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PRCI PR-15-9417
- Gas Scrubber Performance Evaluation - Measurement Methods
- Report / Survey by Pipeline Research Council International, 04/01/1995
- Publisher: PRCI
$98.00$195.00
L51729e
Southwest Research Institute
(e-book version)Need: Scrubbers and separators are used in natural gas pipelines to remove solid and liquid materials from the gas stream. Failure to remove the entrained materials from the gas can result in equipment damage, increased pressure drop due to liquid accumulation, flow measurement errors, and corrosion. The performance of separators is rarely tested after a separator is installed because there is a lack of test instrumentation and it is difficult to conduct tests at the high pressures. The only indicators of poor separator performance are recurring problems in downstream equipment or the detection of accumulated materials in downstream piping. Instrumentation is needed that can verify separator performance when the unit is installed and to periodically monitor separator performance.
Benefit: Report documents results of instrument tests. The objectives of the instrument evaluations were to verify that the instruments could be used to measure particles penetrating a separator, to provide a comparative evaluation of the instruments, and to identify any measurement problems that could be encountered in field testing. One important result was that the separator minimum removable drop size increased as the operating pressure increased. This trend is not generally known, since there is a lack of test results for pressures above atmospheric pressure. The separator performance test results are documented in this report.
Result: Two different particle measuring instruments were evaluated for documenting separator performance. The two instruments were the video imaging system with automatic image analysis and the laser-based phase Doppler particle measuring system. The instruments were evaluated in laboratory tests that were conducted on a commercially available vane-type separator. The objectives of the instrument evaluations were to verify that the instruments could be used to measure particles penetrating a separator, to provide a comparative evaluation of the two instruments, and to identify any measurement problems that could be encountered in field testing. The video imaging system has a number of attractive attributes, but it was not able to measure the small diameter drops at the separator exit. The primary limitation was that the optical system could not clearly image the small drops (in the range from 5 to 30 um). The phase Doppler particle measuring system was capable of measuring all of the parameters needed to document the separator performance. Based on the instrument evaluations, future efforts on developing measurement methods for documenting separator performance should focus on adapting the phase Doppler system to field testing.
Southwest Research Institute
(e-book version)Need: Scrubbers and separators are used in natural gas pipelines to remove solid and liquid materials from the gas stream. Failure to remove the entrained materials from the gas can result in equipment damage, increased pressure drop due to liquid accumulation, flow measurement errors, and corrosion. The performance of separators is rarely tested after a separator is installed because there is a lack of test instrumentation and it is difficult to conduct tests at the high pressures. The only indicators of poor separator performance are recurring problems in downstream equipment or the detection of accumulated materials in downstream piping. Instrumentation is needed that can verify separator performance when the unit is installed and to periodically monitor separator performance.
Benefit: Report documents results of instrument tests. The objectives of the instrument evaluations were to verify that the instruments could be used to measure particles penetrating a separator, to provide a comparative evaluation of the instruments, and to identify any measurement problems that could be encountered in field testing. One important result was that the separator minimum removable drop size increased as the operating pressure increased. This trend is not generally known, since there is a lack of test results for pressures above atmospheric pressure. The separator performance test results are documented in this report.
Result: Two different particle measuring instruments were evaluated for documenting separator performance. The two instruments were the video imaging system with automatic image analysis and the laser-based phase Doppler particle measuring system. The instruments were evaluated in laboratory tests that were conducted on a commercially available vane-type separator. The objectives of the instrument evaluations were to verify that the instruments could be used to measure particles penetrating a separator, to provide a comparative evaluation of the two instruments, and to identify any measurement problems that could be encountered in field testing. The video imaging system has a number of attractive attributes, but it was not able to measure the small diameter drops at the separator exit. The primary limitation was that the optical system could not clearly image the small drops (in the range from 5 to 30 um). The phase Doppler particle measuring system was capable of measuring all of the parameters needed to document the separator performance. Based on the instrument evaluations, future efforts on developing measurement methods for documenting separator performance should focus on adapting the phase Doppler system to field testing.
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