SUPERSONIC GAS CONDITIONING INTRODUCTION OF THE LOW PRESSURE DROP TWISTER~(TM)

摘要

Twister~(TM) is an innovative gas conditioning technology which has been under development for natural gas applications. Condensation and separation at supersonic velocity is the key to some unique benefits. An extremely short residence time prevents hydrate problems, eliminating chemicals and associated regeneration systems. The simplicity and reliability of a static device, with no rotating parts, operating without chemicals, ensures a simple, environmentally friendly facility, with a high availability, suitable for unmanned operation. Full scale testing has been completed at five gas plants in the Netherlands, Nigeria and Norway, with varying gas compositions and operating conditions. The first commercial offshore Twister application started-up in December 2003 on the Petronas/Sarawak Shell Berhad B11 facility offshore East Malaysia. Operating experience to date and lessons learnt will be discussed, including high efficiency, high pressure separation and gas-gas heat exchange close to the hydrate limit.Twister BV has completed development of an improved performance low pressure drop version of the Twister Supersonic Separator and details will be presented to describe the development, testing and initial commercialisation. This unit is also able to separate larger quantities of hydrocarbons, down to LPG levels, and can be further developed for potential specific future separation applications, such as CO2, H2S and mercury removal, and sub-sea gas processing.