Abstract
Gas-Liquid cylindrical cyclonic separator plays a significant role with regards to gas-liquid separation in the oil fields. Its major operational challenges include liquid carryover and excessive pressure losses. The Inlet geometry of a gas-liquid cylindrical cyclone is one of its critical parts that affect the performance of the separator. The inlet geometry drives the performance of the separator in terms of liquid carryover and pressure drop. Traditionally, the 27° downward inclined inlet is usually used because of its advantage in terms of liquid carryover operating envelope. However, detail comparison in terms of pressure drop in the gas leg of the separator is yet to be reported. In this paper, the author presents experimental results on the effect of inlet inclination on the performance of a gas-liquid cyclonic separator in terms of separation efficiency (liquid carryover) and pressure drop. The results showed that under the same inlet conditions, the liquid carryover operating envelope of the 27° downward inclined inlet pipe cyclonic gas-liquid separator is slightly wider than the horizontal inlet of the same separator. However, the pressure drop across the gas leg of the 27° downward inclined inlet pipe cyclonic gas-liquid separator is far greater than the horizontal inlet of the same separator. The paper concludes that, where there is a strict requirement on pressure drop, the horizontal inlet cyclonic separator should be favoured against the 27° inclined inlet.
Highlights
The hydrocarbon fluids from the wellhead is a multiphase mixture of water, oil and gas
The results and discussions are divided into two sections: Liquid carryover (LCO) performance and pressure drop in the gas leg section of the separator for both 27° inclined inlet and horizontal inlet, respectively
The liquid carryover, which is considered in this work as an indication of the separation efficiency, is presented on the operating envelope curve
Summary
The hydrocarbon fluids from the wellhead is a multiphase mixture of water, oil and gas. Gravity separators are usually used in separating the multiphase produced fluids into their respective components, namely, oil, water and gas. In the offshore sector of the oil and gas industry because of space and weight limitation, compact separators such as the gas-liquid cylindrical cyclone (GLCC) are more attractive. In the oil and gas industry, the application of this type of separator is attractive, especially where space is a constraint such as offshore platforms, subsea and downhole. Another application of GLCC separator is as knock-out vessel for removal of liquid droplets at the inlet of a gas turbine. Tons of experiment has been conducted on the GLCC with the recent work being conducted by Kolla et al, [3,4,5]
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