Vortex Technology of Gases Stratification for Ecological Issues Solving in Oil, Gas and Chemical Industries (Review)

Abstract

One of the important tasks for the Russia’s economy and ecology is development and realization of energy and resource saving technologies, allowing the most efficient use of both primary and secondary resources. In oil, gas and chemical industries are widely used processes, in which the potential energy of hydrocarbon or waste gases pressure is either loosing, either recycling with minimum efficiency. The loosing energy should be used for low-temperature purification of waste and prepared gases, thus reducing environmental pollution. One way to solve this problem is to use a vortex technology based on the Rank-Hilsch vortex effect. By efficiency this purification method exceeds manifold standard throttling systems. In this review an analysis related to both theoretical and technological aspects of vortex effect research has been presented. Vortex tubes’ different constructions have been considered along with the incoming flow regulation as the one of the important conditions for these tubes’ operation and realization in the industry. It has been shown that the realization of the regenerative scheme with vortex tubes will improve the core technology’s ecological and economic indicators. A critical review of existing theories related to the Ranque- Hilsch effect has been presented. The development prospects of vortex effect’s shock-wave mechanism allowing explain the excessive cooling capacity of triple-flow vortex tubes used for associated petroleum gas preparation for transportation have been considered.