Improving the prediction of elemental sulfur solubility in sour gas mixtures by modifying cubic equations of state

Abstract

So far, several correlations have been developed to forecast the solubility of sulfur in various mixtures of acid gases with different concentrations of hydrogen sulfide. These correlations are correlative methods requiring experimental sulfur solubility data to tune their model parameters. Besides, correlative methods have many restrictions and are useable only for a limited range of operating conditions. Another approach for predicting sulfur solubility is applying equations of state. The predictive ability of equations of state has made them a powerful tool to more accurately perform the equilibrium phase calculations of acid gas mixtures in a vaster operating range. The major problem of the equations of state is the inaccurate characterization of their parameters for elemental sulfur due to its chemical complexity. In this study, the performance of three cubic equations of state is evaluated for forecasting the solubility of elemental sulfur in different acid gas mixtures. The main idea which is supposed to be put forward for rectifying defects of cubic equations of state is to model the trend of errors propagated in predicting the solubility of sulfur. Indeed, the effect of sulfur chemical reactions is ignored, and a generalized correction function is developed to compensate for deviations arising from the simplification assumptions. Subsequently, the results predicted by modified equations of state are compared to experimental sulfur solubility data and previously existing methods. Finally, a case study is performed on a sour gas reservoir sample to predict precipitation P-T curve and to calculate sulfur solubility changes with the pressure and temperature reduction throughout the gas well. Predicted results revealed the proposed correction function could significantly decrease the solubility calculations obtained from the modified equations of state under 5.6%, which is a good achievement compared to their original versions.