Computational analysis of homogeneous nucleation and droplet growth applied to natural gas separators

A natural gas droplet is generated at certain thermodynamic conditions through three stages: supersaturation, where the gas has more molecules than it should have in equilibrium, forming “embryos” of liquid phase; nucleation, where embryos form groups of different shapes and sizes of nanometer order...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Natalia Prieto-Jiménez, José Fuentes, Germán González-Silva
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Universidad Industrial de Santander 2021-11-01
Series:Revista UIS Ingenierías
Subjects:
Online Access:https://revistas.uis.edu.co/index.php/revistauisingenierias/article/view/9956
Description
Summary:A natural gas droplet is generated at certain thermodynamic conditions through three stages: supersaturation, where the gas has more molecules than it should have in equilibrium, forming “embryos” of liquid phase; nucleation, where embryos form groups of different shapes and sizes of nanometer order; and the droplet growth, where the number of molecules increases until equilibrium is reached. In this paper, the homogeneous nucleation and droplet growth of natural gas applied to gravitational separators operating at high pressure conditions (7MPa) are analyzed. The results showed that at a high pressure, the initial drop size reached was 8.024 nanometers and the final diameter of the drop was 4.18 micrometers.
ISSN:1657-4583
2145-8456