Design and Performance Testing of a Subsea Compact Separation System for Deepwater Applications

Grave, E.J.; Olson,

doi:10.2118/0814-0016-ogf

Cited by 7 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…Thus, this section will primarily focus on the oil-water separation performance of the Pipe Separator with and without electrocoalescence and/or with different electrical settings on the electrocoalescer. The gas-liquid separation performance of the integrated system is discussed at length in the Oil and Gas Facilities article [Grave, 2014].…”

Section: Test Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The test section was designed for a liquid handling capacity of 11,000 bpd or approximately 20% of the intended design capacity of the full-scale system. The function of each component is discussed in more detail in the Oil and Gas Facilities article [Grave, 2014]. The general layout of the integrated system is shown in Figure 1.…”

Section: Experimental Set-upmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…More details pertaining to the overall design of the integrated, subsea compact separation system and this earlier test program can be found on pages 16-23 of the August 2014 issue of Oil and Gas Facilities [Grave, 2014]. As highlighted in that article, the integrated system includes individual components for the separation of gas, oil, water, and sand.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Performance Testing of an Integrated, Subsea Compact Separation System with Electrocoalescence for Deepwater Applications

et al. 2015

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ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company (EMURC) recently completed a subsea technology development and qualification program which included performance testing of an integrated, subsea compact separation system with electrocoalescence for ultra-deepwater applications. To the authors' knowledge, this was the first time that an electrocoalescer had been tested with a gravity-based, compact separator (e.g., a Pipe Separator).One challenge often seen with conventional gravity separators is the formation and build-up of stable emulsion layers, mainly associated with the processing of medium and heavy oils. In an earlier test program, the Pipe Separator, the primary oil-water separator in the subsea compact separation system, performed well; however, emulsions that were not separated in the main pipes of the Pipe Separator tended to accumulate in the outlet section. There, the emulsion layer then had to either flow out of the oil outlet (penalty on the oil quality) or the water outlet (penalty on the water quality).The medium and heavy oil trials were particularly challenging, especially at lower water cuts. In order to achieve the desired oil and water qualities, the total liquid flow rate through the system had to be reduced. To overcome this limitation, additional trials were performed later with a compact electrocoalescer, the Compact Electrostatic Coalescer (CEC™) supplied by Fjords Processing (formerly Aker Process Systems), which effectively coalesced dispersed water droplets in the oil-continuous feed into larger droplets such that they could be separated easier in the downstream Pipe Separator. The results from the additional trials demonstrated that electrocoalescence enhanced the oil-water separation performance of the integrated system at flowing and operating conditions that would have otherwise been very challenging. This paper presents a summary of the results from these additional trials.The cost of developing and deploying a subsea separation system is significant; and therefore, it may not be economical if the system is unable to achieve a sufficient capacity. The design of subsea processing systems is often a balance between what is practically achievable under the module size/weight constraints, and what production rate is required for project economics. By understanding, with confidence, the maximum liquid handling capacity of the integrated system with electrocoalescence, technical risks could be minimized, and a future subsea separation project could become more attractive. As such, the results from this test program may be of interest to operating companies considering similar technologies or future subsea separation projects.Industry activity in the area of subsea processing, and subsea separation in particular, has increased over the past two or three decades, leading to a handful of applications ranging from single-phase or multiphase boosting, separation and boosting, and compression projects. While the benefits of subsea separation and boosting are generally recognized by industry, the design ...

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Section: Test Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Experimental Set-upmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Performance Testing of an Integrated, Subsea Compact Separation System with Electrocoalescence for Deepwater Applications

et al. 2015

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“…Although the pipe separator used in this study is different from those used in [7][8][9][10][11], it is the authors' belief that the results are transferable and that the results presented here can serve as a basis for future control design of pipe separators.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…Other previous control-related work on pipe separators [9][10][11] do not go into detail on the selected control structure or control algorithm used. In this paper, the pairing of the MVs and CVs is analyzed.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Controller Design and Control Structure Analysis for a Novel Oil–Water Multi-Pipe Separator

et al. 2019

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To enable more efficient production of hydrocarbons on the seabed in waters where traditional separator equipment is infeasible, the offshore oil and gas industry is leaning towards more compact separation equipment. A novel multi-pipe separator concept, designed to meet the challenges of subsea separation, has been developed at the Department of Geoscience and Petroleum at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. In this initial study, a control structure analysis for the novel separator concept, based on step-response experiments, is presented. Proportional-integral controllers and model reference adaptive controllers are designed for the different control loops. The proportional-integral controllers are tuned based on the well-established simple internal model control tuning rules. Both control methods are implemented and tested on a prototype of the separator concept. Different measurements are controlled, and results show that the performance of the separator under varying inlet conditions can be improved with proper selection of control inputs and measurements.

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Experimental quantification of the performance of a horizontal multi-pipe bulk separator of water and oil with crude spiking

Asaadian

Stanko

2023

J Petrol Explor Prod Technol

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Subsea water separation with pipe separators is crucial for ensuring efficient and environmentally responsible extraction of oil and gas from the seabed. In this study, in a process called as “crude oil spiking,” two concentrations of crude oil (e.g., 185 and 400 ppm) are added to Exxsol D60 to mimic the separation characteristics of real crude oil mixtures in a multi-parallel pipe separator. The pipe separator performance for water–oil bulk separation such as separation efficiency, water cut ratio, the flow pattern at the separator inlet, and the thickness and evolution of the fluid layers in the separator is evaluated and compared to the values when operating with unspiked Exxsol D60. Crude oil spiking significantly reduces the efficiency of the pipe separator and reduces the water cut ratio for oil continuous regimes (low water cuts) up to 49%. Water continuous regimes with water fractions 90% have the highest efficiency values; thus, these are not affected significantly by crude oil spiking. With crude spiking, the flow regime dispersion of oil in water and water in oil (Dw/o + Do/w) occupies more area in the flow pattern map than unspiked Exxsol D60. It was observed through visual inspection that crude oil spiking induces a thicker and more stable emulsion in higher flow rates (e.g., 700 L/min). Therefore, the spiked mixture needs more time to separate. The findings of this study can help in a better understanding of the applicability of pipe separators and the usage of spiked oils to extrapolate experimental results to real field conditions. Graphical abstract

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Design and Performance Testing of a Subsea Compact Separation System for Deepwater Applications

Abstract: ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company recently completed a technology development and qualification program, which included performance tests on an integrated subsea compact separation system for ultradeepwater applications.

Cited by 7 publications

References 0 publications

Performance Testing of an Integrated, Subsea Compact Separation System with Electrocoalescence for Deepwater Applications

Performance Testing of an Integrated, Subsea Compact Separation System with Electrocoalescence for Deepwater Applications

Controller Design and Control Structure Analysis for a Novel Oil–Water Multi-Pipe Separator

Experimental quantification of the performance of a horizontal multi-pipe bulk separator of water and oil with crude spiking

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