Vessel Sizing

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 Designing Vessel
 Horizontal?
If there is more liquid than vapor,
chances are you will choose a
horizontal drum.

An example would be a propane

surge drum for a propane
vaporizer.
• Or Vertical?

An example for a vertical drum is a

Compressor suction drum-usually very little liquid
Is present.

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 Designing Vessel
 Inlet Piping (outside of
separator)
 Primary Separation (A)
 Gravity Settling (B)
 Coalescing/Demister (C)
 Liquid Collecting (D)

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 Designing Vessel
Basic Principles of Separation

 Three basic principles are used to achieve physical separation

of gas, liquids and solids:
◦ Momentum
◦ Gravity
◦ Coalescing (a subset of momentum)
 Any separator may employ one or more of these principles to
achieve separation.
 Fluid phases must be “immiscible” and have different densities
for separation to occur.

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 Designing Vessel

 Fluid phases with different densities will have different

momentum.
 If a two phase stream changes direction sharply, greater
momentum will not allow particles of the heavier phase to turn as
rapidly as the lighter fluid, so separation occurs.
 Momentum is usually employed for bulk separation of the two
phases in a stream.

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 Designing Vessel
 Liquid droplets will settle out if
the gravitational force acting on
the droplet is greater than the
drag force of the gas flowing
around the droplet.
 Droplet attains terminal velocity
(Vt) when gravitational force =
drag force
 Vt is directly proportional to Dp

Figure 7.2 GPSA Databook (11th Edition)

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 Designing Vessel
 Very small droplets such as fog or mists cannot be separated practically
by gravity.
 These droplets can be coalesced to form large droplets that will settle by
gravity.
 Coalescing/demister devices in separator force droplets to follow a
tortuous path.
 Droplets collide with other droplets on the coalescing device, forming
larger droplets which can then settle out by gravity.

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 Designing Vessel
Gravity Settling

 Utilises the force of gravity to enhance the separation of

entrained droplets.
 Gas moves through the barrel at low velocity
D

Vg L
as
Lg
Vgas
Fgravit Fgravity
y
D
h

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 Basic types: Vertical Separator and Horizontal Separator

Vertical Separator Horizontal Separator

Gas flows vertically upwards against liquid settling. Gas flows horizontally and hence
Therefore, gas velocity must be less than the liquid perpendicular to droplet setting. Therefore,
droplet terminal velocity for effective separation. the gas velocity can be larger than the liquid
droplet velocity

For the same application, vertical separator is Horizontal separator is generally more
generally less efficient than horizontal separator. effective in separating vapour and liquid due
to a larger surface area for vapour to be
released from liquid.

Vapour flow area is constant therefore performance Vapour flow area depends on liquid level
of separator is not sensitive to changing liquid level. therefore the performance of horizontal
separator can deteriorate as liquid level rises.

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 Designing Vessel
 Basic types: Vertical Separator and Horizontal Separator
Vertical Separator Horizontal Separator
For the same application, vertical separator For the same application, horizontal separator
generally takes less plot space. generally takes more plot space but less
height.

Vertical separator is generally used when gas is the Horizontal separator is generally used when
dominant phase. gas and liquids are of equal proportions or
liquid is the dominant phase.

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Liquid Levels Definition
NLL Normal Liquid Level
Liquid level maintained by controls during operation

HLL High Liquid Level

First liquid level above NLL to trigger an alarm

HHLL High High Liquid Level

Second liquid level above NLL to trigger a shutdown

LLL Low Liquid Level

First liquid level below NLL to trigger an alarm

LLLL Low Low Liquid Level

Second liquid level below NLL to trigger a shutdown

Hold-up time (Residence Time to fill separator from empty to NLL at design liquid feed rate.
Time)

Surge Time Time to fill separator from NLL to HLL at design liquid feed rate.
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Surge

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Surge

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Surge

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Holdup

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Holdup

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Holdup

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 Designing Vessel
Liquid Levels Definition
NLL Normal Liquid Level
Liquid level maintained by controls during operation

HLL High Liquid Level

First liquid level above NLL to trigger an alarm

HHLL High High Liquid Level

Second liquid level above NLL to trigger a shutdown

LLL Low Liquid Level

First liquid level below NLL to trigger an alarm

LLLL Low Low Liquid Level

Second liquid level below NLL to trigger a shutdown

Hold-up time (Residence Time to fill separator from empty to NLL at design liquid feed rate.
Time)

Surge Time Time to fill separator from NLL to HLL at design liquid feed rate.
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 Designing Vessel
Separator Specifications

What separator vendor requires:

 Process data:
◦ Max. liquid, max vapour and max Rho V² (momentum) cases
◦ Inlet flow rate, density and viscosity
◦ Liquid surface tension
◦ Presence of solids
◦ Presence of corrosive materials
◦ Required separation efficiency – carryover, particle size removed

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 Designing Vessel
Separator Specifications

What separator vendor requires:

 Inlet piping data (optional):
◦ Length of straight run into vessel
◦ Pipe size
◦ Presence of bends, elbows, control valves
 Specifications:
◦ Applicable industry standards
◦ Applicable client standards

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 What performance guarantee is required from vendor:
◦ Vapour and liquid flow capacity
◦ Liquid carryover:
 total liquid carryover (e.g. 0.1 US gallon liquid carryover/MMSCF gas)
 particle size carryover (e.g. 99.9% of 30 microns and above removed)
◦ Beware of particle size carryover, this does not reflect the total amount of
liquid carryover.
◦ On some separators, particle size carryover is important (e.g. flare
scrubber, compressor scrubber and filter coalescer).
◦ On some separators, particle size carryover is not important (e.g.
production separators). In this case, total liquid carryover is more
important.

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