It is often necessary to separate two immiscible liquids, the light
and heavy phases, and a vapor.
A typ p p g p , ical example in petroleum refining is the separation of water,
and a hydro-carbon liquid and vapor.
As with two-phase designs, three-phase units can be either vertical
or horizontal, although they typically are horizontal.
The vertical orientation is only used if there is a large amount of
vapor to be separated from a small amount of the light and heavy
liquid (