Mercer International logo representing oil water separator services and technology in Albany, NY. design center

API Upgrade

Transforming What You Already Own Into a Truly High-Performance System

Talk to an Expert
Oil-water separator internals with Multi-Pack™ components, showcasing Mercer International retrofit upgrade solution.

Why Retrofitting

Take a Bare API Tank and Turn It Into a Real Separator.

Traditional API separators were never designed for tight discharge limits. They were built for:

  • Retention time only
  • Passive separation
  • Minimal internals
  • “We’ll deal with it later” maintenance approaches
  • Oversized industrial landscapes with acreage to spare

Today’s discharge requirements, flow rates, emulsions, and solids loads make a bare API tank fall short, by a lot.

A Mercer API Upgrade transforms the API basin you already own into a high-performance, enhanced-gravity separation system with engineered inlet/outlet flow control and removable coalescers that can actually be cleaned and maintained.

It’s not a patch. It’s a conversion.

Removable Multi-Pack™ internals for oil-water separator retrofit, demonstrating Mercer International’s upgrade solutions.

CLEAR DIFFERENTIATION

What an API Upgrade Includes

Mercer’s Multi-Pack™ removable coalescer media for oil-water separator upgrades and API compliance.

Engineered Coalescer Multi-Pack™ Design

API tanks were built around tankage, not enhanced gravity. Mercer adds:

This is what turns a slow, passive vault into a high-performance separator.


Proper Inlet/Outlet Hydraulics

Most API separators experience:
Mercer corrects this with engineered inlet flow diffusers that calm and distribute flow across the entire plate pack. The performance difference is night and day.
Opened steel oil water separator tank during inspection with coalescing plate packs submerged in murky water

Crews lowering a perforated baffle plate into an oil water separator during an upgrade

Improved Oil Retrieval and Recovery


Access & Maintainability

The biggest failing of older API systems is maintenance.
Mercer replaces impossible-to-clean internals with:

Operators can finally manage the system instead of fighting it.

Crane lifting a stainless coalescing plate pack while a worker guides it inside a plant

Why Upgrade Your API Instead of Replacing It?

Dramatically Lower CapEx

You preserve your civil structure and upgrade only what matters.

Your Operators Stop Dealing With “API Surprises”

Maintenance becomes simple, predictable, and fast.

Structural Tank Already Exists

No need to:

Real Performance Gains

We routinely see:

White fiberglass oil water separator units piped together at a refinery

Ideal API Candidates

Proof of Performance Piloting Available

We can size and deploy a temporary Multi-Pack™ system inside your existing API tank to show the improvement you will get.

If it doesn't deliver meaningful performance you don’t move forward.

Retrofit + Test for Free, Then We Guarantee

If testing shows a Mercer API Upgrade will not deliver meaningful improvement, we will tell you before you commit to anything.

 Free testing and evaluation are included.