Compact Multiphase Separation Technology – From the Lab to the Field

The petroleum industry has relied in the past mainly on conventional, gravity based vessel-type separators to process wellhead production. Since the early 1990's the industry has shown keen interest in the development and application of compact multiphase cyclonic separators due to their significant advantages such as simplicity in construction, compactness, low weight, and low capital and operational costs.Established in 1994, the mission of Tulsa University Separation Technology Projects (TUSTP) has been to advance the state-of-the-art of compact multiphase cyclonic separation technology for gas-oil-water-sand flow. This includes development of individual compact separator components, such as the Gas-Liquid Cylindrical Cyclone (GLCC©), the Liquid-Liquid Cylindrical Cyclone (LLCC©), the Liquid-Liquid Hydrocyclone (LLHC), Horizontal Pipe Separator (HPS©), flow conditioning facilities such as the Slug Damper (SD©), and integrated compact multiphase separation system (CMSS©). Emphasis has been placed on measurement and understanding of the hydrodynamic flow behavior in compact separators, and the development of design tools for the industry. To date, there are over 4,200 compact separators deployed in the field in the USA and around the world based on TUSTP R&D.An overview of the compact separation technology developed by TUSTP in the past 17 years, and specific details of several field applications of GLCC© and CMSS© separators will be presented here. The field applications include Metering Loop with Single-Phase Meters, Metering Loop with Multiphase Meters (Gas Knockout), Pre-separator for De-bottlenecking, Bulk Separator, Offshore Application, GLCC for Severe Slugging Applications, GLCC after First Stage Compressor, Raw Gas Lift, GLCC as a Gas Scrubber and GLCC in a Multiphase Pumping Loop for subsea applications.