The SPE Separations Technology Technical Section (STTS) will continue its study of gas scrubbing technology with a special session at the 2015 SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition in Houston in September.
The session, titled “Gas Scrubber Design and Validation for Robust Separation Duty,” corresponds with the theme of the STTS’ webinars this year and will feature five speakers.
The topics and speakers are as follows:
- “The Separation Technology Research (STAR) Program JIP: Background, Research, Plans, and Scrubber Internals Testing Results” by Chris Buckingham of Southwest Research Institute
- “Underperforming Gas Scrubbers: How to Fix Them and How to Avoid Them” by Victor van Asperen of FMC Technologies
- “Scrubber Specification, Appraisal, and Efficient Operation: An Operator’s Perspective” by Manoj Bulsara of Maersk Oil
- “Scrubber Upgrading: Options, Installation, and Performance” by Graham McVinnie of Shell E&P
- “Measuring Operational Performance Utilizing Radioactive Tracers” by William Mixon of Tracerco
Gas scrubbing technology is part of most oil and gas facilities systems, both onshore and offshore. Scrubber design is not simply picking a catalog item and applying a K-factor. A robust system takes into consideration inlet piping and components design, uses a proper inlet distributor, accounts for flow variability and fluid properties, allows for adequate disengagement space in the vessel, and ensures suitable flow distribution.
As scrubbing technology is designed for modular, compact systems in more demanding environments, the equipment used is pushed to more challenging limits. High-capacity internals are required in combination with standard equipment such as vane packs and mist pads.
The speakers will discuss these factors in the evolution of scrubber design, the performance required from the technology, and how the performance can be validated in practice.
For more information, visit http://www.spe.org/atce/2015/pages/schedule/tech_program/special_session.php. [URL no longer active]
The STTS serves as a forum for SPE members to share knowledge, experience, and best practices on separations technology. For more information, visit http://connect.spe.org/separationstechnology/home