Seeded gas-liquid separator and process
AssigneeEnergent Corporation
InventorsLance Hays, Ross Brown, Ronald Franz
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A separation process, the steps that include: providing an expansion zone, flowing a gaseous fluid into and through the expansion zone, flowing a spray of liquid droplets into the expansion zone to mix with the gaseous fluid and produce nucleation sites, then expanding the flow of mixed gaseous fluid and liquid droplets to cause condensation of gas onto the liquid droplets, and then centrifuging liquid droplets into a separation layer.
Claims20
In a separation process, the steps that include:
- a) providing an expansion zone,
- b) flowing a gaseous fluid into and through said expansion zone,
- c) flowing a spray of only liquid droplets into the expansion zone to mix with said fluid and produce nucleation sites, free of particulate,
- d) then expanding the flow of mixed gaseous fluid and liquid droplets in nozzle means to cause condensation of gas onto the liquid droplets, enlarging the sizes thereof,
- e) and then centrifuging the enlarged liquid droplets into a separation layer,
- f) said b) and c) flowing steps being free of solid particulate, in said fluid and in said spray.
A method of separating liquid from a flow of mixed gas and liquid free of particulate, that includes expanding the gas in a nozzle or nozzles and introducing liquid nuclei free of particulate into the expanding gas to produce condensed liquid droplets larger than those produced by spontaneous condensation in order to effectuate separation of condensed liquid from the gas and then centrifuqinq the condensed liquid droplets into a separation layer.
A method of separating a mixture of gas and liquid that includes impinging a high velocity jet of said mixture at a tangential angle onto a contained, moving liquid layer, thereby centrifugally separating liquid from the mixture with momentum transfer from the moving liquid and gas to the separated liquid layer, whereby pressure of the separated liquid is increased, said moving liquid and gas being entirely free of solid particulate.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.