A Novel Process for Natural Gas Liquids Recovery from Oil Field Associated Gas with Liquefied Natural Gas Cryogenic Energy Utilization

A novel process to recovery natural gas liquids from oil field associated gas with liquefied natural gas (LNG)cryogenic energy utilization is proposed.Compared to the current electric refrigeration process,the proposed process uses the cryogenic energy of LNG and saves 62.6%of electricity.The proposed process recovers ethane, liquid petroleum gas(propane and butane)and heavier hydrocarbons,with total recovery rate of natural gas liquids up to 96.8%.In this paper,exergy analysis and the energy utilization diagram method(EUD)are used to assess the new process and identify the key operation units with large exergy loss.The results show that exergy efficiency of the new process is 44.3%.Compared to the electric refrigeration process,exergy efficiency of the new process is improved by 16%.The proposed process has been applied and implemented in a conceptual design scheme of the cryogenic energy utilization for a 300 million tons/yr LNG receiving terminal in a northern Chinese harbor.

Gas liquid cylindrical cyclone flow regime identification using machine learning combined with experimental mechanism explanation

The flow regimes of GLCC with horizon inlet and a vertical pipe are investigated in experiments,and the velocities and pressure drops data labeled by the corresponding flow regimes are collected.Combined with the flow regimes data of other GLCC positions from other literatures in existence,the gas and liquid superficial velocities and pressure drops are used as the input of the machine learning algorithms respectively which are applied to identify the flow regimes.The choosing of input data types takes the availability of data for practical industry fields into consideration,and the twelve machine learning algorithms are chosen from the classical and popular algorithms in the area of classification,including the typical ensemble models,SVM,KNN,Bayesian Model and MLP.The results of flow regimes identification show that gas and liquid superficial velocities are the ideal type of input data for the flow regimes identification by machine learning.Most of the ensemble models can identify the flow regimes of GLCC by gas and liquid velocities with the accuracy of 0.99 and more.For the pressure drops as the input of each algorithm,it is not the suitable as gas and liquid velocities,and only XGBoost and Bagging Tree can identify the GLCC flow regimes accurately.The success and confusion of each algorithm are analyzed and explained based on the experimental phenomena of flow regimes evolution processes,the flow regimes map,and the principles of algorithms.The applicability and feasibility of each algorithm according to different types of data for GLCC flow regimes identification are proposed.

Distribution performance of gas–liquid mixture in the shell side of spiral-wound heat exchangers

The non-uniformity of gas–liquid mixture is a critical issue which leads to the heat transfer deterioration of spiralwound heat exchangers(SWHEs).Two-phase mass flow rate and the content of gas are important parameters as well as structural parameters which have prominent influences on flow distribution uniformity of SWHE shell side.In order to investigate the influences of these parameters,an experimental test system was built using water and air as mediums and a novel distributor named"tubes distributor"was designed.The effects of mass flow rate and the content of gas on two-phase distribution performance were analyzed,where the mass flow rate ranged from 28.4 to 171.9 kg·h-1 and the content of gas changed from 0.2 to 0.8,respectively.The results showed that the mixture mass flow rate considerably influenced the liquid distribution than that of gas phase and the larger mass flow rate exhibited the better distribution uniformity of two-phase flow.It was also found that the tubes distributor had the better two-phase uniformity when the content of gas was around 0.4.Tube diameter played an important role in the distribution of gas phase and slit width was more significant for the uniformity of liquid phase.

Numerical Simulation and Experimental Study on the Performance of Gas/liquid Spiral Separator

The gas/liquid spiral separator, a key component in the compressed air system, was used to remove liquid and oil from gas stream by centrifugal and gravitational forces. To optimize the design of the separator,the relationship between the performance and structural parameters of separators is studied. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method is employed to simulate the flow fields and calculate the pressure drop and separation efficiency of air-liquid spiral separators with different structural parameters. The RSM (Reynolds stress model)turbulence model is used to analyze the highly swirling flow fields while the stochastic trajectory model is used to simulate the traces of liquid droplets in the flow field. A simplified calculation formula of pressure drop in spiral structures is obtained by modifying Darcy's equation and verified by experiment.

Methane dehydroaromatization over Mo-modified H-MFI for gas to liquid catalysts

For direct gas to liquid（GTL）,a novel process producing energy sources for methane dehydroaromatization is needed.Supporting MoO3 on H-MFI zeolite shows the high catalytic capacity and a selective activity for dehydroaromatization of methane to benzene at 973 K in a fixed bed reactor.On the other hand,deactivation by coke on the active sites in all the catalysts is formed during the reaction.H2 co-feed suppressed the deactivation,which is probably due to the decrease in coking amount.Mo K-edge X-ray absorption fine structure（XAFS） results showed the formation of dispersed Mo2C species with low crystallinity after dehydroaromatization.Mo LIII-edge XANES（X-ray absorption near-edge structure） indicated the formation of active Mo species including Mo2C and Mo-oxycarbide（MoOxCy）,where the redox state should be independent in the absence/presence of H2.It is concluded that Mo-oxycarbide species act as highly active species,and their stability affected the durable activity in the presence of H2.

Gas–liquid flow mass transfer in a T-shape microreactor stimulated with 1.7 MHz ultrasound waves

This paper describes the application of ultrasound waves on hydrodynamics and mass transfer characteristics in the gas–liquid flow in a T-shape microreactor with a diameter of 800 μm. A 1.7 MHz piezoelectric transducer(PZT) was employed to induce the vibration in this microreactor. Liquid side volumetric mass transfer coefficients were measured by physical and chemical methods of CO_2 absorption into water and Na OH solution. The approach of absorption of CO_2 into a 1 mol·L^(-1) Na OH solution was used for analysis of interfacial areas. With the help of a photography system, the fluid flow patterns inside the microreactor were analyzed. The effects of superficial liquid velocity, initial concentration of Na OH, superficial CO_2 gas velocity and length of microreactor on the mass transfer rate were investigated. The comparison between sonicated and plain microreactors(microreactor with and without ultrasound) shows that the ultrasound wave irradiation has a significant effect on kLa and interfacial area at various operational conditions. For the microreactor length of 12 cm, ultrasound waves improved kLa and interfacial area about 21% and 22%, respectively. From this study, it can be concluded that ultrasound wave irradiation in microreactor has a great effect on the mass transfer rate. This study suggests a new enhancement technique to establish high interfacial area and kLa in microreactors.

Parametric study of gas−liquid two-phase flow field in horizontal stirred tank

Based on Fluent software,the gas−liquid two-phase flow in the horizontal stirred tank was simulated with SST k−ωturbulence model,Eulerian−Eulerian two-fluid model,and multi-reference flame method.The mixing process in the tank was calculated by tracer method.The results show that increasing the rotating speed or gas flow is conducive to a more uniform distribution of the gas phase and accelerates the mixing of the liquid phase.When the rotating speed exceeds 93 r/min,the relative power demand remains basically constant.The change in the inclination angle of the upper impeller has minimal effect on the gas phase distribution.When the inclination angle is 50°,the relative power demand reaches the maximum.An appropriate increase in the impeller distance from the bottom improves the gas holdup and gas phase distribution but increases the liquid phase mixing time.

Application of time–frequency entropy from wake oscillation to gas–liquid flow pattern identification

Gas–liquid two-phase flow abounds in industrial processes and facilities. Identification of its flow pattern plays an essential role in the field of multiphase flow measurement. A bluff body was introduced in this study to recognize gas–liquid flow patterns by inducing fluid oscillation that enlarged differences between each flow pattern. Experiments with air–water mixtures were carried out in horizontal pipelines at ambient temperature and atmospheric pressure. Differential pressure signals from the bluff-body wake were obtained in bubble, bubble/plug transitional, plug, slug, and annular flows. Utilizing the adaptive ensemble empirical mode decomposition method and the Hilbert transform, the time–frequency entropy S of the differential pressure signals was obtained. By combining S and other flow parameters, such as the volumetric void fraction β, the dryness x, the ratio of density φ and the modified fluid coefficient ψ, a new flow pattern map was constructed which adopted S（1–x）φ and （1–β）ψ as the vertical and horizontal coordinates, respectively. The overall rate of classification of the map was verified to be 92.9% by the experimental data. It provides an effective and simple solution to the gas–liquid flow pattern identification problems.

The Future of Gas to Liquids as a Gas Monetisation Option

The paper introduces gas to liquids (GTL) as a monetising option from a technology, marketing and project perspective. GTL is complementary to LNG and pipelines. At the same time, using natural gas as a source for fuels in the form of GTL helps countries around the world to diversify their energy supplies. Furthermore, gas-based products are inherently cleaner than oil products. Shell's proprietary GTL technology or SMDS (Shell Middle Distillates Synthesis), is discussed in some detail. The paper also covers the challenges for successful implementation of GTL projects and why Shell is well positioned to take a lead in the industry on the basis of its long standing and broad experience in GTL research, plant operations, marketing and excellent track record in mega projects in the last thirty years. Shell's commitment to GTL is best demonstrated by the recent signing of a Heads of Agreement with Qatar Petroleum for the construction of the world's largest GTL plant. A key success factor is Shell's experience with marketing quantities of high quality GTL products from its 12,500 barrels per day plant at Bintulu, Malaysia since 1993. Further marketing opportunities will arise when new GTL capacity comes on-stream in the middle east when more quantities will become available to bulk users. Amongst the most interesting market will be automotive transportation, where clean GTL fuels can be positioned as an 'alternative fuel beyond oil' providing energy security to host countries. Shell is actively engaging with a number of regulators, automotive companies and governments worldwide including China, to demonstrate the performance of GTL and its cost effectiveness in reducing local emissions. An added benefit is that GTL can use existing infrastructure and requires no investment. Finally, the paper briefly discusses the coal to liquids (CTL) process as an alternative route to produce high quality GTL products and the key issues relating to the process.

Contribution of tuned liquid column gas dampers to the performance of offshore wind turbines under wind, wave, and seismic excitations

The main intention of the present study is to reduce wind, wave, and seismic induced vibrations of jacket- type offshore wind turbines （JOWTs） through a newly developed vibration absorber, called tuned liquid column gas damper （TLCGD）. Using a Simulink-based model, an analytical model is developed to simulate global behavior of JOWTs under different dynamic excitations. The study is followed by a parametric study to explore efficiency of the TLCGD in terms of nacelle acceleration reduction under wind, wave, and earthquake loads. Study results indicate that optimum frequency of the TLCGD is rather insensitive to excitation type. In addition, while the gain in vibration control from TLCGDs with higher mass ratios is generally more pronounced, heavy TLCGDs are more sensitive to their tuned frequency such that ill-regulated TLCGD with high mass ratio can lead to destructive results. It is revealed that a well regulated TLCGD has noticeable contribution to the dynamic response of the JOWT under any excitation.

Simultaneous measurement of velocity profile and liquid film thickness in horizontal gas–liquid slug flow by using ultrasonic Doppler method

Horizontal gas-liquid two-phase flows widely exist in chemical engineering,oil/gas production and other important industrial processes.Slug flow pattern is the main form of horizontal gas-liquid flows and characterized by intermittent motion of film region and slug region.This work aims to develop the ultrasonic Doppler method to realize the simultaneous measurement of the velocity profile and liquid film thickness of slug flow.A single-frequency single-channel transducer is adopted in the design of the field-programmable gate array based ultrasonic Doppler system.A multiple echo repetition technology is used to improve the temporal-spatial resolution for the velocity profile.An experiment of horizontal gas-liquid two-phase flow is implemented in an acrylic pipe with an inner diameter of 20 mm.Considering the aerated characteristics of the liquid slug,slug flow is divided into low-aerated slug flow,high-aerated slug flow and pseudo slug flow.The temporal-spatial velocity distributions of the three kinds of slug flows are reconstructed by using the ultrasonic velocity profile measurement.The evolution characteristics of the average velocity profile in slug flows are investigated.A novel method is proposed to derive the liquid film thickness based on the instantaneous velocity profile.The liquid film thickness can be effectively measured by detecting the position and the size of the bubbles nearly below the elongated gas bubble.Compared with the time of flight method,the film thickness measured by the Doppler system shows a higher accuracy as a bubble layer occurs in the film region.The effect of the gas distribution on the film thickness is uncovered in three kinds of slug flows.

Gas-liquid-liquid extraction in a novel rotating microchannel extractor

In this work,a novel rotating microchannel extractor(RME)is designed and further used for the extraction of chromium(Ⅲ)from water.Unexpectedly,the micro-extraction had the same effect as carrying out 2.9-stage cross-flow extractions.Various factors,including the gas intake methods,gas intake quantity(Qg),distance between inner rotor and outer wall(D),rotational inner rotor speed(R)and volumetric flow rate(Qa,Qo),were selected to investigate their effect on the extraction efficiency(η)thoroughly.The relation map ofηwith Weaand We(o-g)for RME provides a comprehension for the gas–liquid–liquid extraction process in this RME system.

CFD gas–liquid simulation of oriented valve tray

Computational fluid dynamics(CFD) has recently emerged as an effective tool for the investigation of the hydraulic parameters and efficiency of tray towers.The computation domain was established for two types of oriented valves within a tray and meshed into two parts with different grid types and sizes.The volume fraction correlation concerning inter-phase momentum transfer source was fitted based on experimental data,and built in UDF for simulation.The flow pattern of oriented valve tray under different operating conditions was simulated under Eulerian-Eulerian framework with realizable k-ε model.The predicted liquid height from CFD simulation was in good agreement with the results of pressure drop and volume fraction correlations.Meanwhile,the velocity distribution and volume fraction of the two phases were demonstrated and analyzed,which are useful in design and analysis of the column trays.

Degradation of antibiotic contaminants from water by gas–liquid underwater discharge plasma

Antibiotic contamination adversely affects human health and ecological balance.In this study,gasliquid underwater discharge plasma was employed to simultaneously degrade three antibiotics,sulfadiazine(SDZ),tetracycline(TC),and norfloxacin(NOR),to address the growing problem of antibiotic contaminants in water.The effects of various parameters on the antibiotic degradation efficiency were evaluated,including the discharge gas type and flow rate,the initial concentration and pH of the solution,and the discharge voltage.Under the optimum parameter configuration,the average removal rate of the three antibiotics was 54.0% and the energy yield was 8.9 g(kW·h)-1after 5 min treatment;the removal efficiency was 96.5% and the corresponding energy yield was4.0 g(kW·h)-1 after 20 min treatment.Reactive substance capture and determination experiments indicated that ·OH and O3 played a vital role in the decomposition of SDZ and NOR,but the role of reactive substances in TC degradation was relatively less significant.

Equilibrium morphology of gas–liquid Janus droplets: A numerical analysis of buoyancy effect

In this article, a theoretical model for predicting the equilibrium morphology of gas–liquid Janus droplets was built. Based on this model, the effects of bubble radius and volume ratio on morphology change was systematically studied. The increase of bubble radius causes the two parts(bubble and oil drop) in Janus droplets tend to merge while the impact of volume ratio is complicated. When volume ratio increases, these two parts firstly tend to merge, then gradually separate. The accuracy of this model was verified by experimental results.

Process intensification in gas/liquid/solid reaction in trickle bed reactors: A review

As an important form of reactors for gas/liquid/solid catalytic reaction,trickle bed reactors (TBRs) are widely applied in petroleum industry,biochemical,fine chemical and pharmaceutical industries because of their flexibility,simplicity of operation and high throughput.However,TBRs also show inefficient production and hot pots caused by non-uniform fluid distribution and incomplete wetting of the catalyst,which limit their further application in chemical industry.Also,process intensification in TBRs is necessary as the decrease in quality of processed crude oil,caused by increased exploitation depths,and more restrictive environmental regulations and emission standards for industry,caused by increased environment protection consciousness.In recent years,lots of strategies for process intensification in TBRs have been proposed to improve reaction performance to meet the current and future demands of chemical industry from the environmental and economic perspective.This article summarizes the recent progress in techniques for intensifying gas/liquid/solid reaction in TBRs and application of intensified TBRs in petroleum industry.

Numerical simulation of gas–liquid flow in the bubble column using Wray–Agarwal turbulence model coupled with population balance model

In this paper,an improved computational fluid dynamic(CFD)model for gas-liquid flow in bubble column was developed using the one-equation Wary-Agarwal(WA)turbulence model coupled with the population balance model(PBM).Through 18 orthogonal test cases,the optimal combination of interfacial force models,including drag force,lift force,turbulent dispersion force.The modified wall lubrication force model was proposed to improve the predictive ability for hydrodynamic behavior near the wall of the bubble column.The values simulated by optimized CFD model were in agreement with experimental data,and the errors were within±20%.In addition,the axial velocity,turbulent kinetic energy,bubble size distribution,and the dynamic characteristic of bubble plume were analyzed at different superficial gas velocities.This research work could provide a theoretical basis for the extension of the CFD-PBM coupled model to other multiphase reactors..

CFD simulation of effect of anode configuration on gas–liquid flow and alumina transport process in an aluminum reduction cell

Numerical simulations of gas–liquid two-phase flow and alumina transport process in an aluminum reduction cell were conducted to investigate the effects of anode configurations on the bath flow, gas volume fraction and alumina content distributions. An Euler–Euler two-fluid model was employed coupled with a species transport equation for alumina content. Three different anode configurations such as anode without a slot, anode with a longitudinal slot and anode with a transversal slot were studied in the simulation. The simulation results clearly show that the slots can reduce the bath velocity and promote the releasing of the anode gas, but can not contribute to the uniformity of the alumina content. Comparisons of the effects between the longitudinal and transversal slots indicate that the longitudinal slot is better in terms of gas–liquid flow but is disadvantageous for alumina mixing and transport process due to a decrease of anode gas under the anode bottom surface. It is demonstrated from the simulations that the mixing and transfer characteristics of alumina are controlled to great extent by the anode gas forces while the electromagnetic forces(EMFs) play the second role.

Torque and bending moment acting on a flexible shaft agitated by disk turbines in a gas–liquid stirred vessel

The torque and bending moment acting on a flexible overhung shaft in a gas–liquid stirred vessel agitated by a Rushton turbine and three different curved-blade disk turbines(half circular blades disk turbine, half elliptical blades disk turbine, and parabolic blades disk turbine) were experimentally measured by a customized moment sensor. The results show that the amplitude distribution of torque can be fitted by a symmetric bimodal distribution for disk turbines, and generally the distribution is more dispersive as the blade curvature or the gas flow rate increases. The amplitude distribution of shaft bending moment can be fitted by an asymmetric Weibull distribution for disk turbines. The relative shaft bending moment manifests a "rising-falling-rising" trend over the gas flow number, which is a corporate contribution of the unstable gas–liquid flow around the impeller, the gas cavities behind the blades, and the direct impact of gas on the impeller. And the "falling" stage is greater and lasts wider over the gas flow number for Rushton turbine than for the curved-blade disk turbines.

Spatio-temporal evolution characteristics and pattern formation of a gas–liquid interfacial AC current argon discharge plasma with a deionized water electrode

A discharge ignited by an AC power source in contact with deionized water as one of the electrodes is investigated.Immediately after initiation,the discharge exhibits a unique phenomenon:the gas-phase discharge is extended into the liquid.Later,a cone-like structure is observed at the liquid surface.Synchronous monitoring of current–voltage characteristics and liquid properties versus time suggests that the discharge shapes are functions of the liquid properties.The spatio-temporal profiles indicate the potential effects of water,ambient air impurities,and metastable argon on the discharge chemistry.This becomes more obvious near the liquid surface due to increasing production of various transient reactive species such as centerdot OH and NO centerdot.Moreover,it is revealed that thermalization of the rotational population distributions of the rotational states(N′⩽6,J′⩽13/2)in the Q1 branch of the OH(A2Σ+,υ′=0→X2Π3/2,υ′′=0)band ro-vibrational system is influenced by the humid environment near the liquid surface.In addition,the transient behaviors of instantaneous concentrations of long-lived reactive species(LRS)such as H2O2,NO−2,and NO−3 are observed with lengthening the discharge time.The production of multiple transient and LRS proposes AC excited gas–liquid argon discharge as a potential applicant in industrial wastewater cleaning,clinical medicine,and agriculture.