PMRE 413: Natural Gas Engineering

Gas Liquid Separation

Shaumik Rahman Ayon

Lecturer
Department of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Engineering
Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET)

Introduction

• A typical well stream is a high-velocity, turbulent,

constantly expanding mixture of gases and
hydrocarbon liquids, intimately mixed with water
vapor, free water, solids and other contaminants.

• Gases evolve from the liquids and the well stream

changes in character

• The velocity of the gas carries liquid droplets, and

the liquid carries gas bubbles

• The physical separation of these phases is one of the

basic operations in the production, processing, and
treatment of oil and gas.

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 Importance of Separation

• Downstream equipment cannot handle gas-liquid mixtures.

• Product specifications set limits on impurities.

• Measurement devices for gases or liquids are highly inaccurate when another phase

is present

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Separation Fundamentals

• Separators operate basically upon the principle of pressure reduction to achieve separation of gas
and liquid from an inlet stream.

• Further refinement of the gas and liquid streams is induced by allowing the liquid to stand for a
period of time so that any dissolved gas in the liquid can escape by the formation of the small gas
bubbles that rise to the liquid surface.

• Removing the entrained liquid mist from the gas by gravity settling, impingement, centrifugal action
and other means.

• Turbulent flow allows the gas bubbles to escape more rapidly than the laminar flow and many
separators have sections where turbulence is induced.

• On the other hand for the removal of liquid droplets from the gas by gravity settling, turbulence is
quite detrimental to removal efficiency.

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Separation Design Principles

To efficiently perform its separation functions, a well designed separator must-

• Control and dissipate the energy of the well stream as it enters the separator.
• Remove the bulk of the liquid from the gas in the primary separation section.
• Have a large settling section of sufficient volume to refine primary separation by
removing any entrained liquid from the gas and handle any slugs of liquid.
• Minimize the turbulence in the gas section of the separator to ensure proper
settling.

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Separation Design Principles (Contd.)

• Have a mist extractor near the gas outlet to capture and coalesce the smaller the
liquid particles that could not be removed by gravity settling.
• Control the accumulation of the froths and foams in the vessel.
• Prevent re-entrainment of the separated gas and liquid.
• Have proper control devices for controlling the back pressure and the liquid level in
the separator.
• Provide reliable equipment for ensuring safe and efficient operations.

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Types of Separator

1. Horizontal separator
a. Single tube
b. Double tube
2. Vertical Separator
3. Spherical Separator

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Horizontal Separator

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 Horizontal Separator

Advantages
• Horizontal separators are smaller and thus less expensive than a vertical separator.
• In the gravity settling section of a horizontal vessel, the liquid droplets fall perpendicular to the gas
flow and thus are more easily settled out of the gas continuous phase.
• The interface area is larger in a horizontal separator than a vertical separator, it is easier for the gas
bubbles, which come out of solution as the liquid approach equilibrium, to reach the vapor space.
• Horizontal separators are commonly used in flow streams with high gas-liquid ratios and foaming
crude.
• Horizontal separators offer greater liquid capacity and are best suited for liquid-liquid separation and
foaming crude.

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Horizontal Separator

Disadvantages
• Horizontal separators are not as good as vertical separators in handling solids.
• In a horizontal vessel, it is necessary to place several drains along the length of the vessel.
• Horizontal vessels require more plane area to perform the same separation as vertical vessels at very
close intervals.
• Smaller horizontal vessels can have less liquid surge capacity than vertical vessels sized for the same
steady-state flow rate.

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 Double Barrel Horizontal Separator

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Double Barrel Horizontal Separator

Advantages
• Double-barrel horizontal separators are commonly used in applications where there are high gas flow
rates and where there is a possibility of large liquid slugs.
• Single-barrel horizontal separators can handle large gas flow rates but offer poor liquid surge
capabilities. The double-barrel horizontal separator partially alleviates this shortcoming.

Disadvantages
• Because of their additional cost, they are not widely used in oil field systems.

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 Vertical Separator

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Vertical Separator

Advantages
• They are well suited for production containing sand and other sediment.
• It can handle large liquid slugs without carry over into the gas outlet.
• It provides better surge control.
• It minimizes the tendency of the liquid to revaporize.
• It requires less surface area.
• Vertical separators are commonly used in flow streams with low to intermediate gas-liquid ratios.

Disadvantages
• It is expensive to fabricate and to transport to location
• It is larger than horizontal separator

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 Spherical Separator

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Spherical Separator
• Spherical separators are a special case of a vertical separator where there is no cylindrical shell
between the two heads.
• Spherical separators were originally designed to take advantage, theoretically, of the best
characteristics of both horizontal and vertical separators.
• In practice, however, these separators experienced the worst characteristics and are very difficult to
size and operate.
• They may be very efficient from a pressure containment standpoint, but because
(1) they have limited liquid surge capability and
(2) they exhibit fabrication difficulties; they are seldom used in oil field facilities.

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 Potential Operating Problems

Foamy Crude
One impurity that almost always causes foam is CO2 . Sometimes completion and work-over fluids,
that are incompatible with the wellbore fluids, may also cause foam.

Foaming in a separating vessel is a threefold problem:

1. Mechanical control of liquid level is aggravated because any control device must deal with
essentially three liquid phases instead of two.
2. Foam has a large volume-to-weight ratio. Therefore, it can occupy much of the vessel space that
would otherwise be available in the liquid collecting or gravity settling sections.
3. In an uncontrolled foam bank, it becomes impossible to remove separated gas or degassed oil
from the vessel without entraining some of the foamy material in either the liquid or gas outlets.

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Potential Operating Problems

Paraffin Accumulation
Separator operation can be adversely affected by an accumulation of paraffin. Coalescing plates in the
liquid section and mesh pad mist extractors in the gas section are particularly prone to plugging by
accumulations of paraffin.

Man ways, hand holes, and nozzles should be provided to allow steam, solvent, or other types of
cleaning of the separator internals. The bulk temperature of the liquid should always be kept above the
cloud point of the crude oil.

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 Potential Operating Problems
Sand
Sand can be very troublesome in separators by causing cutout of valve trim, plugging of separator
internals, and accumulation in the bottom of the separator. Special hard trim can minimize the effects of
sand on the valves. Accumulations of sand can be removed by periodically injecting water or steam in
the bottom of the vessel to suspend the sand during draining.

Liquid Carryover
Liquid carryover occurs when free liquid escapes with the gas phase and can indicate high liquid level.
Damage to vessel internals, foam, improper design, plugged liquid outlets, or a flow rate that exceeds
the vessel’s design rate can cause liquid carryover. It can usually be prevented by installing a level safety
high (LSH) sensor that shuts in the inlet flow to the separator when the liquid level exceeds the normal
maximum liquid level by some percentage, usually 10–15%.
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Potential Operating Problems

Gas Blowby
Gas blowby occurs when free gas escapes with the liquid phase and can be an indication of low liquid
level, vortexing, or level control failure. This could lead to a very dangerous situation. If there is a
level control failure and the liquid dump valve is open, the gas entering the vessel will exit the liquid
outlet line and would have to be handled by the next downstream vessel in the process.

Gas blowby can usually be prevented by installing a level safety low sensor (LSL) that shuts in the
inflow and/or outflow to the vessel when the liquid level drops to 10–15% below the lowest operating
level. In addition, downstream process components should be equipped with a pressure safety high
(PSH) sensor and a pressure safety valve (PSV) sized for gas blowby.

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 Potential Operating Problems

Liquid Slugs
Two-phase flow lines and pipelines tend to accumulate liquids in low spots in the lines. When the level
of liquid in these low spots rises high enough to block the gas flow, then the gas will push the liquid
along the line as a slug. Depending on the flow rates, flow properties, length and diameter of the flow
line, and the elevation change involved, these liquid slugs may contain large liquid volumes.

The normal operating level and the high-level shutdown on the vessel must be spaced far enough
apart to accommodate the anticipated slug volume. If sufficient vessel volume is not provided, then
the liquid slugs will trip the high-level shutdown.

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Thank you!