Optimal Process Design of 2-Phase and 3-Phase Production Separators
for Oil and Gas Installations
A Mathematical Formulation in Excel 2016
First published 2019
Revised and Updated 2020
Copyright © 2019, 2020 John T. Small.
All Rights Reserved
Disclaimer
The methods described in this book may be used by anyone desiring to do so,
but the author shall not be held responsible or liable in any way for loss or
damage resulting therefrom, or for the violation of any federal, state, or
municipal regulations with which it may conflict.
T ABLE OF C ONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION..........................................................................................................5
2. SEPARATOR CONFIGURATION AND DESIGN INPUTS...................................................7
2.1 SEPARATOR INLET ZONE...........................................................................................................7
2.1.1 Dimensioning of Feed Pipe, Inlet Nozzle and Inlet Device.............................................7
2.1.2 Separator Flow Straightening Baffle.............................................................................9
2.2 SEPARATOR GRAVITY SETTLING ZONE..........................................................................................9
2.2.1 Size of Oil Droplets to be Removed from Gas (d OG)......................................................10
2.2.2 Size of Gas Bubbles to be Removed from Oil (dGo).......................................................10
2.2.3 Sizes of Water and Oil Droplets to be Removed from Liquid (dwo & dow)......................10
2.2.4 Axial Length of Gravity Settling Zone..........................................................................11
2.2.5 Liquid Axial Velocity Considerations............................................................................12
2.3 DIMENSIONING OF GAS OUTLET NOZZLE AND GAS OUTLET ZONE...................................................12
2.3.1 Gas Outlet Nozzle........................................................................................................12
2.3.2 Gas Outlet Zone..........................................................................................................13
2.4 DIMENSIONING OF WATER OUTLET NOZZLE AND WATER OUTLET ZONE...........................................13
2.4.1 Water Outlet Nozzle....................................................................................................13
2.4.2 Water Outlet Zone......................................................................................................14
2.5 DIMENSIONING OF OIL OUTLET NOZZLE AND OIL OUTLET ZONE.....................................................14
2.5.1 Oil Outlet Nozzle.........................................................................................................14
2.5.2 Oil Outlet Zone............................................................................................................15
2.6 OIL AND WATER RETENTION TIMES..........................................................................................15
2.7 RE-ENTRAINMENT OF OIL DROPLETS INTO GAS PHASE..................................................................16
2.8 SLENDERNESS RATIO..............................................................................................................16
2.9 LEVEL CONTROLS AND TRIPS....................................................................................................17
2.9.1 Level Control Intervals.................................................................................................17
2.9.2 Unsteady State Operations – Slugging and Surging....................................................18
2.9.3 Level Trips...................................................................................................................18
2.10 SUMMARY OF USER INPUTS TO THE CALCULATION MODULES...................................................19
2.11 NAVIGATING THE RESULTS OF THE SEPARATOR DESIGN CALCULATIONS.......................................22
3. MATHEMATICAL FORMULATIONS AND OPTIMIZATION PROGRAM..........................23
3.1 EROSIONAL CONSTRAINTS ON NOZZLE INTERNAL DIAMETERS.........................................................26
3.2 DETERMINATION OF FEED PIPE / INLET NOZZLE DIAMETER............................................................27
3.2.1 Inlet Nozzle Diameter to Meet Velocity Head Criterion...............................................28
3.2.2 Impact of Inlet Nozzle Diameter on Vessel Sizing Calculations....................................29
3.3 DETERMINATION OF GAS OUTLET NOZZLE DIAMETER..................................................................29
3.3.1 Gas Outlet Nozzle Diameter to Meet Velocity Head Criterion.....................................29
3.4 DETERMINATION OF LIQUID OUTLET NOZZLE DIAMETERS.............................................................30
3.4.1 Liquid Nozzle Diameters to Meet Velocity Criterion....................................................30
3.4.2 Impact of Liquid Outlet Nozzle Diameters on Vessel Sizing Calculations.....................30
3.5 SECTIONAL AREA OF VESSEL AND VOLUME OF HEADS OCCUPIED BY LIQUID......................................31
3.6 GRAVITY SETTLING ZONE CALCULATIONS....................................................................................31
3.6.1 Droplet Settling Velocities...........................................................................................31
3.6.2 Length of Gravity Settling Zone LEFF.............................................................................32
3.6.3 Constraints on Oil and Water Retention Times...........................................................35
3.7 PREVENTION OF OIL RE-ENTRAINMENT INTO GAS PHASE...............................................................36
3.7.1 Model for Re-Entrainment of Oil Droplets into Gas Phase..........................................36
3.7.2 Slenderness Ratio Constraint......................................................................................38
3.8 LIQUID AXIAL VELOCITY CONSIDERATIONS..................................................................................38
3.9 FORMULATION OF LEVEL CONTROL INTERVALS.............................................................................38
3.9.1 Interface Level Control Intervals.................................................................................39
3.9.2 Oil Level Control Intervals...........................................................................................39
3.10 FOAMING ALLOWANCE......................................................................................................40
3.11 FORMULATION OF OIL TRIP SETTINGS...................................................................................40
3.11.1 LLLL Trip Setting – 2-Phase Separator.........................................................................40
3.11.2 HHLL Trip Setting – 2-Phase Separator........................................................................40
3.11.3 LLLL Trip Setting – 3-Phase Separator.........................................................................41
3.11.4 HHLL Trip Setting – 3-Phase Separator........................................................................41
3.12 MATHEMATICAL PROGRAM FOR OPTIMIZED SEPARATOR DIMENSIONS........................................42
3.13 FREE ISSUE OF EXCEL WORKBOOK......................................................................................42
4. CASE STUDY A: 2-PHASE PRODUCTION SEPARATOR DIMENSIONS FOR DROPLET CUT-
OFF SIZES 140 MICRONS AND 300 MICRONS.....................................................................43
4.1 DEVELOPMENT OF SEPARATOR DESIGN PARAMETERS...................................................................43
4.2 KEY DESIGN CONSTRAINTS......................................................................................................43
4.3 CALCULATIONS AND RESULTS...................................................................................................44
4.4 SENSITIVITY CASE..................................................................................................................45
5. CASE STUDY B: 3-PHASE PRODUCTION SEPARATOR DIMENSIONS FOR DIVERTER
PLATE AND DIFFUSER INLET DEVICE OPTIONS...................................................................50
5.1 METHODOLOGY....................................................................................................................50
5.2 RESULTS..............................................................................................................................51
5.3 DISCUSSION OF RESULTS.........................................................................................................52
5.4 CONCLUSIONS.......................................................................................................................53
6. CASE STUDY C: 3-PHASE PRODUCTION SEPARATOR DIMENSIONS ADEQUATE FOR
PRODUCTION DURING EARLY AND LATE FIELD LIFE...........................................................59
6.1 DEVELOPMENT OF SETTLING THEORY MODEL FOR EXISTING SEPARATOR..........................................59
6.2 CALCULATE NOZZLE SIZES FOR NEW SEPARATOR..........................................................................60
6.3 CALCULATE SEPARATOR VESSEL DIMENSIONS FOR LATE FIELD LIFE..................................................61
6.4 CHECK SUITABILITY OF LATE LIFE VESSEL FOR EARLY LIFE FLUIDS.....................................................62
6.5 CONCLUSION........................................................................................................................62
7. NOMENCLATURE......................................................................................................70
8. REFERENCES.............................................................................................................74
9. ABOUT THE AUTHOR................................................................................................75
FIGURE 1:-CONFIGURATION OF 2-PHASE SEPARATOR
FIGURE 2:-CONFIGURATION OF 3-PHASE SEPARATOR
1. INTRODUCTION
The 2- and 3- phase separator configurations which form the basis for this
work are illustrated on Figure 1 and Figure 2 respectively.
The 3-phase separator is the flooded-weir type.
Both of these kinds of separator are commonly installed on offshore oil and gas
installations.
They are relatively large, heavy vessels containing significant hydrocarbon
inventories, and they utilize costly deck space and loading capacity. The
associated pipework and valving is often bulky and challenging to
accommodate in restricted module spaces. Modification projects in particular
may place hard limits on these factors.
It follows that there is a strong incentive to minimize the size of the vessel and
associated piping whilst achieving satisfactory performance in the separation,
process control and safeguarding functions.
This optimization task requires resolution of key design aspects of the
separator unit:
Gravity settling zone dimensions for successful phase separation.
Opposing schools of thought favor computation via droplet settling
theory versus liquid retention times.
Provision of adequate liquid hold up times and height differences
between contiguous level control and trip settings.
Type of inlet device, and its impact upon the size of inlet pipework and
the dimensions of the separator vessel.
Nozzle sizing according to erosional, velocity head and velocity criteria,
and the impact on vessel dimensions.
Maintaining axial velocities of oil and water phases within acceptable
limits.
Prevention of re-entrainment of oil droplets into the gas phase.
Prevention of transient gas blowby or gross carryover of liquid during
unplanned shutdown.
Provision of adequate liquid and gas holdup volumes for slugging and
surging.
Prevention of spurious trips due to foaming, where applicable.
This book details a Microsoft Excel 2016 spreadsheet which models
numerically the factors listed above and optimizes the vessel dimensions using
the Solver add-in, based on User´s design input parameters and constraints.
Macros are not employed, so as to maximize flexibility of use.
The principal calculation method for dimensioning the gravity settling zone of
the vessel is based on settling theory, according to which droplets / bubbles of
certain diameters settle to their respective continuous phases, however the
spreadsheet allows the engineer to concurrently specify minimum allowable oil
and / or water retention times if desired.
The objective function of the Solver algorithm may be set to minimize the
volume of a separator vessel for the selected design parameters and
constraints, or the engineer may choose other targets for optimization such as
length of the gravity settling zone.
Case studies are presented which address the design of a 2-phase gas-
condensate separator, and a 3-phase separator which is required to
accommodate a major change in water cut during the course of field life. For a
3-phase separator, the impact upon the key separator design aspects of
installing a diverter plate versus a diffuser type inlet device is evaluated.
The case studies are founded on published field data.
Section 2 discusses development of the salient features of the separators,
citing the technical references and criteria that have been considered. Key
input design parameters and constraints are identified for solution of the
dimensioning calculations.
Section 3 describes formulation of the spreadsheet calculation modules and
how these are integrated in order to optimize the size of the separator vessel
and nozzles.
Spreadsheets for the 2-phase and 3-phase separator design calculations are
combined in a single workbook.
Complete paper available at:
https://www.amazon.com/Optimal-Horizontal-Production-Separators-Installations-
ebook/dp/B08HZCVB42/ref=sr_1_1?
dchild=1&keywords=john+t+small&qid=1602694768&rnid=1000&s=books&sr=1-1
