Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/US6962199B1/en
Timestamp: 2020-01-25 20:13:21
Document Index: 404986955

Matched Legal Cases: ['arts 4', 'art 9', 'art 9', 'art 9', 'art 9', 'art 17', 'art 17']

US6962199B1 - Method for removing condensables from a natural gas stream, at a wellhead, downstream of the wellhead choke - Google Patents
Method for removing condensables from a natural gas stream, at a wellhead, downstream of the wellhead choke Download PDF
US6962199B1
US6962199B1 US09/869,654 US86965401A US6962199B1 US 6962199 B1 US6962199 B1 US 6962199B1 US 86965401 A US86965401 A US 86965401A US 6962199 B1 US6962199 B1 US 6962199B1
US09/869,654
1998-12-31 Priority to US22388798A priority Critical
1999-12-29 Application filed by Shell Oil Co filed Critical Shell Oil Co
1999-12-29 Priority to PCT/EP1999/010498 priority patent/WO2000040834A1/en
2001-06-28 Assigned to SHELL RESEARCH LIMITED reassignment SHELL RESEARCH LIMITED ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST (SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS). Assignors: TJEENK WILLINK, CORNELIS ANTONIE
2005-11-08 Publication of US6962199B1 publication Critical patent/US6962199B1/en
239000003345 natural gas Substances 0 abstract claims description title 22
239000004931 filters and membranes Substances 0 description 1
-1 propylene, ethylene, acetylene Chemical group 0 description 1
U.S. Pat. No. Inventor Title 3,155,401 Musolf Well Head Assembly 3,297,344 Hanes Connectors For Well Parts 4,194,718 Baker et al Choke 4,102,401 Erbstoesser Well treatment fluid diversion with low density ball sealers 4,606,557 Coffey Sub-sea Wellhead Connector 4,898,235 Enright Wellhead apparatus for use with a plunger produced gas well having a shut-in timer, and method of use thereof
Natural gas, produced from a subsurface or sub-sea gas producing formation (hereinafter subterranean formation), requires the separation of components that are normally liquid or that have relatively high condensation temperatures. These components, which are collectively referred to in the claims and the description with the expression “the condensables” include water, propane, butane, pentane, propylene, ethylene, acetylene and others such as carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, nitrogen gas and the like. Typically, the gas stream is treated, on surface, downstream of a wellhead that is connected with a subterranean gas producing formation via a primary wellbore containing a tubing extending downhole from the wellhead.
(A) inducing the natural gas stream to flow at supersonic velocity through a conduit of a supersonic inertia separator and thereby causing the fluid to cool to a temperature that is below a temperature/pressure at which the condensables will begin to condense, forming separate droplets and/or particles;
(B) separating the droplets and/or particles from the gas; and
(C) collecting the gas from which the condensables have been removed,
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a shock wave caused by transition from supersonic to subsonic flow occurs upstream of the separation of the condensables from the collecting zone. It was found that the separation efficiency is significantly improved if collection of the droplets and/or particles in the collecting zone takes place after the shock wave, i.e. in subsonic flow rather than in supersonic flow. This is believed to be because the shock wave dissipates a substantial amount of kinetic energy of the stream and thereby strongly reduces the axial component of the fluid velocity while the tangential component (caused by the swirl imparting means) remains substantially unchanged. As a result the density of the droplets and/or particles in the radially outer section of the collecting zone is significantly higher than elsewhere in the conduit where the flow is supersonic. It is believed that this effect is caused by the strongly reduced axial fluid velocity and thereby a reduced tendency of the particles to be entrained by a central “core” of the stream where the fluid flows at a higher axial velocity than nearer the wall of the conduit. Thus, in the subsonic flow regime the centrifugal forces acting on the condensed droplets and/or particles are not to a great extent counter-acted by the entraining action of the central “core” of the stream. The droplets and/or particles are therefore allowed to agglomerate in the radially outer section of the collecting zone from which they are extracted.
In FIG. 1 is shown a conduit in the form of an open-ended tubular housing 1 having a fluid inlet 3 at one end of the housing. A first outlet 5 for condensables laden fluid near the other end of the housing, and a second outlet 7 for substantially condensables-free fluid at the other end of the housing. The flow-direction in the device 1 is from the inlet 3 to the first and second outlets 5, 7. The inlet 3 is an acceleration section containing a Laval-type, having a longitudinal cross-section of converging—diverging shape in the flow direction so as to induce a supersonic flow velocity to a fluid stream which is to flow into the housing via said inlet 3. The housing 1 is further provided with a primary cylindrical part 9 and a diffuser 11 whereby the primary cylindrical part 9 is located between the inlet 3 and the diffuser 11. One or more (for example, four) delta-shaped wings 15 project radially inward from the inner surface of the primary cylindrical part 9. Each wing 15 is arranged at a selected angle to the flow-direction in the housing so as to impart a swirling motion to fluid flowing at supersonic velocity through the primary cylindrical part 9 of the housing 1.
A stream containing micron-sized solid particles is introduced into the Laval-type inlet 3. As the stream flows through the inlet 3, the stream is accelerated to supersonic velocity. As a result of the strongly increasing velocity of the stream, the temperature of the stream may decrease to below the condensation point of heavier gaseous components of the stream (for example, water vapors) which thereby condense to form a plurality of liquid particles. As the stream flows along the delta-shaped wings 15 a swirling motion is imparted to the stream (schematically indicated by spiral 22) so that the liquid particles become subjected to radially outward centrifugal forces. When the stream enters the diffuser 11 a shock wave is created near the downstream outlet 19 of the diffuser 11. The shock wave dissipates a substantial amount of kinetic energy of the stream, whereby mainly the axial component of the fluid velocity is decreased. As a result of the strongly decreased axial component of the fluid velocity, the central part of the stream (or “core”) flows at a reduced axial velocity. This results in a reduced tendency of the condensed particles to be entrained by the central part of the stream flowing in the secondary cylindrical part 17. The condensed particles can therefore agglomerate in a radially outer section of a collecting zone of the stream in the secondary cylindrical part 17. The agglomerated particles form a layer of liquid which is extracted from the collecting zone via the outlet slits 18, the outlet chamber 21, and the first outlet 5 for substantially liquid.
Instead of the diffuser having a diverging shape (FIG. 2), the diffuser alternatively has a diverging section followed by a converging section when seen in the flow direction. An advantage of such diverging—converging shaped diffuser is that less fluid temperature increase occurs in the diffuser.
In this example the air 425 was pressurized to 140 KPa (1.4 bar (a)) by means of a blower 401 to provide pressurized air 426. After the blower the air was cooled to about 25 to 30° C. by fin cooler 402, located in a vessel 418, and water 419 was sprayed into the vapor space below the cooler 420 to ensure that the air was near water saturation (RV=90%). This water saturated air 427 was fed to the feed liquid-vapor separator 403 where the water was separated with a small amount of slip air into a wet stream 421, coming along with this water liquid stream and dried air 422.
1. Mass flow rate 1.2 kg/s 2. Inlet pressure 140 KPa (1400 mbar (a)) 3. Inlet temperature 25° C. 4. Inlet humidity 90%
The device condensed water vapor, resulting in a mist flow containing large number of water droplet. The final temperature and pressure in the supersonic zone 428 were found to be −28° C. and 68 KPa (680 mbar (a)), resulting in a water vapor fraction that was negligibly small.
L1, 406:700 mm: from nozzle inlet to nozzle throat
L2, 407:800 mm: from nozzle throat to nozzle outlet
In order to decrease frictional losses the wall roughness was small, preferably 1 micron or less.
L3, 410:300 mm: from wing apex to wing trailing edge
L4, 412:300 mm: from wing trailing edge to diffuser
The sizing of the wing internal depended on the preferred circulation or integral vorticity. This circulation is typical 16 m2/s resulting from a wing cord length of 300 mm, a wing span at the trailing edge of 60 mm and at an incidence of the wing cord at the axis of the tube of 8°. The sweepback angle of the leading edge (from perpendicular to the flow) was 87° and the sweepback angle of the trailing edge was 40°. The edges of the wing were sharp. The plane of the wing was flat and its profile was extremely slender. The thickness of the wing was about 4 mm at the root. The wing was at an 8° angle to the axis of the tube.
In the diffuser the remaining kinetic energy in the flow is transformed to potential energy (increase of static pressure). It is desirable to avoid boundary layer separation, which can cause stall resulting in a low efficiency. Therefore the half divergence angle of the diffuser in the present test set-up should be preferably less then 5° as in this case 4° was used. The diffuser inlet diameter was the same as the vortex finder inlet diameter (85 mm). The outlet diameter 415 of the diffuser was 300 mm, and the dry air at this point was at about atmospheric pressure. The performance of this device was measured by two humidity sensors (capacitive principle: manufacturer ‘Vaisala’) one at the air inlet 416 and the other at the dried air outlet 417, both were corrected for temperature and pressure. The typical values of the inlet water fractions were 18-20 gram of water vapor per kg dry air. Typical values of the outlet water were 13-15 gram of water vapor per kg dry air. This can be expressed in separation efficiencies of about 25% of the water vapor in the inlet removed. This also corresponds to the separation of liquids condensed in the super sonic region, because most of the liquid water present in the inlet stream condenses at that point.
(C) collecting the gas from which the condensables have been removed, characterized in that the supersonic inertia separator is located in the vicinity of a gas production well for the separation of condensables from the natural gas stream produced through said well and wherein in step (B) a swirling motion is induced to the supersonic stream thereby causing the condensables to flow to a radially outer section of a collecting zone in the stream, followed by the subsonic or supersonic extraction of the condensables into an outlet stream from the radially outer section of the collecting zone, and wherein the swirling motion in imparted by a wing placed in the supersonic flow region.
2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of: creating a shock wave in the stream that is upstream of the collecting zone and downstream of the location where the swirling motion is imparted.
an acceleration section wherein gas is accelerated to a supersonic velocity;
a swirl imparting section that imparts a swirling motion to the gas;
a collection zone from which a gas stream containing reduced content of condensables is removed;
a radially outer section of the collecting zone with a radially outer section from which the condensables can be collected, characterized in that the device is located in the vicinity of the wellhead of a natural gas production well and is designed for the separation of condensables from a natural gas stream produced through said well; and
a shock wave initiator downstream of the swirl imparting section.
6. The device of claim 5 wherein the shock wave initiator is a diffuser, located so that the shock wave is upstream of the collecting zone.
US09/869,654 1998-12-31 1999-12-29 Method for removing condensables from a natural gas stream, at a wellhead, downstream of the wellhead choke Expired - Lifetime US6962199B1 (en)
US22388798A true 1998-12-31 1998-12-31
PCT/EP1999/010498 WO2000040834A1 (en) 1998-12-31 1999-12-29 Method for removing condensables from a natural gas stream, at a wellhead, downstream of the wellhead choke
US6962199B1 true US6962199B1 (en) 2005-11-08
ID=22838379
US09/869,654 Expired - Lifetime US6962199B1 (en) 1998-12-31 1999-12-29 Method for removing condensables from a natural gas stream, at a wellhead, downstream of the wellhead choke
US (1) US6962199B1 (en)
EP (1) EP1141519B1 (en)
CN (1) CN1201063C (en)
AT (1) AT241756T (en)
AU (1) AU755360B2 (en)
BR (1) BR9916719A (en)
CA (1) CA2358071C (en)
DE (1) DE69908419T2 (en)
DK (1) DK1141519T3 (en)
EA (1) EA004226B1 (en)
ID (1) ID29448A (en)
NO (1) NO329564B1 (en)
NZ (1) NZ512601A (en)
UA (2) UA73729C2 (en)
WO (1) WO2000040834A1 (en)
ZA (1) ZA200105390B (en)
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1999-12-29 CN CN 99815962 patent/CN1201063C/en not_active IP Right Cessation
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Free format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNOR:TJEENK WILLINK, CORNELIS ANTONIE;REEL/FRAME:012046/0066