Particle Size Estimation and Analysis for Wellhead and Mainline Separators at Northern California Power Agency

Abstract

Interest exists in separator performance during turndown operation. Theory indicates that separation with respect to water droplets should remain good since incident droplet distribution increase in size with turndown compensates for separator decrease in small droplet separation with turndown. Theoretically, this is not the case for solid particles due to nonconveyability of larger particles along with decrease in small particle separation in the separator. Limited wellhead particle size analysis at Northern California Power Agency (NCPA) indicates that solid particle separation follows the theoretical solids separation trend with respect to the size distribution. Thus, if a well capacity has lowered appreciably from an initial high flow, it is only reasonable to install a smaller separator which is more efficient in smaller droplet and solid particle separation. Two stage separators such as used at NCPA benefit from separation induced upstream of the main separator element; this has been shown by particle analysis.