Open AccessComputational analysis of homogeneous nucleation and droplet growth applied to natural gas separators
Author(s) -
Natalia Prieto-Jiménez,
José D. Fuentes,
Germán González Silva
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
revista uis ingenierías
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2145-8456
pISSN - 1657-4583
DOI - 10.18273/revuin.v21n1-2022007
Subject(s) - nucleation , supersaturation , homogeneous , drop (telecommunication) , natural gas , nanometre , gas phase , thermodynamics , materials science , crystallization , chemistry , chemical physics , composite material , physics , organic chemistry , telecommunications , computer science
A natural gas droplet is generated at certain thermodynamic conditions through three stages: supersaturation, where the gas has more molecules than it should have in equilibrium, forming “embryos” of liquid phase; nucleation, where embryos form groups of different shapes and sizes of nanometer order; and the droplet growth, where the number of molecules increases until equilibrium is reached. In this paper, the homogeneous nucleation and droplet growth of natural gas applied to gravitational separators operating at high pressure conditions (7MPa) are analyzed. The results showed that at a high pressure, the initial drop size reached was 8.024 nanometers and the final diameter of the drop was 4.18 micrometers.