Comparison of GERG-2008 and simpler EoS models in calculation of phase equilibrium and physical properties of natural gas related systems

Accurate description of thermodynamic properties of natural gas systems is of great significance in the oil and gas industry. For this application, non-cubic equations of state (EoSs) are advantageous due to their better density and compressibility description. Among the non-cubic models, GERG-2008 is a new wide-range EoS for natural gases and other mixtures of 21 natural gas components. It is considered as a standard reference equation suitable for natural gas applications where highly accurate thermodynamic properties are required. Soave's modification of Benedict-Webb-Rubin (Soave-BWR) EoS is another model that despite its empirical nature, provides accurate density description even around the critical point. It is much simpler than GERG-2008 and easier to handle and generalize to reservoir oil fluids. This study presents a comprehensive comparison between GERG-2008 and other cubic (SRK and PR) and noncubic EoSs (Soave-BWR and PC-SAFT) with a focus on Soave-BWR in description of pure components density and compressibility in a wide temperature and pressure range, calculation of binary Vapor- Liquid-Equilibria (VLE) and density, prediction of multicomponent phase envelopes and gas compressibility factor. In addition, the performance of GERG-2008 is compared with that of cubic and non-cubic models in calculation of thermal properties such as heat capacity and Joule-Thomson coefficient for pure components and multicomponent mixtures over a wide pressure and temperature range. The results are compared with available experimental data in the literature and special emphasis has been given to the reverse Joule-Thomson effects at high pressure high temperature (HPHT) conditions. © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved