Review of the State-of-the-Art Gas-Liquid Cylindrical Cyclone (GLCC) Technology-Field Applications

Abstract

Abstract The Gas-Liquid Cylindrical Cyclone (GLCC) has repeatedly proven itself in laboratory and field tests, as well as in actual field applications, as a viable alternative to the conventional gravity-based gas/liquid separator. Large conventional gravity-based vessels have been relied upon since the inception of the petroleum industry to separate oilfield production of oil, water, sand, and gas. However, economic and operational pressures continue to force the petroleum industry to seek smaller, less expensive and more appropriate separation alternatives in the form of compact separators, especially for offshore and subsea applications. As compared to the vessel-type separators, a compact separator such as the GLCC is a simple, low-cost, low-weight separator that requires little maintenance and is easy to install and operate. Furthermore, the capabilities to accurately predict various performance characteristics, e.g., liquid carry-over and gas carry-under, of the GLCC have far surpassed those capabilities for conventional vessel type separators. The scope of this paper is to present the state-of-the-art of the GLCC technology for variety of applications in the oil and gas industry. At present, over 1,000 GLCCs have been installed in fields around the world. Details of typical field applications are presented and discussed in this paper. In addition, data from field type facilities, namely, Texaco's Humble flow loop and Colorado Engineering Experiment Station Inc. (CEESI) are presented. These data illustrate GLCC performance at high pressures (up to 1,000 psi) with a variety of hydrocarbon fluids. The results presented include, gas carry-under (GCU), liquid carry-over (LCO) and GLCC control data. Additional field testing of the first integrated GLCC compact separation system carried out in Daqing oil field experiment station are also presented. The technology for state-of-the-art GLCC field applications and some laboratory and field testing results presented in this study, will help petroleum engineers to better understand, design and deploy GLCC technology in their field operations. Introduction Since the early 1990's the industry has shown keen interest in the development and application of the Gas-Liquid Cylindrical Cyclone (GLCC©) due to its significant advantages over conventional gravity based vessel separators. These include simplicity in construction, compactness, low weight, and low capital and operational costs. Compact cyclonic separators have been used in primary separation, well test metering systems, control of gas-liquid ratio for multiphase meters, pumps and de-sanders, gas scrubbing for flare gas, and external pre-separation upstream of existing conventional separators. Currently, the GLCC is being considered for a variety of subsea applications, and will soon be installed as part of a subsea multiphase pumping system. The pioneering studies on the GLCC were conducted by Chevron (Liu & Kouba, 1994 and Kouba et al. , 1995) for the development of the multiphase metering loop incorporating the Net Oil Computer©, as shown schematically in Fig. 1. The GLCC technology has been rapidly developed and disseminated by industrial cooperation, namely, through the Tulsa University Separation Technology Projects (TUSTP) industry/university research consortium.