A new practical method to evaluate the Joule-Thomson coefficient for natural gases

© 2017, The Author(s). The Joule–Thomson (JT) phenomenon, the study of fluid temperature changes for a given pressure change at constant enthalpy, has great technological and scientific importance for designing, maintenance and prediction of hydrocarbon production. The phenomenon serves vital role in many facets of hydrocarbon production, especially associated with reservoir management such as interpretation of temperature logs of production and injection well, identification of water and gas entry locations in multilayer production scenarios, modelling of thermal response of hydrocarbon reservoirs and prediction of wellbore flowing temperature profile. The purpose of this study is to develop a new method for the evaluation of JT coefficient, as an essential parameter required to account the Joule–Thomson effects while predicting the flowing temperature profile for gas production wells. To do this, a new correction factor, CNM, has been developed through numerical analysis and proposed a practical method to predict CNM which can simplify the prediction of flowing temperature for gas production wells while accounting the Joule–Thomson effect. The developed correlation and methodology were validated through an exhaustive survey which has been conducted with 20 different gas mixture samples. For each sample, the model has been run for a wide range of temperature and pressure conditions, and the model was rigorously verified by comparison of the results estimated throughout the study with the results obtained from HYSYS and Peng–Robinson equation of state. It is observed that model is very simple and robust yet can accurately predict the Joule–Thomson effect

Maximization of propylene in an industrial FCC unit

YesThe FCC riser cracks gas oil into useful fuels such as gasoline, diesel and some lighter products such as ethylene and propylene, which are major building blocks for the polyethylene and polypropylene production. The production objective of the riser is usually the maximization of gasoline and diesel, but it can also be to maximize propylene. The optimization and parameter estimation of a six-lumped catalytic cracking reaction of gas oil in FCC is carried out to maximize the yield of propylene using an optimisation framework developed in gPROMS software 5.0 by optimizing mass flow rates and temperatures of catalyst and gas oil. The optimal values of 290.8 kg/s mass flow rate of catalyst and 53.4 kg/s mass flow rate of gas oil were obtained as propylene yield is maximized to give 8.95 wt%. When compared with the base case simulation value of 4.59 wt% propylene yield, the maximized propylene yield is increased by 95%

Natural gas hydrate promotion capabilities of toluene sulfonic acid isomers

The purpose of this study was to investigate the natural gas hydrate promotion capabilities of the hydrotrope Toluene Sulfonic Acid (TSA) isomers as an additive. The capabilities of TSA isomers were measured with different concentrations. The optimum additive concentration for hydrate formation was determined for the given pressure, temperature, mixing condition, and cooling time. The natural gas hydrate promotability of para-TSA was found to be 20% and 35% more than meta-TSA and ortho-TSA respectively at the optimum concentration. Beyond the optimum TSA concentration, the hydrate formation declined as the ice formation reduced the overall gas-to-water volume ratio in the hydrates

Natural gas hydrate promotion capabilities of toluene sulfonic acid isomers

The purpose of this study was to investigate the natural gas hydrate promotion capabilities of the hydrotrope Toluene Sulfonic Acid (TSA) isomers as an additive. The capabilities of TSA isomers were measured with different concentrations. The optimum additive concentration for hydrate formation was determined for the given pressure, temperature, mixing condition, and cooling time. The natural gas hydrate promotability of para-TSA was found to be 20% and 35% more than meta-TSA and ortho-TSA respectively at the optimum concentration. Beyond the optimum TSA concentration, the hydrate formation declined as the ice formation reduced the overall gas-to-water volume ratio in the hydrates