Study on the Performance of a Compact Compound Oil/Gas/Water Separator for Offshore Oil Industry

High-efficiency separation of the oil/gas/water mixtures is a significant issue in offshore oil industry. To reduce the total cost by means of reduction in weight and space compared with conventional separators, a novel compact compound oil/gas/water separator is developed. The research works on oil-gas-water separation by compound separating techniques is described in this paper. The innovative separator is a gravity settling tank with helical pipes within and T-shaped pipes outside. Both experiments and numerical simulations are presented to study the separating performance and efficiency of the helical pipes, which are the main part of the separator.

Gamma-Ray Attenuation Technique For Measuring Void Fraction In Horizontal Gas-Liquid Two-Phase Flow

The measurement of void fraction is of importance to the oil industry and chemical industry. In this article, the principle and mathematical method of determining the void fraction of horizontal gas-liquid flow by using a single-energy gamma-ray system is described. The gamma-ray source is the radioactive isotope of Am-241 with gamma-ray energy of 59.5 keV. The time-averaged value of the void fraction in a 50.0-mm i.d. transparent horizontal pipeline is measured under various combinations of the liquid flow and gas flow. It is found that increasing the gas flow rate at a fixed liquid flow rate would increase the void fraction. Test data are compared with the predictions of the correlations and a good agreement is found. The result shows that the designed gamma-ray system can be used for measuring the void fraction in a horizontal gas-liquid two-phase flow with high accuracy.

Multiphase Flow Measurement in the Offshore Oil Industry

In recent years, considerable research has been conducted into the development of a three-phase flowmeter suitable for use in an offshore environment, and oil/gas/water three-phase metering becomes an important aspect in multiphase flow measurement. This paper discusses the importance of three-phase flow measurement in offshore oil industry, describes the current development in this area, and points out the principal strategies which may be used to meter three-phase flow.

Gas permeability and permselectivity of polyimides prepared from phenylenediamines with methyl substitution at the ortho position

Polyimides were prepared from diamines: 2,4,6-trimethyl-1,3-phenylenediamine (3MPDA) and 2,3,4,5-tetramethyl-1,4-phenylenediamine (4MPDA). 1,4-Bis(3,4-dicarboxyphenoxy)benzene dianhydride (HQDPA), 3,3',4,4'-benzophenone tetracarboxylic dianhydride (BTDA), 3,3'-4,4'-diphenylsulphone tetracarboxylic dianhydride (SO(2)PDA), 3,3',4,4'-diphenylsulphide tetracarboxylic dianhydride (SPDA), pyromellitic dianhydride (PMDA), and 2,2'-bis(3,4-dicarboxyphenyl)hexa-fluoroisopropane dianhydride (6FDA) were used as dianhydride. The gas permeabilities of H-2, O-2 and N-2 through the polyimides were measured at temperatures from 30 degrees C to 90 degrees C. The results show that as methyl and trifluoromethyl substitution groups densities increase from 7.73 x 10(-3) molcm(-3) to 13.50 x 10(-3)molcm(-3), the peameability of H-2 increases 10-fold at 60% loss of permselectivity of H-2/N-2 however, the permeability of O-2 increases 20-fold at 20% loss of permselectivity of O-2/N-2. For O-2/N-2 separation, PMDA-3MPDA has similar performance to 6FDA-3MPDA and 6FDA-4MPDA; all have higher permeabilities for O-2 than normal polyimides, and the P(O-2)/alpha(O-2/N-2) trade-off relationships lie on the upper bound line for polymers. (C) 1999 Society of Chemical Industry.