A study of foaming and carry-over problems in oil and gas separators

Shaban, Habib I.

doi:10.1016/0950-4214(95)93944-f

Cited by 35 publications

(51 citation statements)

References 2 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…For example, oil foams can be useful has drilling fluids [43] or gas blocking agents during extraction from porous media [28], but undesirable during gas/oil or oil/ water separation and during refining [44][45][46].…”

Section: Petroleum Based Foams and Foamy Oilsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Fransen et al [69] expose common foaming problems in the oil industry that include production separators (crude oil), gas sweetening (amine solutions) and gas dehydration (glycol). Issues concerning production separators include [46]: -foam volume can be larger than liquid volume which requires oversizing of equipment to achieve separation; -mechanical control of the liquid level is difficult in the presence of foam (any control has to deal with three phases instead of two); -uncontrolled separators lead to entraining gas in the liquid and/or liquid in the gas outlet.…”

Section: Antifoaming and Defoaming In The Petroleum Industrymentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Non-Aqueous and Crude Oil Foams

Blázquez

Emond

Schneider

et al. 2013

Oil Gas Sci. Technol. – Rev. IFP Energies nouvelles

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

D o s s i e rRe´sume´-Mousses non aqueuses et mousses pe´trolie`res -Les mousses produites a`partir de syste`mes non aqueux sont moins fre´quentes que les mousses a`base d'eau, mais elles jouent un roˆle important dans de nombreuses applications et proce´de´s industriels. La faible tension de surface des liquides a`base d'hydrocarbures limite l'adsorption des agents de surface classiques et par conse´quent diffe´rents compose´s et me´thodes doivent eˆtre conside´re´s afin de ge´ne´rer et de stabiliser les mousses a`base d'huile. De meˆme, le cassage des mousses non aqueuses inde´sirables ne´cessite des conside´rations spe´cifiques a`ces syste`mes. Les mousses de pe´trole pre´sentent un inte´reˆt particulier de par leur complexite´en raison de la grande varie´te´des compose´s et des gaz qui peuvent les constituer. Nous pre´sentons dans cet article un aperc¸u des principaux me´canismes reconnus comme importants pour la stabilite´des mousses non aqueuses avec une conside´ration toute particulie`re pour les mousses de pe´trole brut.Abstract -Non-Aqueous and Crude Oil Foams -Foams produced from non-aqueous media are less common than water-based foams but they play an important role in many industries and engineering processes. The low surface tension of hydrocarbon fluids limits the adsorption of common surface activity substances and different compounds and methods must be considered to generate and stabilize oil-based foam. Likewise, the destruction of unwanted non-aqueous based foam requires specific considerations not found with aqueous systems. Of particular interest are petroleum-based foams, which are highly complex due to the wide variety of compounds and gases that can be found. We provide an overview of the major mechanisms known to be important for non-aqueous foam stability with a spotlight on crude-oil foams.

show abstract

Section: Petroleum Based Foams and Foamy Oilsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Antifoaming and Defoaming In The Petroleum Industrymentioning

confidence: 99%

Non-Aqueous and Crude Oil Foams

Blázquez

Emond

Schneider

et al. 2013

Oil Gas Sci. Technol. – Rev. IFP Energies nouvelles

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The formula for the settling velocity contains some correction coefficients dependent on the separator configuration (Svrcek & Monnery, 1993, Kharoua et al 2010. Other authors emphasize several complex phenomena such as liquid re-entrainment (Viles 1992), recirculation within the liquid layers (Hansen & Rørtveit, 2006), and foaming (Shaban 1995) or dispersion of emulsion zone between water and oil layers (Arntzen & Andersen, 2001).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Substitute model and CFD Investigations of a Coalescer in a Three-Phase Crude Oil Gravity Separator

Krzemianowski¹,

Lackowski²,

Ochrymiuk³

et al. 2020

JAFM

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The flow structure in a three-phase gas-oil-water separator and its performance was the main objective of the presented investigations, for which the Euler-Euler multiphase model to simulate the flow was used. The main assumption of the model is that secondary phases, consisting of oil and water droplets, are mono-dispersed with no coalescence and breakup. The considered separator is a part of the installation operated by a drilling company. In general, the investigation of separation process is very computationally expensive and timeconsuming, therefore it is desirable to search for some simplifications in order to be able to carry out engineering analysis of the processes taking place in a separator. Hence, the three-dimensional coalescer was investigated as a porous element in order to find pressure losses dependence on flow velocity, which was required to simulate the existence of coalescers and baffles. As the next step, a transient Eulerian multiphase simulations were carried out for gas-oil-water mixture in a real horizontal gravity separator for two-and three-dimensional case. Required data for calculations was derived from real exploration well. In the two-dimensional case, the worked out dependence of the pressure drop with respect to velocity was used to model the flow through the porous coalescers. In three-dimensional case, the coalescers and baffles were modelled without any simplifications. It was found that general trends can be predicted despite the simplification of the geometrical model in which coalescer and baffle geometries have been replaced by a porous medium. The calculations confirmed that the complexity of geometry requiring time-consuming calculations can be usually replaced by introducing simplifications allowing for engineering analysis of separator operation that is acceptable by the industry, because the basic parameters regarding the separation process can be determined.

show abstract

“…The stabilization of water in oil (W/O) is caused by the presence of natural surfactants in crude oil (asphaltenes, resins, and other components) that form an emulsion. This fluid, when subjected to a shearing process, leads to the formation of foam, which is stabilized by these surfactants 2, 3…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of the efficiency of silicone polyether additives as antifoams in crude oil

Fraga

Santos

Mansur

2011

J of Applied Polymer Sci

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

It is common for crude oil from wells to be accompanied by gas and water because of the presence of natural surfactants in the oil that stabilize the associated water. This causes foaming during processing in gas/oil separators because of the constant agitation and shear forces, which reduce the efficiency of the process and require chemical control by the addition of defoaming additives, or antifoams. In this work, we evaluated the chemical and physicochemical properties of commercial antifoam products based on silicone polyethers along with their efficiency in inhibiting foaming and water/oil (W/O) phase separation. The commercial surfactants were characterized by NMR spectroscopy, size exclusion chromatography, determination of solubility in different solvents, and measurement of the surface and interfacial tensions.A method to test the formation of foam in oil was used to mimic the operating conditions in gas/oil separators. Finally, tests were performed with the addition of aliquots of the additive solutions (30% p/v) in oil to evaluate their efficiency in breaking up the foam under different conditions. The results show that the most polar additive (SL2) was the most efficient in breaking up the foam. Additive SP1, which formed a heterogeneous phase in the oil, was also an efficient foam inhibitor and helped to separate these phases. The antifoam tests showed that these additives did not stabilize W/O emulsions, so they could be used in gravitational separation tanks in the field.

show abstract

A study of foaming and carry-over problems in oil and gas separators

Cited by 35 publications

References 2 publications

Non-Aqueous and Crude Oil Foams

Non-Aqueous and Crude Oil Foams

Substitute model and CFD Investigations of a Coalescer in a Three-Phase Crude Oil Gravity Separator

Evaluation of the efficiency of silicone polyether additives as antifoams in crude oil

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About