Development And Research Of A New Type Supersonic Gas Separation And Purification Equipment

Compared the purification technique with others, the natural gas dehydration in supersonic condition has a series advantages such as less investment cost, higher efficiency, more energy-saving, lower air pollution, etc. In spite of these superiorities above, excess pressure loses must be considered in various applications. This problem is solved by structure optimization in this paper. Detailed contents and methods are shown as follows:Operating principle and the benefits of the supersonic separator technology are introduced, and internal and abroad development and the achievements of supersonic separator technology are summarized. Based on the detailed investigation of supersonic separators applied in offshore platform, investment expenses are cut down due to simple structure of supersonic natural gas dehydration system. Traditional natural gas dehydration techniques include but not limit to Tri-Ethylene Glycol (TEG), Corrosion Resistant Alloy pipeline (CRA), Carbon Steel (CS). Multiphase wet gas is transported in pipelines. By virtue of supersonic separation technique, dry single-phase gas transportation comes true. Flexible layout of pipelines decreased the pressure lose of the whole system, and pipe erosion of hydrates could also be avoided. Then, one application example on the aspects of processing mode, process design, main equipment, project implement and the performance of Twister facilities was introduced. And the subsea application of the supersonic separator can reduce the investment of wet gas transportation line, and the pressure loss.A new supersonic separator is designed and manufactured. A prototype is tested in indoor experiments. Equivalent cross-sectional area method is suggested for the designing. Laval nozzle is composed by inner solid body and external shell. Screw panel is settled on the internal solid. The new separator could be taken as an association of Laval nozzle with cyclone. According to aerodynamic theory, shock wave at the outlet of separator could be avoided, and the limited axial length is obtained in given operation condition. The experimental data proved the function of separating liquid from gas. However, with certain pressure lose, the dew point decreased by the most value of 27.19℃(pressure lose fraction is 81.43%). Mathematical modeling of the new-style supersonic separator is built in 2-D steady adiabatic flow state. Fluent commercial software is adopted for numerical simulation. Without regard to isotropic homogeneity of vortex viscosity, Reynolds stress equation model (RSM) is more accurate than other turbulent flow models which ignore the effect of curvature fluctuation of the flow surface. The variation of flow parameters inside supersonic separator is in conformity with the conclusion in design.