Industrial Application of Vortex Tube Separation Technology Utilizing the Ranque-Hilsch Effect

Abstract

A major processing step when treating gas is the removal of components such as heavy hydrocarbons or water. This is done either to recover saleable liquids or prevent hindsance during gas transportation (e.g. hydrate formation or two-phase flow). The Vortex tube device provides a novel and useful addition to the range of equipment available for this application. Vortex tube equipment has been used for improved separation in comparison with a Joule-Thomson system, without entering into the cost and complexity of a true is entropic system such as a turbo-expander unit. The relative advantage of the vortex tube is dependent upon the inlet conditions of the gas and available pressure drop. An optimum pressure drop of 25 - 35 % of the inlet gas pressure has been confirmed in practice. It is expected that future applications of vortex tube units will be concentrated where performance improvements over Joule-Thomson units, at low capital cost, are required. P. 471

Numerical comparisons of the thermal behaviour of air and refrigerants in the vortex tube

“…This is supported by the estimates of isentropic and isenthalpic temperature drops (shown in Table 3) which increase with decreasing µc, when the Δpin-h is increased. It is widely believed that the temperature drop in the VT is larger than the isenthalpic temperature drop [27,28] , but lower than isentropic temperature drop, as friction is generated. 8 presents the streamlines and velocity vectors of the fluids at µc = 0.5.…”

The improvement of the methodology for the calculation of the vortex tubes for gas conditioning

“…Інша система з використанням трипотокової вихрової труби була впроваджена німецькими дослідниками M. Lorey, K. Thomas та ін. [8]. Основну увагу вони приділяли сепараційній здатності вихрових труб та компонентному розділенню у природному та нафтовому газі.…”