Fine quantitative characterization of high-H2S gas reservoirs under the influence of liquid sulfur deposition and adsorption

In order to clarify the influence of liquid sulfur deposition and adsorption to high-H2S gas reservoirs,three types of natural cores with typical carbonate pore structures were selected for high-temperature and high-pressure core displacement experiments.Fine quantitative characterization of the cores in three steady states(original,after sulfur injection,and after gas flooding)was carried out using the nuclear magnetic resonance(NMR)transverse relaxation time spectrum and imaging,X-ray computer tomography(CT)of full-diameter cores,basic physical property testing,and field emission scanning electron microscopy imaging.The loss of pore volume caused by sulfur deposition and adsorption mainly comes from the medium and large pores with sizes bigger than 1000μm.Liquid sulfur has a stronger adsorption and deposition ability in smaller pore spaces,and causes greater damage to reservoirs with poor original pore structures.The pore structure of the three types of carbonate reservoirs shows multiple fractal characteristics.The worse the pore structure,the greater the change of internal pore distribution caused by liquid sulfur deposition and adsorption,and the stronger the heterogeneity.Liquid sulfur deposition and adsorption change the pore size distribution,pore connectivity,and heterogeneity of the rock,which further changes the physical properties of the reservoir.After sulfur injection and gas flooding,the permeability of TypeⅠreservoirs with good physical properties decreased by 16%,and that of TypesⅡandⅢreservoirs with poor physical properties decreased by 90%or more,suggesting an extremely high damage.This indicates that the worse the initial physical properties,the greater the damage of liquid sulfur deposition and adsorption.Liquid sulfur is adsorbed and deposited in different types of pore space in the forms of flocculence,cobweb,or retinitis,causing different changes in the pore structure and physical property of the reservoir.

Analysis of Maximum Liquid Carrying Capacity Based on Conventional Tubing Plunger Gas Lift

China’s unconventional gas fields have a large number of low-productivity and low-efficiency wells, many of whichare located in remote and environmentally harsh mountainous areas. To address the long-term stable productionof these gas wells, plunger-lift technology plays an important role. In order to fully understand and accurately graspthe drainage and gas production mechanisms of plunger-lift, a mechanical model of plunger-liquid column uplift inthe plunger-lift process was established, focusing on conventional plunger-lift systems and representative wellboreconfigurations in the Linxing region. The operating casing pressure of the plunger-lift process and the calculationmethod for the maximum daily fluid production rate based on the work regime with the highest fluid recovery ratewere determined. For the first time, the critical flow rate method was proposed as a constraint for the maximumliquid-carrying capacity of the plunger-lift, and liquid-carrying capacity charts for conventional plunger-lift withdifferent casing sizes were developed. The results showed that for 23/8 casing plunger-lift, with a well depth ofshallower than 808 m, the maximum drainage rate was 33 m3/d;for 27/8 casing plunger-lift, with a well depth ofshallower than 742 m, the maximum drainage rate was 50.15 m3/d;for 31/2 casing plunger-lift, with a well depthof shallower than 560 m, the maximum drainage rate was 75.14 m3/d. This research provides a foundation for thescientific selection of plunger-lift technology and serves as a decision-making reference for developing reasonableplunger-lift work regimes.

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.

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..

Quantitative research of the liquid film characteristics in upward vertical gas, oil and water flows

The study of liquid film characteristics in multiphase flow is a very important research topic, however,the characteristics of the liquid film around Taylor bubble structure in gas, oil and water three-phase flow are not clear. In the present study, a novel liquid film sensor is applied to measure the distributed signals of the liquid film in three-phase flow. Based on the liquid film signals, the liquid film characteristics including the structural characteristics and the nonlinear dynamics characteristics in three-phase flows are investigated for the first time. The structural characteristics including the proportion, the appearance frequency and the thickness of the liquid film are obtained and the influences of the liquid and gas superficial velocities and the oil content on them are investigated. To investigate the nonlinear dynamics characteristics of the liquid film with the changing flow conditions, the entropy analysis is introduced to successfully uncover and quantify the dynamic complexity of the liquid film behavior.

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.

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.

Influence of vacuoles with gas–liquid inclusions on the thermobaric destruction conditions of natural quartz under dynamic heating in an RF-TICP torch system

In the present work,the turbulent mixing process of a polydisperse quartz particle flow with a plasma stream generated by a radio-frequency(RF)inductively coupled plasma torch was numerically studied.The thermobaric stress in the quartz particles under dynamic heating in a heterogeneous plasma flow was determined by a two-stage approximation approach.The effect of the presence of vacuoles in natural quartz on the particle thermobaric destruction conditions was studied.It was found that the equivalent thermal and baric stresses in quartz particles may significantly increase in the presence of vacuoles within a small gas volume fraction.The influence of the regime and energetic working conditions of an RF inductively coupled plasma torch system on the particle thermobaric destruction conditions was examined,and a recommendation was given to promote the degree of thermobaric destruction of quartz particles,which is of substantial importance for improving the overall enrichment efficiency of quartz concentrates.

A unified fractional flow framework for predicting the liquid holdup in two-phase pipe flows

Two-phase pipe flow occurs frequently in oil&gas industry,nuclear power plants,and CCUS.Reliable calculations of gas void fraction(or liquid holdup)play a central role in two-phase pipe flow models.In this paper we apply the fractional flow theory to multiphase flow in pipes and present a unified modeling framework for predicting the fluid phase volume fractions over a broad range of pipe flow conditions.Compared to existing methods and correlations,this new framework provides a simple,approximate,and efficient way to estimate the phase volume fraction in two-phase pipe flow without invoking flow patterns.Notably,existing correlations for estimating phase volume fraction can be transformed and expressed under this modeling framework.Different fractional flow models are applicable to different flow conditions,and they demonstrate good agreement against experimental data within 5%errors when compared with an experimental database comprising of 2754 data groups from 14literature sources,covering various pipe geometries,flow patterns,fluid properties and flow inclinations.The gas void fraction predicted by the framework developed in this work can be used as inputs to reliably model the hydraulic and thermal behaviors of two-phase pipe flows.

Phase behavior of gas condensate in porous media using real-time computed tomography scanning

The phase behavior of gas condensate in reservoir formations differs from that in pressure-volume-temperature(PVT)cells because it is influenced by porous media in the reservoir formations.Sandstone was used as a sample to investigate the influence of porous media on the phase behavior of the gas condensate.The pore structure was first analyzed using computed tomography(CT)scanning,digital core technology,and a pore network model.The sandstone core sample was then saturated with gas condensate for the pressure depletion experiment.After each pressure-depletion state was stable,realtime CT scanning was performed on the sample.The scanning results of the sample were reconstructed into three-dimensional grayscale images,and the gas condensate and condensate liquid were segmented based on gray value discrepancy to dynamically characterize the phase behavior of the gas condensate in porous media.Pore network models of the condensate liquid ganglia under different pressures were built to calculate the characteristic parameters,including the average radius,coordination number,and tortuosity,and to analyze the changing mechanism caused by the phase behavior change of the gas condensate.Four types of condensate liquid(clustered,branched,membranous,and droplet ganglia)were then classified by shape factor and Euler number to investigate their morphological changes dynamically and elaborately.The results show that the dew point pressure of the gas condensate in porous media is 12.7 MPa,which is 0.7 MPa higher than 12.0 MPa in PVT cells.The average radius,volume,and coordination number of the condensate liquid ganglia increased when the system pressure was between the dew point pressure(12.7 MPa)and the pressure for the maximum liquid dropout,Pmax(10.0 MPa),and decreased when it was below Pmax.The volume proportion of clustered ganglia was the highest,followed by branched,membranous,and droplet ganglia.This study provides crucial experimental evidence for the phase behavior changing process of gas condensate in porous media during the depletion production of gas condensate reservoirs.

Exploration and Practice of Nitrogen Addition Process for LF Refining Ladle Bottom Blowing Nitrogen Steel Liquid

This article discusses and analyzes the law of nitrogen increase in liquid steel and the main factors affect-ing the nitrogen increasing of molten steel,through the way of adding nitrogen to molten steel by bottom blowing nitrogen gas in LF refining process.It is considered that the main factors affecting the nitrogen increasing instability of molten steel are the initial temperature of LF refining,nitrogen relative element,surface active elements[O]and[S]of steel liquid,and bottom blowing rate of ladle.The large-scale production practice shows that T[O]not more than 50×10-6 and[S]is not more than 0.020 in LF refining at the initial temperature of not less than 1570.The liquid steel nitrogen enrichment test is carried out by ladle bottom blowing nitrogen gas after 20 min of refining,the flow rate is set as(6.0~7.0)NL/min per ton,and it is turned to 2 NL/min at 6 min before the end of refining,the nitrogen increasing rate of liquid steel is basically stable at(5~6)×10-6 per minute.

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.

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 investigation on flow process of liquid metals in melt delivery nozzle during gas atomization process for fine metal powder production

Based on volume of fluid(VoF)interface capturing method and shear-stress transport(SST)k-ω turbulence model,numerical simulation was performed to reveal the flow mechanism of metal melts in melt delivery nozzle(MDN)during gas atomization(GA)process.The experimental validation indicated that the numerical models could give a reasonable prediction on the melt flow process in the MDN.With the decrease of the MDN inner-diameter,the melt flow resistance increased for both molten aluminum and iron,especially achieving an order of 10^(2) kPa in the case of the MDN inner-diameter≤1 mm.Based on the conventional GA process,the positive pressure was imposed on the viscous aluminum alloy melt to overcome its flow resistance in the MDN,thus producing powders under different MDN inner-diameters.When the MDN inner-diameter was reduced from 4 to 2 mm,the yield of fine powder(<150μm)soared from 54.7%to 94.2%.The surface quality of powders has also been improved when using a smaller inner-diameter MDN.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Directional solidification casting technology of heavy-duty gas turbine blade with liquid metal cooling(LMC) process

In this work, some important factors such as ceramic shell strength, heat preservation temperature, standing time and withdrawal rate, which influence the formability of directionally solidified large-size blades of heavy-duty gas turbine with the liquid metal cooling(LMC) process, were studied through the method of microstructure analysis combining. The results show that the ceramic shell with medium strength(the high temperature flexural strength is 8 MPa, the flexural strength after thermal shock resistance is 12 MPa and the residual flexural strength is 20 MPa) can prevent the rupture and runout of the blade. The appropriate temperature(1,520 ℃ for upper region and 1,500 ℃ for lower region) of the heating furnace can eliminate the wide-angle grain boundary, the deviation of grain and the run-out caused by the shell crack. The holding time after pouring(3-5 min) can promote the growth of competitive grains and avoid a great deviation of columnar grains along the crystal orientation <001>, resulting in a straight and uniform grain structure. In addition, to avoid the formation of wrinkles and to ensure a smooth blade surface, the withdrawal rate should be no greater than the growth rate of grain. It is also found that the dendritic space of the blade decreases with the rise of solidification rate, and increases with the enlarging distance between the solidification position and the chill plate.