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Gas/Liquid Cylindrical Cyclone (GLCC) Separator Review

Presentation · October 2018

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 Gas/Liquid
Cylindrical Cyclone
(GLCC) Separator
Hamidreza Asaadian 9401803
What is a GLCC
Separator?

A vertical piece of pipe ,with

a downward inclined
tangential inlet and two
outlets, one at the bottom
for liquid and the other at
the top for gas.
 The GLCC Potential Applications:

• Partial separation gas liquid fluids

• Control of gas/liquid ratio for multiphase flow meters, pumps and
desanders, portable well test metering, steam quality metering, flare gas
scrubbing, primary surface and subsurface separation, and pre-
separation upstream of slug catchers or primary separators.
Physical Phenomenon in
Cylindrical Cyclone:

The cylindrical cyclone operation is limited by two physical phenomena:

• the liquid carry-over (LCO) in the gas stream
LCO can occur in the gas leg in the form of droplets or stratified flow.
• the gas carry-under (GCU) in the liquid stream.
GCU is the entrainment of gas bubbles into the exiting liq-uid stream.

Prediction of these two phenomena will allow proper design and operation of the
cylindrical cyclone for the industry.
Laboratory Set Up

Metering Section GLCC Test Section GLCC Test Section (New)

Has two parallel ,single phase Divided into 6 parts:
feeder lines for measuring the
1. Dual inlet section 4. Liquid leg
incoming single gas and liquid
flow rates. 2. Cylindrical cyclone body 5. Passive control
3. Gas leg 6. Recombination section
Design Notes
the stability of the vortex core is influenced by the rotational angle between the inlet and the outlet.
Also, the optimum angle for the most stable core was found to be function of liquid flow rate and GLCC
geometry.

Field Design :
Field Application :
Nozzle Mechanistic Model :

The nozzle is formed between the inlet pipe wall and

a plate, and terminates at the cylindrical cyclone
inlet slot. The inlet slot is a sector shape opening in
the cylindrical cyclone body.

For the following analysis, the cross-sectional shape

of the sector slot is approximated by an equivalent
rectangle for simplification. Thus, the slot area at
location 2 is given by
Nozzle Analysis for Stratified
Flow :

Solution of Eq. 6 yields the liquid level at the nozzle, hl2,

permitting calculation of the corresponding gas and liquid
velocities, Vg2 and Vl2 , respectively. These velocities at the
nozzle exit are oriented along the axis of the inclined inlet. The
components of the nozzle exit velocities perpendicular to the
axis are responsible for the swirling motion inside the
cylindrical cyclone. There-fore, the tangential liquid and gas
velocities at the cylindrical cyclone entrance can be
calculated from the above equations as follows:
 Nozzle Analysis for Slug Flow :

The total length of the slug unit is Lu, which consists of two zones,
namely, the liquid slug body, Ls, and the stratified region behind the
slug, Lf, including the liquid film at the bottom and the gas pocket
at the top. The residence times over a fixed control volume of the
slug unit and the slug body are Tu, and Ts, respectively.

The gas pocket/film region passage time is, thus (Tu— Ts). The liquid
film velocity and the gas pocket velocity in the stratified region are
Vf and Vgtb, respectively, Vlls and Vgls are the liquid phase and gas
phase velocities within the slug body, and Vtb is the translational
velocity of the interface. Due to the cyclic transient nature of slug
flow characterized by time varying flow conditions, average
upstream velocities of the gas and the liquid phases are considered
for the nozzle analysis.
Determination of the average gas and
liquid phase velocities in a slug unit require
a model that can provide detailed
hydrodynamic flow behavior of slug flow.
These include the length, velocity, and
holdup distributions in the different slug
zones. Once the detailed flow structure is
predicted, the average liquid slug velocity
upstream of the inlet, as a function of
passage time, can be determined as
follows:
Nozzle Analysis for Annular Flow :
Annular flow is defined by a slow moving liquid film around the
pipe wall and a fast moving core, which consists of the gas phase
and entrained liquid drop-lets. The liquid film is thicker at the
bottom, compared to the top, due to gravity.
• The fluid in the core is considered to be homogeneous, i.e.
• No slippage occurs between the entrained liquid droplets and
the gas phase.
• The gas core is accelerated as it flows through the nozzle.
• The liquid film could be considered as a flow of thin laminar film
on a flat plate.
• This is consistent with the physics of annular flow where the film
velocity is much lower than that of the core and the film
thickness is much less than the diameter of the pipe.
• It may be noted that the film does not undergo any significant
velocity variation as it flows through the nozzle
Thus, for this case, the upstream and the inlet tangential velocities
of the liquid film are approximately the same. The core velocity at
the upstream location (section I) is given by
Applying a momentum balance on the Liquid film :

Ucn is the average core velocity between the upstream and the
inlet slot locations :

Applying boundary condition ,The average liquid film velocity over a cross section of the film can be
obtained by integration of the velocity profile :
Nozzle Analysis for
Bubble Flow :
Dispersed bubble flow is dominated
by high liquid flow rates and high
turbulence dispersing the gas phase
in the form of small bubbles, which
are carried by the continuous liquid
phase.

For this case the inlet tangential

velocities of the gas and the liquid are
the same, equal to the mixture
velocity at the slot, and given as
Mechanistic Model:

1. Equilibrium Liquid Level

2. Gas Liquid Interface
3. Zero-Net Liquid Holdup
4. Operation Envelope (Liquid Carr Over)
1. Equilibrium Liquid Level :
2. Gas Liquid Interface :
3. Zero-Net Liquid Holdup :
4. Operation Envelope (Liquid Carr Over) :
Can write a MATLAB code about that.
Excellent agreement is observed between the model prediction and the data.
 Operation Envelope :

In general, at relatively low Vsg , the cylindrical cyclone can tolerate

high liquid flow rates. However, as Vsg increases the operational
envelope decreases. The operational envelope is characterized by
three regions, namely, churn, transition and annular flow.
In the chum region, characterized by low gas and high liquid flow rates
(Vsg<10 ft/sec), the liquid level in the cylindrical cy-clone is above the
inlet and the liquid chums up and down in the upper part of the
cylindrical cyclone.
In the annular region, characterized by high gas and low liquid flow
rates (Vsg> 20 ft/sec), the liquid level is below the inlet and there is a
liquid film flow around the cylindrical cyclone inner wall. In this region,
the liquid flow rate for the onset of liquid carry-over has a linear trend
with the gas stream.
Between the churn and annular regions is the transition region (10
ft/sec< Vsg<20 ft/sec), in which the liquid level is around the inlet. In this
region, there is no chum flow in the upper part of the cylindrical cyclone
and at the same time the gas flow rate is not high enough to produce
annular flow.
 Beyond the Operation Envelope :
In the chum region, at high Vsl and low Vsg, large quantities of liquid
can be carried over relatively easily. Here, the lines look very close to
each other. In this region, a slight increase in the operating conditions
beyond the operational envelope may result in as high as 3% LCO.
Data for this region were acquired up to 5% LCO. A higher percent of
LCO could be achieved by further increasing the flow conditions.
In the annular region, at high Vsg and low Vsl, it is more difficult to
have a large amount of liquid carry-over be-yond the operational
envelope, and the lines look more separated compared to those of
the churn flow region. As can be seen, the flow conditions must be
increased significantly beyond the operational envelope in order to
get even a 0.6% liquid carry-over.
An interesting phenomenon is observed in the transition region,
namely, the percent of liquid carry-over is very small for the entire
region. The main reason for this is that at the transition region the liquid
level is around the inlet, and neither chum flow nor fully developed
annular flow occurs in the upper part of the cylindrical cyclone. As a
result, the LCO is very small, less than 0.5%, for conditions far beyond
the operational envelope.
Recommendation :

• Use CFD to model the laboratory set up (Use lab Data as input of the software) and then
generalize the conclusions of output for industry design.

• Test the different variation of parameters and see the results and modeling them.

• Use electric plates to separate the electrolyte fluid from non-electrolyte one.
 References :

1. “Liquid Carry-over In Gas/Liquid Cylindrical Cyclone Compact Separator”, W A Chirinos, Gomes, Wang, Mohan,
Shoham – SPE-65094
2. “Hydrodynamic Of Two-phase Flow In Gas/Liquid Cylindrical Cyclone Separators”, Arpanndi, Joshi, Shoham,
Shirazi – SPE-30683
3. “Design And Performance Of Gas/Liquid Cylindrical Cyclone Separators”, Kouba, Shoham, Shirazi, 1995
4. “Enhanced Mechanistic Mocdel and Field-Application Design of GLCC separators”, Gomes, Mohan, Shoham,
Kouba – SPE-62478

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