Experimental study on the optimum number of layers of fiber mats for gas-liquid coalescer

Abstract

The coalescer is widely used in deep gas dehydration due to its high efficiency. Most manufacturers make the filter by enwinding multiple layers of fiber mats to obtain high efficiency, which leads to high-pressure losses in practical applications. Obtaining the number of layers of fiber mats is based on engineering practice and experiences, which needs more data support and theoretical basis. 1-10 layers of hydrophilic fiber mat samples were made, and experiments were carried out at filter face velocities of 0.14m/s to 0.35m/s and liquid loading rate of 1.25g/min to 5g/min. In addition, the concept of collision probability based on fiber porosity is invoked. A model between efficiency and porosity is developed to obtain the optimal solution for the number of layers. The results show that the saturation is monotonically decreasing, while the pressure drop linearly increases as velocity increases. The optimum number of fiber mat layers decreases from 5 to 3 as the filter face velocity increases. The efficiency model based on the fiber porosity agrees with the experimental efficiency values, which provides theoretical support for calculating the optimal number of fiber mat layers.