This book introduces a new and powerful approach based on rigorous process simulations conducted with professional simulators like HYSYS to predict the performance of supersonic separators (SS). The book addresses the utilization of SSs for the offshore processing of CO2-rich natural gas as an alternative to Joule-Thomson expansion, glycol absorption, membrane permeation and chemical absorption. It describes and analyzes the conventional offshore processing of CO2-rich natural gas, discussing the advantages of SS in terms of cost and power consumption. The book offers a comprehensive framework for modeling SS units, describing the physical principles of SS in detail. The thermodynamic multiphase sound speed is also discussed at the light shed by a classical analysis based on the Landau Model of phase transitions. A complete framework is presented for modelling and simulating SS units within HYSYS environment. A special chapter is dedicated to the performance of SSs for removing CO2 from CO2-rich natural gas, taking into account the limitations of CO2 freeze-out in various scenarios of gas feed in terms of CO2 content, pressure and temperature.

This book addresses several issues related to hydrate inhibition and monoethylene glycol (MEG) recovery units (MRUs) in offshore natural gas fields, from fundamentals to engineering aspects and from energy consumption assessment to advanced topics such as exergy analysis. The assessment of energy degradation in MRUs is critical in offshore rigs, and the topic of exergy theory has by no means been completely explored; it is still being developed. The book presents a comprehensive, yet concise, formulation for exergy flow and examines different approaches for the reference state of MEG and definition of the reference environment so as to obtain an effective exergy analysis with consistent results. It also provides new and useful information that has a great potential in the field of exergy analysis application by assessing energy degradation for three well-known MRU technologies on offshore rigs: the Traditional Atmospheric Distillation Process; the Full-Stream Process; and the Slip-Stream Process. The book then elucidates how the main design parameters impact the efficiency of MEG recovery units and offers insights into thermodynamic efficiency based on case studies of general distillation-based processes with sharp or not too sharp cut, providing ranges for expected values of efficiencies and enhancing a global comprehension of this subject. Since MEG recovery is an energy consuming process that invariably has to be conducted in a limited space and with limited power supply, the book is a valuable resource for those involved in design, engineering, economic evaluation and environmental evaluation of topside processing on offshore platforms for natural gas production.