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US 8,800,599 B2Granted
Throttling valve and method for enlarging liquid droplet sizes in the throttled fluid stream
AssigneeTwister B.V.
InventorMarco Betting
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A Joule-Thompson or other throttling valve comprises an outlet channel (7) in which swirl imparting means (10) impose a swirling motion to the cooled fluid stream discharged by the valve, thereby inducing liquid droplets to swirl towards the outer periphery (7A) of the fluid outlet channel (7) and to coalesce into enlarged liquid droplets (17) which can be separated easily from a gaseous or other carrier fluid.
Claims23
A throttling valve comprising:
- a housing;
- a valve body which is arranged in the housing;
- a perforated sleeve via which the valve body permits the multiphase fluid to flow from a fluid inlet channel into a fluid outlet channel, wherein the multiphase fluid stream is in a straight flow upstream of the perforated sleeve;
- wherein the valve body and the perforated sleeve are slidably arranged in the housing such that the valve body controls multiphase fluid flow from a fluid inlet channel into the fluid outlet channel of the valve;
- and
- wherein at least some perforations of the sleeve have an at least partially tangential orientation relative to a longitudinal axis of the sleeve, such that the multiphase fluid is expanded and converted into a multiphase fluid stream, which is induced to swirl within the fluid outlet channel and liquid droplets are induced to swirl towards the outer periphery of the fluid outlet channel and to coalesce into enlarged liquid droplets, wherein the valve is such that the multiphase fluid stream is non-swirling until it is induced to swirl.
3 more elements
A throttling valve comprising:
- a housing;
- a valve body which is arranged in the housing;
- and
- a swirl imparter which imposes a swirling motion to a fluid stream flowing through a fluid outlet channel,
- wherein the valve body and the swirl imparter are slidably arranged in the housing such that they can be moved into the fluid outlet channel to control the flux of a fluid stream flowing from a fluid inlet channel into a fluid outlet channel of the valve such that the fluid stream is expanded and cooled,
- wherein the swirl imparter is provided by longitudinally evenly-spaced perforations and circumferentially evenly-spaced perforations of a perforated sleeve, via which the valve body permits the fluid stream to flow from the fluid inlet channel into the fluid outlet channel, and
- wherein the swirl imparter is oriented such that the fluid stream swirls about a longitudinal axis of the fluid outlet channel, thereby inducing liquid droplets that are formed during the expansion along the flow path of the valve to swirl towards the outer periphery of the fluid outlet channel and to coalesce, wherein the valve is such that the fluid stream is non-swirling until it reaches the swirl imparter.
4 more elements
A method for enlarging droplet sizes in a multiphase fluid stream comprising the steps of:
- flowing liquid droplets and a carrier fluid in the multiphase fluid stream through a perforated sleeve into an outlet section of a throttling valve which comprises a housing, a valve body and the perforated sleeve with the valve body and the perforated sleeve being slidably arranged in the housing, wherein the multiphase fluid stream is in a straight flow upstream of the perforated sleeve;
- using available free pressure in the throttling valve for isenthalpic expansion;
- and
- creating a swirling flow in the fluid stream flowing through the outlet channel of the valve thereby inducing liquid droplets to swirl towards the outer periphery of the fluid outlet channel and to coalesce, wherein a swirl imparter is provided by longitudinally evenly-spaced perforations and circumferentially evenly-spaced perforations of the perforated sleeve, wherein the swirl imparter is oriented such that the fluid stream swirls about a longitudinal axis of the fluid outlet channel.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.