Experimental investigation of the performance of a large-scale scrubber operating at elevated pressure on live natural gas

Experimental results for the performance of a near-full-scale natural gas scrubber operating on a live natural gas system at high pressure are given in this article. The scrubber configuration has three types of internals in series: an inlet vane, a mist-mat and an axial cyclone bank. The variations with pressure of the fluid properties of the natural gas system are calculated and given, and the performances of the over-all scrubber and of the individual internals at a range of gas and liquid flows and at three different pressures up to 113 barg are shown. The results show that beyond a Souders–Brown K-value of 0.15 m/s, the primary separation efficiency breaks down and that beyond this value of K, the scrubber relies on the cyclones for satisfactory separation. However, at a K-value of 0.26 m/s, the cyclone separation efficiency was poor at high pressure and decreased with increasing pressure. The liquid distribution to the cyclones was highly non-uniform, the outer cyclones receiving much more liquid than the inner ones.