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CHALLENGES in the

DESIGN of

SEPARATORS
PAM BOSCHEE, OIL AND GAS FACILITIES SENIOR EDITOR
R
eliable separation is becoming an enabling technology mistmat or meshpad acts as a coalescer at high gas loads,
to help develop remote location resources and more agglomerating the liquid droplets coming from below, and
difficult applications, such as heavy oil, produced facilitates their removal in the downstream swirltubes.
water, sand disposal, and back-produced fluids in enhanced For application to bulk gas/liquid separation, in which
oil recovery. However, dealing with the challenges inherent generally not more than 95% of the liquid must be removed
in the design, sizing, and effective and economical operation from the gas stream, the Schoepentoeter is a proprietary feed
of separators is further complicated by the lack of shared inlet vane device used for introducing gas/liquid mixtures
learning, fundamental research, device qualification, and an into distillation columns or gas/liquid separators. Its main
organized network to discuss common problems. functions are to separate the liquid from the gas and to
SPE’s Separations Technology Technical Section (STTS) distribute the vapor in the gas compartment of the column.
helps to address these shortfalls by sponsoring webinars, The device slices up the mixed-phase feed into a series
forums, and conferences. During the 2013 SPE Annual of flat jets by means of properly distributed and oriented
Technical Conference and Exhibition in October, the STTS vanes. The jets dissipate a large part of the kinetic energy
sponsored a knowledge sharing panel session on topics because of the vanes, so that the vapor enters the gas
ranging from conventional separator design to emerging compartment of the column in a smooth and uniform
technologies. Panelists were Hans Nooijen, principal manner. The vanes also provide the mixed-phase feed with
engineer of distillation and phase separation at Shell; centrifugal acceleration to promote and/or enhance the
Rombout Swanborn, chief executive officer of Renaissance separation of the liquid from the vapor—otherwise possible
Oil and Gas; Sander van Woudenberg, lead process only by gravitational force.
engineer of separation systems at FMC Technologies; Luis Describing Shell’s testing of three cyclonic separators
Caires, director of research and development engineering in a gas plant, Nooijen said that during gas transport, the
at Cameron; and Timothy Healy, research engineer higher velocities that occur as the gas moves from higher
at ExxonMobil. to lower pressure result in decreased efficiency in cyclonic
Citing work done by Shell in the North Sea, Nooijen separation. High-liquid loads are affected by re-entrainment,
said that the gas/liquid separators commonly used as inlet and the rate of re-entrainment scales linearly with increasing
scrubbers are wire mesh demisters, vane packs, and cyclone gas volumes.
separators. Shell’s SMS and SMSM swirltube separators In designing cyclonic separators, Nooijen offered the
served as the model for the capabilities of axial cyclone following general guidelines:
separators. The names are acronyms of the elements making •D esign separators and cyclones conservatively for
up the equipment: Schoepentoeter (a vane-type inlet device), pressures less than 80 to 100 bar
mistmat, a swirldeck, and another mistmat (SMSM) (Fig. 1). •B ase the design on representative tests of the expected
The Schoepentoeter inlet removes 50% to 70% of the operating conditions
incoming liquid, depending on the gas load in a vessel, and •L iquid re-entrainment from film determines the
distributes the gas over the vessel cross section. The primary maximum cyclone capacity

Primary gas
outlet
Secondary gas
outlets
Secondary
gas

Mistmat

Swirldeck Liquid
Swirler

Mistmat

Schoepentoeter

Fig. 1—Diagram of an SMSM scrubber with details of a Schoepentoeter inlet device and a separation swirltube.

December 2013  •   Oil and Gas Facilities 19


• The pipe layout is critical to the design and operation use of chemicals is often required, adding to the high
of a separator. A straight pipe inlet is ideal (but Capex and Opex costs. Consequently, the production of
rarely occurs) mature fields becomes uneconomical, especially in remote
locations. Production is stopped at less than 50% reservoir
Trends in the Application recovery rate, depending on reservoir properties and
of Compact Inline Processing facilities selected.
The efforts to improve separation require an expanded Swanborn said, “Up to now, the design of compact
view of technologies and expertise, Swanborn said. “Many inline separation equipment has a ‘high black magic
questions remain about things we should know by now. character.'” Design rules rarely exist to accurately predict the
We should use our scientific capabilities to get a much performance under different operating conditions and for
better understanding of separation and use that to come up different geometrical parameters, of which there are more
with robust design rules. At the same time, the separation than 2,500, he said. Until the performance characteristics
community can try to look a bit over fences to gain additional and design rules for individual components become
knowledge. We should realize that technology has moved fully mapped, assurance gained through the familiarity
farther than the technology we already used 20 years ago and with conventional process systems is often preferred by
that we might have a whole new suite of technical capabilities the operator.
to overcome many of the problems being discussed today.” In some cases, the robustness of systems based on
Swanborn presented the breakdown of the costs of compact process components is insufficient to handle
separators, based on the types of internals used: transient operating conditions. Swanborn and Egwim said
• Classic low-cost internals—85% of these separators this is because of insufficient turndown characteristics of the
are designed by engineering, procurement, and individual components, which can lead to the overdesign of
construction contractors. A separator weighing a system, thereby adding complexity. Another factor is the
150 tons costs about USD 1 million, of which lack of control systems that are adapted to the fast reaction
USD 100,000 is the cost of internals. times required by the reduced residence times in compact
• Classic advanced internals—usually designed process equipment, especially when transient operating
by a specialist company. A reduced vessel size conditions, such as slugging, are expected.
weighing 80 tons costs about USD 750,000, of which To eliminate the uncertainties about inline process
USD 300,000 is the cost of internals. systems, Swanborn said that Renaissance is establishing a
• Compact (inline) separation—designed by a specialist realistic scale high-pressure full hydrocarbon flow loop,
company. No vessel is needed. Weight of a system is development of more robust equipment with a wider
about 15 tons and costs about USD 500,000. tolerance for variations in operating conditions, and the
possible use of pipe flow simulation models in real time.
Advances in separation technology have the potential to
decrease capital (Capex) and operating (Opex) expenditures, CFD Modeling in Separator Design
while increasing production and enabling the development Although computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is
of frontier fields. In some cases, compact equipment will be a acknowledged as a potentially powerful tool in separator
deciding factor in whether a frontier field can be developed. design, Healy said, “It is only a tool. Human nature tends to
ASCOM, a sister company to Renaissance, forecasts a shift have us jumping on the bandwagon, but often the review of
toward more compact separation, beginning with hybrid the results is being done by someone who doesn’t know what
systems, within the the next 5 to 10 years, Swanborn said. he/she wants or what he/she is looking at.”
The application of compact inline separation Caires emphasized that even if properly executed and
technologies is becoming popular in debottlenecking the validated with real data, CFD by itself will not provide
production of mature fields, such as in the Middle East understanding. CFD tools and many design tools produce
and Latin America. The applications have taken place on results that require interpretation using critical thinking.
a component basis (versus the widespread use of process “The questions remain about how to make it work. It is
systems fully consisting of compact components) to treat the necessary to analyze what the meaning is of the modeling.
increasing water production from the fields, prevent flaring It is up to us to understand the modeling and combine it
of low-pressure waste gas, or reduce the backpressure of the with our knowledge and experience to design a separator to
processing system. accomplish our goals."
Swanborn and Egwim (2011) pointed out that as Van Woudenberg highlighted some of the challenges in
oil fields mature, wellhead pressure will decrease and, using CFD:
in general, sand, water, and gas production volumes 1. F
 or modeling oil, gas, water, and sand, difficult
will increase—placing a higher load on the separation/ phenomena occur which cannot at all times be well
processing facilities. Although the operating principle of described with one model. How do you describe
classic separators is based on the separation of immiscible the liquid volume fraction in gas/liquid separation?
phases under the influence of gravity on their density Deciding on the choice of model requires an
differences, it leads to bulky and heavy equipment. Extensive understanding of the reason for its selection. Is a

20 Oil and Gas Facilities  •   December 2013


specific model appropriate, and if so, for what reason? which I refer to as the ‘eye doctor’ simulation in the sense
Can CFD deal with emulsion and its behavior in that you take a consistent set of physics and you simulate
separations? Which multiphase models can describe conditions A and B, then ask, ‘Which is better: A or B?’”
the behavior of oil, gas, water, and sand and their Healy’s view of the power of CFD is to serve as a
interactions? There should be clear guidelines about lamppost to inform the fluid dynamics experts within
what type of CFD modeling to use, how and when it the organization and to serve as a lamppost to the
will be used, and the value of its use. process owners. “We use CFD as a tool to guide us in
2. To what extent should CFD be used if detailed developing solutions and we engage the process owners
validation is not a standard requirement in the at all times,” he said. “For low-consequences work,
industry? Should validation always take place for it’s sufficient to do the eye doctor test. The key is to
the separation challenge at hand? If a separator is concentrate on the essence of the problem and not get
intended for liquid/liquid separation, should that bogged down with thinking that everything needs to be
aspect specifically be modeled, or should all phases simulated. We try to use our CFD to cut to the heart of
be studied? a problem to deliver solutions in an economic way that
3. To what extent can the CFD user compromise doesn’t cost the customer a lot of money in terms of
the assumptions to validate the CFD model with consulting time or in the creation of a severe bottleneck in
experimental data? Can the majority of the numbers project progress.”
at hand be eliminated, or should every possibility For more information about SPE’s Separations
be modeled? Technology Technical Section, visit http://connect.spe.org/
SeparationsTechnology/Home/. OGF
Van Woudenberg said, “There should be something in
the middle that’s going to work and we need to strengthen
the link between CFD and experiments to build an industry For Further Reading
standard with added value.”
Healy shared his perspective from working in an OTC 21615 Accelerated Production and Increased
ExxonMobil group to develop solutions for “steel that has Recovery of Remote (Offshore) Mature Fields Through
already been planted.” Novel Methods to Design and Operate Surface
“We often don’t have the luxury of vigorous validation Production Facilities by R. Swanborn, Renaissance Oil &
of the CFD model, and we pursue a route of verification, Gas, and R. Egwim, Shell Nigeria E&P.

Topside Processing Plants


Go Compact on FPSOs
KEEFE BORDEN, OIL AND GAS FACILITIES ASSISTANT EDITOR

The development of compact topside processing plants for SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition in
floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessels New Orleans.
is a growing industry trend that can reduce operating and The industry has gradually introduced compact
capital expenditures over the life of the vessel, a researcher separation technologies over the past decade in response
and scientist said recently. to the need for debottlenecking facilities in mature fields.
Rene Mikkelsen, technology manager for In many cases, a compact unit was needed for a congested
Brazil of separation systems at FMC Technologies, processing plant. A smaller separator negated the need for
said the company has designed a compact inline major reconstruction at existing facilities, Mikkelsen said.
separator weighing about 440 metric tons, which is about So far, more than 50 of FMC’s inline units have been
40% lighter than a traditional separation vessel. The deployed over the past10 years. Although the industry
smaller, lighter vessels could reduce both operating and has acknowledged the advantages of compact separation
capital expenditures on FPSOs. The findings were part technologies, the lack of data regarding their performance,
of a technical paper, titled “Development of a Compact flexibility, and reliability has so far slowed their use in newer
Topside Processing Plant,” that he presented at the 2013 fields, he said.
TABLE 1-DESIGN CONDITIONS processing plant. The designers combined inline, ultra
compact separation technologies with optimized vessel
FOR THE COMPACT TOPSIDE FACILITY designs to achieve a flexible and reliable processing plant
Parameter Unit Design Min Max for future FPSO vessels, Mikkelsen said. “It is a brand-new
concept and design,” he said.
Pressure bar-a 20 TBD 20
The design envisions a hybrid solution, which includes
Temperature °C 40 30 60 the benefits of a compact design and the operational
MM std flexibility of a traditional separator, Mikkelsen said. The
Gas volume 7 1.25 7 unit is capable of handling crude and natural gas streams,
m3/d
and produces four streams: natural gas, crude oil, water and
Oil volume m3/d 24,000 6,000 24,000 sand. Table 1 shows the process conditions for which the
Water volume m3/d 24,000 0 24,000 compact facility has been designed.
The facility consists of three separation and treatment
Liquid volume m3/d 28,600 0 28,600 modules for gas, oil, and water. The oil treatment scheme
must produce oil that meets export requirements. The water
Basic sediment
% 0 80 treatment module must produce water of suitable quality
and water
for discharge, and the gas treatment scheme must meet sales
Oil viscosity cSt 23.1 11 23.1 specifications or the requirements for reinjection.
API degree 27 27 30 The compact separator has one principal separator, the
Source: SPE 166363.
freewater knockout unit (Fig. 1). From there, an emulsion
of oil and water goes into two stages of treatment. The
system uses an inline deliquidiser to remove the liquid from
FMC studied the existing inline separators and found a predominantly gas stream and a degasser to remove the
that the compact technologies built at existing facilities have gas from a predominantly liquid stream. Both technologies
proven reliable. “We went to the oil operators and asked induce a spin on the incoming stream, which forms a
them what was their experience with these facilities,” he gas core surrounded by a liquid film in the separation
said. The study found that the installed inline separators section downstream.
have operated for a cumulative total of 65 years with no A compact flotation unit gives the water its final
major incidents. “So far, we haven’t had any failures in these stage of polishing, making it clean enough to discharge
technologies,” Mikkelsen said. overboard. The unit injects gas from the gas plant to form
Given the reliability of the compact technology, a major bubbles, which pull particles out of the water. Mikkelsen
operator asked FMC to design a unit that could be used on said that in practice, any gas stream could be used for the
FPSOs. The space and weight savings can make them more same purpose.
economical to operate in offshore developments, which will FMC concluded the conceptual phase in April and it is
account for a growing number of the world’s production in now qualifying the system with the operator. An extensive
the coming decades. The goal was to develop a smaller and round of testing is currently under way. The operator wants
lighter process facility that can be used on future FPSOs. to have the units ready by 2017, which is a relatively short
The operator required a separator with higher efficiency timescale for a new technology, Mikkelsen said.
and availability, and the ability to handle feed with a high
carbon dioxide content. Reductions in capital and operating For Further Reading
expenditures were also desired.
FMC has collaborated with a major oil operator to SPE 166363 Development of a Compact Topside Processing
develop a compact, reliable, efficient topside gas/oil water Plant by Rene Mikkelsen, FMC Technologies, et al.

Treated Oil
BSW < 0.5% Reject vessel
Salinity < 270 mg/l
Compression VRU 2 Stage
nd
RVP < 70 kPa
scrubber
LP Flare
VRU 1st Stage From FWKO
FWKO Return to
(reduced size)
FWKO

Oil Pre-treater
<100 ppm (reduced size) Oil dehydrator
1%
BSW CFUs
HW Hydrocyclones
Oil in water
Mixing
Valve

Overboard
Metering 29 ppm max
Cargo tanks

Fig. 1—Oil (left) and water (right) treatment schemes considered for the compact topside facility. Source: SPE 166363.
22 Oil and Gas Facilities  •   December 2013

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