Evaluation of dynamic behaviors in varied swirling flows for high-pressure offshore natural gas supersonic dehydration

Shiwei Wang, Chao Wang, Hongbing Ding and Shujuan Li

Energy, 2024, vol. 300, issue C

Abstract: The dehydration process involving the supersonic separator (SS) proves advantageous for the high-pressure offshore natural gas industry. By adeptly harnessing energy conversion from pressure to cold energy, the SS efficiently condenses and separates water vapor. In this process, swirl strength is the critical factor. To clarify the influences of different swirl strengths on flow field characteristics, droplet behavior, film formation, separation performance, and energy conversion of the SS in high-pressure offshore natural gas, a computational model was established and validated in this study. The prediction results of three representative thermodynamic models were compared in the Laval nozzle and the SS. The results show that the NIST real gas model possesses the highest prediction accuracy compared to the other two models. The inlet pressure has a significant influence on the separation performance of the SS. The maximum values of water vapor removal rate, dew point depression, optimum droplet diameter, and optimum droplet concentration can increase to 81.75 %, 37.65 K, 3.3 μm, and 0.0026 kg s−1, respectively. The swirl strength significantly influences separation performance and energy conversion. Notably, the normal swirl strength achieves the maximum separation performance, showcasing a water vapor removal rate surpassing that of strong swirl strength by 18.03 %. The temperature drop exhibits maximum deviations of 20.70 % and 12.51 % compared with weak and strong swirl strengths. Moreover, the utilization of supersonic separators in the pre-dehydration process results in a substantial cost reduction of $ 6,691,060 over a 20-year period.

Keywords: High-pressure offshore natural gas; Swirl strength; Separation performance; Heterogeneous condensation; Energy conversion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544224012714
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:300:y:2024:i:c:s0360544224012714

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2024.131498

Access Statistics for this article

Energy is currently edited by Henrik Lund and Mark J. Kaiser

More articles in Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().