Experimental study of gas phase mass transfer coefficients in gas condensate reservoirs

Abstract

Gas condensate reservoirs as a proportion of worldwide gas reservoirs experiencing retrograde condensation throughout their production period have been consistently attracting research interests in recent decades. However, their compositional simulators usually consider local equilibrium assumption and neglect the non-equilibrium effect represented by gas phase mass transfer coefficients. Since no independent research has yet targeted mass transfer coefficients in gas condensate reservoirs, in this study, a series of flow tests were carried out using a novel experimental setup to address the issue. Correspondingly, separate empirical correlations were developed for methane and isobutane representing light and intermediate components respectively at two temperatures, thus two condensate saturation ranges. The results confirm the positive effect of pore gas velocity on gas phase mass transfer coefficients reported in NAPL volatilization related studies even in low gas flow rates. Also temperature, effective diffusion coefficient, condensate saturation, mean grain size and component types were shown to affect these coefficients.