A novel strategy for process optimization of a natural gas liquid recovery unit by replacing Joule-Thomson valve with supersonic separator.

The natural gas liquid recovery is an important process in a gas plant to correct hydrocarbon dew point and earn profit. In this study, a natural gas liquid recovery unit operated based on the Joule-Thomson process was investigated and its performance was optimized. To improve the system performance, the plant configuration and intermediate pressure ratio were defined as the variables and maximization of the natural gas liquid recovery rate and maximization of exergy efficiency were defined as the objective functions.

Investigation of novel passive methods of generation of swirl flow in supersonic separators by the computational fluid dynamics modeling.

In this paper, three passive methods for the generation of swirl flow in the supersonic separator (3S) were investigated, and their structures were optimized by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling. The influence of the structural and operational parameters on the dew point depression, phase envelope diagram, rate of natural gas liquid (NGL) recovery, and separation efficiency have also been evaluated. The collection efficiency was significantly improved for the nozzle equipped with the passive swirler compared with the simple nozzle.

A novel strategy for comprehensive optimization of structural and operational parameters in a supersonic separator using computational fluid dynamics modeling.

In this study, the effects of several structural and operational parameters affecting the separation efficiency of supersonic separators were investigated by numerical methods. Different turbulence models were used and their accuracies were evaluated. Based on the error analysis, the V2-f turbulence model was more accurate for describing the high swirling turbulent flow than other investigated turbulence models.