consultancy Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)

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Free Water KO Drum Flow Assurance

The key to Free Water KO Drums is a combination of a large separation volume coupled to a long
residence time. The result is a high degree of separation. However, during the life of a well the
amount of produced water can increase considerably. This leads to the need to revamp the internals
as shown in the following before and after study.

The problem
Increasing the volumetric flow
rate caused carryover.
•The original internals featured
an inlet deflector plate and a gas
box where the inlet directly faced
the liquid surface in the vessel.
•The problem is shown clearly
here. Droplets are picked up
from the liquid surface, locally
overloading the mesh pad, which
failed to defend the gas box
from carryover.
•The root cause of the carryover
was the localized overloading
Above: This graphic shows droplet re-entrainment in the gas phase and the localized overloading of the mesh
of the mesh pad.
pad demister. Below: The revamped gas box with 20, 4G-FD® Demisting Cyclones facing the vessel’s inlet.
The revamp CFD model included the swirl in each cyclone.

The solution
•Revamp the vessel by removing
the mesh pad and placing 20,
4G-FD® Demisting Cyclones on
the front of the gas box.
•The gas box inlet no longer
faces the liquid surface in the
vessel. This simple design
change eliminated droplet
re-entrainment from the liquid
surface.
•The revamp configuration with
demisting cyclones can process
more gas which meets the
Zeta-pdm Ltd client’s requirement for
Sales Office increased flow.
phone +31 (0) 26 389 4240
email sales@zeta-pdm.com

Head office and production

20 Barry Way
Newport, Isle of Wight
PO30 5GY
UK
phone +44 (0) 1983 528 142
fax +44 (0) 1983 223 344
email info@zeta-pdm.com

Zeta-pdm Ltd is a member of the Zeta Group ®

Certified by NQA to
A NEW PHASE IN SEPARATION
BS EN ISO 9001: 2008

Copyright © Zeta-pdm Ltd. 2010. All rights reserved. Free Water KO Drum Flow Assurance. Rev 1 Page 1/1