil), Ricker Deeg (BP) (Michael O’Dell Moderator)
Aug 26, 2024
Revision of API 12J: Specification for Oil and Gas Separators
Jimmie Riesenberg, Logan Grim, Robert Chin
Jun 17, 2024
SPE Live: Separation: design vs reality
Logan Grim (Aramco), Graeme Smith (Murphy) | Moderator: Henri
Apr 24, 2023
Computational Fluid Dynamics for Separators - Effective Use of CFD for Design and Verification
Abdulqadir Aziz,, Henri Witteveen
For the Full Catalogue
Full Catalogue
Aug 8, 2018
Liquid-Liquid Coalescers
Moize Turkey
Nov 28, 2017
Oversizing Separators – Too Much of a Good thing
Bryan Arciero, Graeme Smith
Jun 25, 2014
Predicting Droplet Size Distribution
Gene Kouba
Jun 9, 2013
Foaming in Separators: Handling and Operation
Wally John Georgie
Apr 3, 2013
Level Control Detection Selection
Roar Fjøsne
Sep 12, 2012
Flow Conditioning Impact on Separations
Cris Heijckers

Savvy Separator Series

The Savvy Separator Series brings together practical Journal of Petroleum Technology articles on separator design, internals, troubleshooting, operations, produced water, carryover, and field lessons across the full separation system lifecycle.

The archive spans 23 articles published from 2015 through 2025 and is organized here from newest to oldest for quick reference.

August 2025
A Savvy Separator Library
Robert Chin, Logan Grim, Jimmie Riesenberg, Ed Grave
July 2024
Are separators really at fault: Part 2. Installation
Robert Chin, Moize Turkey
For the Full Catalogue
Full Catalogue
January 2019
Lessons for Installation of separator internals
Chin, R.W., van Asperen, V., and Lane, P.
May 2018
Oversizing separators – Too much of a good thing
Arciero, B. and Smith, G.
November 2016
Taming tower carryover
Grave, E., Yeh, N., and Juarez, J.C.
March 2016
Underperforming gas scrubbers
Morillo, E., van Asperen, V., and Baaren, S.
October 2015
Scrubber debottlenecking
Chin, R.W., van Asperen, V., Riesenberg, JM., and McVinnie, G.
June 2015
Design of cyclone separators
Chin, R.W.
Featured Training

Savvy Separator Educational Video Series

10-Part Training Series

Savvy Separator Educational Video Series

A comprehensive 10-part video training series developed for engineers, operators, and technical professionals seeking a solid foundational understanding of oil and gas separator design and troubleshooting. Designed for self-paced, at-home learning — accessible to anyone entering the field or looking to refresh core separation principles.

10
Video Modules
SPE
Streaming Platform
Basic
Entry Level
Access the Video Series on SPE Streaming
Resources

Learn, Revisit, and Share

Technical Discussions

Follow STTS for practical technical conversations on separator performance, internals, sampling, mist elimination, produced water treatment, inline separation, and broader process integration topics.

Field Experience

Our programs emphasize operational experience and applied engineering, helping bridge the gap between conceptual design and day-to-day separation challenges in live systems.

Publications and Events

Explore STTS webinars, ShopTalk archives, and JPT contributions to stay connected with the latest thinking from practitioners working directly in separations technology.

Reference Articles

PetroWiki Articles on Separation

PetroWiki is SPE's open-access technical reference platform. The following peer-reviewed articles provide foundational reference material on oil and gas separation topics relevant to STTS members and the broader separations community.

Get Involved

Join the Technical Conversation

STTS welcomes engineers, scientists, operators, researchers, students, and technology specialists who want to strengthen the discipline of separations and contribute to a more connected technical community.