Zhang Tao, Li Chenguang, Sun Shuyu
Computational Transport Phenomena Laboratory, Division of Physical Science and Engineering, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia.
China National Oil and Gas Exploration and Development Company Limited, Beijing 100034, China.
Membranes (Basel). 2022 Feb 17;12(2):232. doi: 10.3390/membranes12020232.
The effect of temperature on oil-water separations is studied in this paper, focusing on the changed penetration velocities of water droplets on the separation membrane in a horizontal separator. A compact numerical scheme is developed based on the phase-field model, and the temperature effect is first theoretically analyzed regarding the key thermodynamic properties that may affect the separation performance. The computational scenario is designed based on practical horizontal separators in the oil field, and the droplet motions in the oil-water two-phase flow are simulated using our scheme under various operation conditions. It was found that a higher temperature may result in a faster penetration of the water droplets, and a larger density difference in the oil-water system is also preferred to accelerate the separation using membranes. Furthermore, increasing the operation temperature is proved to benefit the separation of water and heavy oil.
本文研究了温度对油水分离的影响，重点关注水平分离器中分离膜上水滴渗透速度的变化。基于相场模型开发了一种紧凑的数值方案，并首先从可能影响分离性能的关键热力学性质方面对温度效应进行了理论分析。根据油田实际水平分离器设计了计算场景，并使用我们的方案在各种操作条件下模拟了油水两相流中的液滴运动。结果发现，较高的温度可能导致水滴更快地渗透，油水系统中较大的密度差也有利于加速膜分离。此外，提高操作温度被证明有利于水和重油的分离。
