Quite often, people are faced with the need to clean products (both gas and gas condensate wells), protect gas-pumping equipment and shut-off and control valves from moisture drops, solids and hydrocarbon condensate. To solve these problems, equipment was created called the “gas separator”. It is included in the composition of compressor stations, installations that conduct complex gas treatment, gas distribution and assembly points, gas processing plants.
The gas separator can be either stand-alone or sectional.
Typically, the separator is divided into three parts: pre-separation, in which most of the impurities are separated; sludge, where the collected fluid is collected and pre-sedimented; and drip trap, which purifies the gas from the smallest droplets of liquid.
The gas separator is equipped with devices that allow you to control the temperature of the gas, its pressure and liquid level.
The types of this equipment are classified as follows:
- by the nature of the forces that affect the gas inside the device, they release an inertial (packed), gravitational, mixed type and centrifugal separator;
- according to the position of the separators in space and their geometric shape, there is a cylindrical (horizontal, vertical, inclined) and spherical separator;
- according to the location of the collector for the separated liquid, the devices are with remote and inside the volume of the gas separator collectors;
- according to the magnitude of the working pressure, there are high (more than 2.5 MPa), medium (from 0.6 to 2.5 MPa) and low (less than 0.6 MPa).
The gravitational gas separator operates on the principle of reducing the speed of the gas in it to such a value that the impurities in it are deposited under the influence of gravity . Such devices are structurally simple, but metal-consuming and bulky. Separation efficiency ranges from 75 to 90 percent.
And what is an inertial gas separator , what is its principle of operation?
In it, impurities settle due to multiple deviations using special nozzles of the gas flow. These nozzles are made from various configurations of plates, coalescing gaskets and filter materials. Most often, mesh and louvre sections are used.
Separation efficiency ranges from 95 to 99 percent. In gas centrifugal separators, impurities are deposited on the walls of the housing under the influence of centrifugal forces arising during the rotation of the flow in an annular or cylindrical separation chamber.
The most advanced centrifugal once-through gas separators of the multicyclone and single-flow types can achieve particulate efficiency from 98 to 99.5 percent. Plus - smaller size and metal consumption than its inertial and gravitational counterparts. Their throughput reaches 15 million cubic meters per day, with a pressure reaching 16 MPa and a temperature of minus 40 to plus 100 degrees Celsius and a starting fluid content of 1 to 200 cubic centimeters per cubic meter.
The main directions for reducing the metal consumption and increasing the efficiency of the separators are the use of mesh nozzles, coagulation of the aerosol contained in the filters, improving the aerodynamic performance of the flow in the separation chamber, the use of column separators and multi-purpose.
Centrifugal separators are industrial equipment designed to separate a gas stream, which uses a centrifugal type of separation. They relate to equipment using a swirling flow to separate multicomponent gas systems.