Experimental study of circular inlets effect on the performances of Gas-Liquid Cylindrical Cyclone separators (GLCC)

Abstract

The gas-liquid cylindrical cyclone (GLCC) separators is a fairly new technology for oil and gas industry. The current GLCC separator, a potential alternative for the conventional one, was studied, developed and patented by Chevron company and Tulsa University (USA). It is used for replacing the traditional separators that have been used over the last 100 years. In addition, it is significantly attracted to petroleum companies in recent years because of the effect of the oil world price. However, the behavior of phases in the instrument is very rapid, complex and unsteady which may cause the difficulty of enhancing the performance of the separation phases. The multiple recently research show that the inlet geometry is probably the most critical element that influences directly to the performance of separation of phases. Though, so far, most of the studies of GLCC separator were limited with the one inlet model. The main target of the current study is to deeply understand the effect of different geometrical configurations of the circular inlet on performances of GLCC by the experimental method for two phases flow (gas-liquid). Two different inlet configurations are constructed, namely: One circular inlet and two symmetric circular inlets. As a result, we propose the use of two symmetric circular inlets to enhance the separator efficiency because of their effects.