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Rotary type centrifugal gas separator invented back in the 50s of the last century by Russian scientist P.D. Lyapkov is still broadly applied all over the world, however, due to its design it has low resistance to hydraulic and abrasive wear. Relatively low wear resistance is the cause of the complete failure of the gas separator structure. Vortex type and auger type gas separators introduced in the market does not have rotary drum and use the vortex effect which significantly increased the wear resistance of the design. For development of the strategy of gradual replacement of the applied rotary type gas separators for vortex or auger type gas separator a project of integrated study of comparative characteristics of this equipment produced in Russia was launched. It is necessary to study how the absence of the rotary centrifugal drum in gas separators affects the efficiency of gas separation and change of power consumption. At the first stage of bench tests it was found that gas separators of vortex and auger type have slightly lower efficiency of gas separation but they consumed less power in comparison with tested basic rotary gas separator. The efficiency of some of tested vortex type gas separators was only slightly lower than the efficiency of basic rotary gas separator. This indicates that there is a potential of upgrading of the design of the equipment for improvement of its performance. The information obtained in the course of studies will allow to develop new specifications for gas separators which according the specialists of Rosneft Oil Company should be not only efficient in gas separation but they should be also energy efficient. The revealed effect of reduction of power consumption of rotary type gas separators and vortex and auger type gas separators is not high and amounts only to 0.25-0.3 kW⋅h per unit of equipment. However, given that the Russian largest oil and gas company Rosneft has more than 43,000 wells equipped with electrical submersible pumps the total energy saving is not that small. Rosneft Group oil and gas production subsidiaries started to take into account the energy saving effect in case of replacement of rotary type gas separators by vortex or auger type gas separators when preparing their artificial lift cost reduction programs. References 1. Certificate of authorship no. SU 109579 A1, Submersible centrifugal pump, Author: Lyapkov P.D. 2. Drozdov A.N., Tekhnologiya i tekhnika dobychi nefti pogruzhnymi nasosami v oslozhnennykh usloviyakh (The technology and technique of oil production by submergible pumps in the complicated conditions), Moscow: MAKS press Publ., 2008, 312 p. 3. Vakhitova R.I., Saracheva D.A., Urazakov D.R., Dumler E.B., Povyshenie effektivnosti raboty pogruzhnykh elektrotsentrobezhnykh ustanovok pri dobyche nefti s vysokim gazosoderzhaniem (Improving the efficiency of submersible electric centrifugal plants in oil production with high gas content), Al'met'evsk: Publ. of ASPU, 2019, 104 p. 4. Den'gaev A.V., Povyshenie effektivnosti ekspluatatsii skvazhin pogruzhnymi tsentrobezhnymi nasosami pri otkachke gazozhidkostnykh smesey (Improving the efficiency of well operation by submersible centrifugal pumps during pumping of gas-liquid mixtures): thesis od candidate of technical science, 2005. 5. Yakimov S.B., Shportko A.A., Shalagin Yu.Yu., Ways of improving gas separators reliability used to protect electric centrifugal pumps (ESP) in the deposits of PJSC "NK "Rosneft" (In Russ.), Oborudovanie i tekhnologii dlya neftegazovogo kompleksa, 2017, no. 1, pp. 33–39. 6. Perel'man M.O., Peshcherenko M.P., Peshcherenko S.N., Peculiarities of multi-phase flows determining hydroabrasive strength of gas separators (In Russ.), Burenie i neft', 2013, no. 5, pp. 44–47. |
