Natural Gas Engineering: Prof - Pankaj Tiwari

NATURAL GAS ENGINEERING
Prof.Pankaj Tiwari
Chemical Engineering
IIT Guwahati
INDEX
S.No Topics Page No.
Week 1
1 Introduction to Natural Gas-I 3
2 Introduction to Natural Gas-II 24
3 Introduction to Natural Gas-III 39
Week 2
4 Lec 4: Properties of Natural Gas-I 52
5 Lec 5: Properties of Natural Gas-II 70
6 Lec 6: Properties of Reservoir 90
Week 3
7 Inflow Performance Relationship (IPR)-I 109
8 Inflow Performance Relationship (IPR)-II 130
9 Gas Well Testing 151
Week 4
10 Wellbore Performance Relationship(WPR) 178
11 Choke Performance Relationship(CPR) 206
12 Nodal Analysis 229
Week 5
13 Natural Gas Separation-I 244
14 Natural Gas Separation-II 272
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Week 6
15 Dehydration of Natural Gas 307
16 Sweeting of Natural Gas 334
17 Compressor Design 349
Week 7
18 Measurement of Natural Gas 369
19 Transportation of Natural Gas-I 393
20 Transportation of Natural Gas -II 425
Week 8
21 Unconventional production of Natural Gas 450
22 Review: Concluding Remarks 469
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Natural Gas Engineering
Prof. Pankaj Tiwari
Department of Chemical Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology – Guwahati
Module No # 01
Lecture No # 01
Introduction to Natural Gas - I
Hello everyone, and welcome to the class of natural gas engineering. This Moocs class design
for 20 hours of lectures in eight weeks. Today's lecture is focused on the introduction to natural
gas. I am doctor Pankaj Tiwari course instructor for this course.
(Refer Slide Time: 00:50)
So, let us go straight to understand what is natural gas? By definition, natural gas is a complex
mixture of hydrocarbon. That hydrocarbon ranges from C1 methane up to C7, C8 with some
non-hydrocarbon gases like carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide, water vapor, a trace amount of
nitrogen, and some rare gases like helium and others. So, it is a mixture of hydrocarbon and non-
hydro carbon gases.
These hydrocarbon gases are combustible by nature and produce energy when it is combusted.
So, the natural gas comes under the subcategory of petroleum. It follows the same process, as the
oil, the organic material underneath the surface goes through the geological time scale heating
under pressure and converts into gas. It ignites when the air and gas mixture is between 5 and 15.
So 5 is the lower explosive limit, and 15 is the higher explosive limit. The combustion reaction
goes like this. CH4 + 2O2 gives 1 mole of CO2 and 2 moles of H2O with an energy generation
of 891 kiloJoule. In general, the energy is measured in BTU, and one standard cubic feet of
Natural gas gives us the BTU, between 500 to 1550, depending on the composition. For
example, here, the reaction is just for methane because it is the dominant natural gas compound.
However, when higher carbon number gases are present in natural gas, they produce more
energy.
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Similarly, if non-hydrocarbon (non-combustible) gases are present in a significant amount, they
reduce the energy of gas; that is why the energy content of natural gas varies from 500 to 1550
BTU. So, another unit commonly used for natural gas is therm, and therm = 1 million Btu (MM
Btu).
Natural gas is a colourless, odourless, combustible, and clean fuel. It is odourless, so it does not
smell. So, some mercaptans like Thiols are added in the natural gas to detect, its leakage, or its
presence.
Natural gas comes under the hydrocarbon energy sector under it can be classified as conventional
and unconventional energy sources. Under the conventional like fossil energy, such as natural
gas, oil, and coal, is being produced under conventional technology. Natural gas is a gaseous
fuel; oil is the liquid fuel and, coal is the solid fuel.
The important point is that natural gas is present in the natural gas reservoir, in the coal reservoir,
and the coal seams. So, natural gas having a presence in all three fossil fuel energy sources.
Under the unconventional natural gas geological setting and rock type, rather than to the gas
itself, define the unconventional source. There is no significant difference in the composition of
natural gas. However, there is a difference in the geological setting like the way natural gas is
trapped in reservoir formation or the coal seams, and from how long it was there. The geological
formation under which the gas is trapped defines the shale gas, tight gas, gas hydrates, and coal
bed methane and other sources.
So tight gas is the one that is trapped under a relatively permeable rock like limestone or sandy
stone with a very low permeability like less than one milli Darcy. Similarly, the shell gas is the
one that is trapped in fine-grained sedimentary rock like a shale structure. To extract natural gas
from these sources, certain kinds of fractures need to be created. We will discuss these
unconventional energy resources in detail when we will be discussing unconventional energy
almost at the end of this course.
Coal bed methane is also an unconventional energy resource where the gas is trapped in a coal
seam. It means it is adsorbed in the solid matrix of the coal. Gas hydrate is another form of the
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unconventional resource of natural gas. In this, the gas molecules are in the form of a crystalline
structure where a small gas molecule stabilizes the water molecule. So, the one gas molecule like
either methane or very light hydrocarbons is trapped by water molecules and, that form is called
gas hydrate. It is believed, there is plenty of these unconventional natural resources available
across the globe. The theory is similar; gradually, the organic material got converted into coal,
oil, and gas.
Across the globe, several reports are published every year, like energy outlooks, EIA, and energy
information administration from the USA and several others on unconventional natural gas
resources. These reports publish the data collected from different countries about the supply and
demand of all forms of energy and energy usage in various sectors, such as industry, domestic,
residential, and transportation sectors. They also report the new forms of energy, if being
introduced. For example, when the unconventional natural gas was explored, they also became
part of that study. These slides show in different countries what the reserve is in the form of coal
bed methane for the natural gas production in shale gas, tight gas, and total are available. The
United States has the most unconventional energy reserves in all forms, either coal-bed methane,
shale, or tight gas.
This list does not include the data on gas hydrates. Their reserves are 50 times the reserve of
conventional natural gas. So, a large amount of the unconventional natural gas is available that
still either being exploded or under the exploration process. The United States developed several
technologies like how to fracture effectively to get the gas out of shale gas. It is similar to how to
extract methane or lighter gases from the coal bed methane.
In coal bed methane mostly, it is light methane gas while in other cases, shale gas and gas
hydrate, it is methane plus a lighter fraction of hydrocarbon like C2, C3, C4, C5, etc. This list
includes several countries. India is also here, which is having the reserve for the coal bed
methane. Other sectors, like shale gas, are still under the exploration, while some reported value
for the tight gas is present.
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There are several reports, and there is a disparity between the data reported in different reports.
The data reported in a particular report depends on the data collected, and the model applied.
Especially the model used to project future energy demand. The report mentions the amount of
energy worldwide, or a particular country requires. And how this energy is achieved by different
sectors or different forms of energy may be different slightly with the others. But these reports
are very good in deciding or projecting the data like in which direction the world energy demand
and supply ratio is going to be and what sources can meet this demand and supply relationship.
So, in 2011, EIA published the data where it shows different countries and their conventional
tight gas, shale gas and coal bed methane reserves in the year of 2011. You can see, Russia is
dominating in terms of natural gas. Similarly, after Russia, it is Middle-East Iran, Saudi Arabia;
they are having most of the natural gas or conventional reservoir. While in terms of
unconventional, it is the United States which is dominating in all sectors.
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So, we can say altogether unconventional resources are more significant than the conventional
resources. North America has a much bigger portion of unconventional resources. In terms of
natural gas's future, America is going to dominate in terms of the reserves they are having in the
form of unconventional energy of natural gas, tight gas, Shale gas, coal bed methane. The
unconventional resources may change, the data provided by a particular country in a particular
survey or study, or the model applied, when we talk about forecasting the data. The data may
change depending on the sample data collected and processed to make certain assumptions and
decisions.
The total primary energy demand of the world, the data were taken from the sources given at the
bottom of the slide, and several reports published like this from the international energy agency
in 2017. The published data in 2014 shows, how the world energy is supplied by different
sources or form of energy, like oil contributed 31% to the total energy need of the world, while
gas was at 21%. Similar coal was at 29%, and other renewables like bioenergy, hydro and
nuclear energy were also added in this study. When this study was projected for the future like in
2014, we can see that the gas is 22%, from 21 to 22%, oil is going to downside like 22%, but this
is again the energy need to be more in 2040 compared to this to 2014. To meet that higher
demand or energy demand in 2040, this study project, like the gas, will be contributing more
than other fossil-like coal and oil.
So, the coal and oil will be partially or significantly be replaced by natural gas. So natural gas to
be the fossil fuel with substantial growth in uses. In the future, the increase in the natural gas
production will be because of the technology being developed to utilize natural gas effectively
like LNG, fuel cell technology, where the fuel cell needs hydrogen, and that hydrogen can be
produced by steam reforming of methane to get the hydrogen for the fuel cells.
This fuel cell technology being developed to get the hydrogen, methane or the natural gas may
get a significant market there, and other technology like the uses of natural gas in a different
form like GTL may significantly be advanced in the technology; thus, the contribution of natural
gas will also be more.
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Another data set that can be projected here, like this is for the world energy, if we look in a
particular country, in the United States even in 2000 itself, the natural gas was contributing about
22% of the total country need, and it was projected like where 2010 this will meet around 25%,
and that is happening. Natural gas is not only from the conventional reservoir but because of the
unconventional energy resources' exploration and utilization, more than 25% of the energy
requirement of the United States is being fulfilled by the use of natural gas.
The world energy scenario and role of natural gas, global demand, is supposed to reach 680
quadrillion Btu in 2014 as per the assumption this is a 25% increment. It is expected that 25% of
that energy will be shared by natural gas. China and India contribute about 45% of world energy
demand growth because industrialization is happening because of the population of these
developing countries like India and China. They need more energy, and energy can be fulfilled
with the help of natural gas the conventional-unconventional natural gas resources.
Natural gas grows most of the energy type and reaching a quarter of all demands. In this chart,
2016 data is shown, and it is projected to 2040, it shows coal contributes around 25%, and
natural gas also significantly share the total energy supply. It was projected like in 2014, the
share of coal will decrease while the natural gas will increase. The total need will be classified
into four major segments like transportation, residential, industry, and electricity generation. We
can see in three years, 2016 projected here, 2025 and 2040, we see in transport is still mostly
dominated by oil.
While in residential, as in the western country, especially in the USA, natural gas is used as a
heating fuel for the houses and the buildings. So natural gas significantly shares the uses as a fuel
for the residential and commercial sector. In industry, natural gas has its sector and market, and it
is supposed to increase with time. Similarly, natural gas is going to dominate for electricity
generation compared to coal because of its properties like cleanness in terms of emission.
Natural gas demand increases significantly and gains shares in all sectors. We can see in all
sector natural gas is going to get its share. Even in transportation, if you see, compared to 2016
in 2014, a higher natural gas contribution. This is because of the technology which will convert
the natural gas into liquid fuel, or maybe the engine may be modified to accept the natural gas as
the fuel.
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The utilization of natural gas can be used as a feedstock for petrochemical and fertilizer
industries as well as fuel for several sectors, especially electricity generation. Natural gas liquid
consumption like this is NGL; it is about to be double by 2040. It is projected data again in one
of the reports published in 2018. Global electricity demand grows by 60%, and the need for this
electricity demand, natural gas is being considered as a prominent source.
So, the world is shifting to a lower carbon source for electricity generation, led by natural gas
and others. Others may include solar energy, thermal energy, and another sector. If we look at a
typical chart of energy demand or the consumption of energy in the United States, natural gas is
being utilized in the commercial sector like 13%, transportation of 2.85%, industry 38.16 %, and
residential 21.58%.
The chart shows from 2000 to 2002; the transportation sector was using very less amount of
natural gas. However, if the technology can be developed, either in the form of a fuel cell or in
converting gas to a liquid, the transportation sector may consume a significant amount of natural
gas.
In terms of industrial utilization, for electricity generation, the data is plotted from 2000 to
2014, this report is published in 2018 again. In the historical data and the projected data, the
coal is almost becoming stagnant in terms of the contribution to meet the electricity generation
as a fuel. Natural gas is increasing its contribution as a fuel to generate electricity significantly,
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from 2000. Nuclear and other will also be contributing considerably because the energy
demand will also be increased by 2040. In the pie chart, the way electricity generated from all
these sources will be utilized mostly in industrial, transportation, small sector, and residential
sector. (Refer Slide Time: 20:07)
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So, with this background, let us understand the class of this natural gas engineering, which is
designed, especially for the conventional natural gas production system. The unconventional
component was added to this class. More details about other forms of natural gas like tight gas,
shale gas, coal-bed methane, gas hydrate, and some other types produced from other sources like
the pyrolysis of some carbonaceous material will be discussed later. Altogether this course is
supposed to discuss primarily on conventional natural gas production.
So, this is the production system, if you see here, the reservoir from where the gas is being
produced through the wellbore reaching to surface facilities. The separator is there that is
separating multi phases that are present, like a small amount of gas, a small amount of oil, water,
and some sand particles. Before the natural gas goes to the consumer, it gets processed in several
units, and then it goes to the transportation sector, where it will go to the end-user. The end-user
may be an individual customer or industry or some other organization.
In the second week, we will discuss natural gas properties because of natural gas composition
changes during this process. If we have one particular well, the composition will be different, in
a sense, methane, ethane, propane, butane their percent, relatively will change.
Methane will be dominating in all the forms, and some inorganic gases will also be present.
Some are unwanted; they are just waste; they do not have any energy value and also create a
problem during transportation or utilization. For example, water vapor and H2S are corrosive in
nature. H2S is a fatal gas. We will discuss all these removal processes. The natural gas produced
from the porous reservoir domain, because of the pressure difference, has a certain composition
in terms of hydrocarbon and non-hydrocarbon gases.
When this gas is traveling to the surface, it is reaching to a separator, where the oil, gas, and
water will be separated. After that, it will go to the separator and then to dehydration where the
water will be removed, and then the contaminants like H2S and CO2 will be removed, followed
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by nitrogen extraction. Ultimately, whatever the composition of the reservoir is producing, they
may change, or they get change after each process.
And because of that the properties of natural gas changes, because of properties of natural gas as
it is not an ideal gas, the property gets changed, and we need to evaluate them at a particular
condition, the natural gas is available. For example, under the reservoir pressure condition, the
properties will be different, when it comes to surface the properties will be different, and when it
is passing through each unit, because of the composition changes and because of the temperature
and pressure condition changes, the properties will be different.
Irrespective of the composition of natural gas at different stages, most of the natural gas that goes
to the consumer is pure methane with a small trace of the other hydrocarbon and non-
hydrocarbon gases. Natural gas, which is also containing some higher hydrocarbon compounds
those are having more value, they are more energy density materials. For example, our domestic
LPG cylinder is butane and propane, which is having more energy than methane.
The more energy compound can be extracted and the unwanted impurities like CO2, H2S needs
to be separated before it is being sent to the pipeline to reach end-users. After processing, the
transportation sector will come, and in transportation, we have the relationship between how
much amount of the gas should be transported and at what distances it should be transported will
decide in which form this should be transported.
For example, if it is a long-distance and significant quantity, we may have to choose either the
pipeline or LNG. LNG is liquefied natural gas; depending on the terrain and the distance it is
going to cover; one option may be chosen. We will discuss the conversion of natural gas into
other forms, like GTL, gas to liquid and, LNG, and liquefied natural gas, in detail in this course.
In conventional natural gas production, as shown in the diagram, the natural gas is produced
from the reservoir, and this process goes through several steps. Conventional natural gas
production is not a one-person job. It's a team that involves from starting of exploration to
drilling to well completion, then production, gas processing refining, transportation, distribution
to the ultimate consumer. It includes all sort of the people those are expert in dealing with the
legal resources, reservoir engineer, geologist, refining gas, drilling engineers, all sort of the team.
They discuss, and they decide conventional natural gas production fate.
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So, if we begin from the exploration technique, this is a job done by the geologist and
Geophysicist. The geologist does the geological survey. They collect several data sets, and
Geophysicists understand the rock formation and put those data together to understand the
formation. Based on the exploration technique, it is decided that the well should be drilled or not
drilled at a particular location. These are the similar technique as used for oil exploration; similar
is used for gas exploration.
The geological survey is done to understand the geology of a particular region where there is a
possibility of finding natural gas or not. With the advance of the technique like Seismic survey,
the chances of getting success are high; for example, it until the late 1970s successful drilling
was a hit and miss operation. So, if you are going to find out a location where there is a
possibility of finding fossil fuels like, for example, oil or gas, before drilling, it was a hit and
miss operation, and it is, success ratio was one ratio ten.
Out of 10 wells that are drilled, one may be a potential gas or oil reservoir, and the other 9 may
be dry wells. But with the advance of the technology like this Seismic survey in a 2D, 3D and
now 4D form the data are collected, and they are able to give a good estimation of where to drill
and how to drill at a particular location, that can be done with the help of seismic survey data.
Other data from the magnetometer, where the magnetic properties of the reservoir rock are used
to collect the data and logging data where the density log or some other rock log data are
recorded during the drilling time or during the processing time to understand the geological
formation. Advanced techniques like computer modelling are being developed, and they are
having more chances of predicting the natural gas resource at a precise location. Now the success
rate had been improved from 14% in 1970 to 49% in 2000.
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To summarize some of these steps, like exploration that decides the potential of the reservoir,
and that is put a question to make a decision where to drill the wells. Extraction, once the
location has been identified, it is decided we are going to drill at a particular location. Extraction
steps say how to drill or how to perform the drilling process, underground reservoir to surface,
means from the underground reservoir, or the fluid is available, how to bring it to the surface is a
job of drilling engineer, or it is a part of the drilling process. Several complications come during
the process, which type of drill should be used, and what type of muds should be used. Several
steps come in that part that we are not going to discuss in detail.
Then after extraction, it comes the production that says natural gas that is brought to surface
from the underground, how to process the natural gas by using different techniques. Once
refinement is done, gas is ready to be used. It needs to be transported from the production place
to the end-user, which should be accomplished with some transportation media, and that could be
either by laying down the pipeline or by LNG or by converting some other forms.
The storage, how it is accomplished, and why it is necessary should also be considered during
the conventional natural gas production. During the summertime, natural gas is being produced.
It has less market in the summertime compared to wintertime because, during the winter, more
gas or natural gas is required to heat the houses to maintain a comfortable temperature.
Distribution and delivery of natural gas from the major pipeline to end-user also need to be
considered during the business of natural gas production, marketing the gas from the well head to
the end-user. These are highlighted steps that decide the natural gas business starts from first
place, exploration to marketing when the end-users are using it, and natural gas is being used
either as a feedstock or as a fuel.
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Coming to the conventional reservoir, this slide shows the identification of location, drilling, and
production. The identification of the reservoir type, that is, a gas reservoir, an oil reservoir, or a
condensate well reservoir; it means the condensate well is also producing the liquid along with
the gas. So, to do that, there is a term called GOR, gas to oil ratio. It means that when the fuel is
produced from a particular well, we can separate it at the separator and quantify how much oil
and gas are produced from this particular well.
Gas to oil ratio is calculated in the unit of standard cubic feet to standard tank barrel. If the ratio
is greater than 1 lakh, it is considered a gas well, it might contain some more small oil, but it is
mostly the gas well. Oil well, if the ratio is less than 5000 scf per stb means it is mostly the oil,
and just gas is associated or dissolved in the oil. Condensate well, where the ratio is between 1
lakh and 5000, the well is called condensate well.
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So once the production is started, to identify which type of the well it is, because that decides
what type of surface facilities should be installed. If it is a gas well, the surface facilities installed
will be different then the oil - similar not only the facilities to refine the gas but to collect the
samples. So, the GOR value decides the type of the well, which depends on several factors like
how the fluid is produced and accumulated underneath in a particular reservoir location from
where they are being produced.
This can happen in several ways, and one possibility is the anticlinal trap. In the anticlinal trap,
the reservoir is in a dome shape where the fluids are trapped. So, to have the fluid or the
petroleum in the reservoir, there should be three types of the rocks available like the source rock,
which are formed in the geological time scale under pressurize conditions. The organic material
gets converted to coal, gas, and oil. Thus, source rock should be available. In our case, this
source rock should be able to produce the gas, and there should be a reservoir rock or permeable
rock through which the sand through which the gas is being travelled to a location where it can
get accumulated in a significant quantity and, there should also be a cap rock which is
impermeable rock and not allowing this fluid to come out to surface by its own. So, to have a
reservoir or petroleum reservoir, these three types of rocks must be present in a particular
domain, there we can have significant or potential petroleum fluid reserves. Like for gas, it is a
gas reservoir. This anticlinal trap says this is in this shape where the gas is on the top, and then
oil and water are accumulated. Gas is on the top because of the lower density of oil and water,
and sometimes this is called this production from this anticlinal, or the arrangement in this form
is called a gas cap dry reservoir.
So, when the well is drilled, depending on the location, oil or gas or water may produce first, and
then it will be a mixture of oil, gas, and water.
Considering this, we can say, in any reservoir, so there is a definition of reservoir, field, and
pool. A reservoir is a place where this organic material getting converted to petroleum substance,
and those petroleum substances got accumulated in a significant potential quantity to be
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produced. The field is like several reservoirs with a similar structure is present in the same
region, while the pools, with the different structures the reservoir are present, is called the pool.
Another classification is, for any particular reservoir, associate gas reservoir or non-associate gas
reservoir. So, if the reservoir is producing gas with oil and the gas is dissolved in that oil is called
the associate gas reservoir. The associate gas reservoir also comes under the category where the
free gas is in contact with the crude oil. So, when producing the oil, the gas is also being
produced while it is not even dissolving in it; these are called the associate gas reservoirs means
the gas is being produced in the association of oil.
Non-association gas means, it is just gas that is being produced or with a very minimal amount of
liquid, or the oil is being produced. The third category is condensate gas, gas with a high content
of liquid hydrocarbon. If GOR is less than 5000, it is oil if greater than 1 lakh, it is a gas well,
and in between, this is a condensate well.
Natural gas is a gaseous fuel that produces the oil field, the gas field, and the coal bed from the
history of natural gas. Initially, natural gas was just a by-product of crude oil production. So, we
go to history, there are stories about natural gas. For example, people were not aware of the
natural gas; it was just being released to the atmosphere without knowing what gas it is.
In ancient times, the natural gas, when it is catching fire on its own, it is just getting fired, people
were not aware of why this fire is there. It was first discovered in the United States in Fredonia,
Newyork in 1821. Since then, the uses of natural gas and the discoveries have a significant
disparity; sometimes, it is used for the local purpose only. For example, in oil production, the
produced natural gas is used for local uses like energy record for the oil field or in the nearby
region to light the lamp; otherwise it is just burnt or flared to the atmosphere.
Natural gas has been used as a fuel in the area immediately surrounding the gas field because
there was no way to store it. There was no way to transport it from one place to another. It had
no value, and the only option left either to use it in a local area or the surrounding or just flared it
and let it go to the atmosphere. Natural gas is also greenhouse gas. Now we cannot let it go to the
atmosphere even if you want, because it contributes to the greenhouse gas effect.
Gas from oil well was often flared in huge quantity so far, a significant amount of the natural gas
is already flared, and this practice is still in practice. In some of the countries where the natural
gas is not having any local market when the transportation facilities are not available, it is being
flared to the atmosphere. One of the cleanest, safest useful forms of energy is natural gas, despite
the lack of infrastructure in the older time, or in the past, it could not be used very effectively.
If you see the trend, from the place of no use of natural gas, now we are exploring
unconventional energy resources, thus the need to meet the energy demand with natural gas. So,
gas that was having no value, no recognition, now we are developing the technology to use it
very effectively.
When it comes to reserves of natural gas, they are classified into two parts, like proved reserves
and potential reserves. Proved reserves are either drilled, and the potential of that particular
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reservoir is known. It is proven that this much natural gas will be produced if we collect all the
data. We can say worldwide this much the proved reservoir in a particular country.
Potential reserves are the estimated data, and those are based on the experience, belief, scientific
evidence, and several assumptions. Natural gas in the potential reserves can be explored to meet
future energy demand.
If you go by the data, in 2000, it was reported, 3600 trillion cubic feet natural gas reserves is
available that is still the proved reserve, not the potential reserve, but in 2005, the data were
reported to 6400 trillion cubic feet, and this depends on the data collected, not only data
collected, but if the new field of natural gas is explored, new reserves are found, and that's
reflected in this quantity. In the United States itself in 2000, the data says 1050 trillion cubic feet
was the proved reserve.
Potential reserves constitute those quantities of natural gas that are believed to exist, that is why
the data are not accurate, because the countries those are exploring the gas are producing the data
they are having the estimate of the reserve of gas that can be available, but in certain regions of
the world, where there is no exploration, there is no plan to estimate the natural gas are not
accounted under the potential resources head and the value various from 650 trillion cubic feet to
5000 trillion cubic feet even this data were reported in 2001, the data may have got better with
the advance technology those are getting developed.
So conventional natural gas production involves its production, control with choke's help, and
then the role of a separator and several units. There are several varieties like dry gas, dry residue
gas, NGL, and some other gases. These are collected separately and will be sold separately to get
more value.
After completing the natural gas properties in the next few lectures, we will focus on the
production from natural reservoirs and processing.
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During this, there are several definitions or terminology will appear, we can discuss them one
by one like, for example, lean gas and rich gas. Lean gas is mostly methane gas, which is
purified, refined. Valuable compounds were extracted to sell them separately; impurities were
separated out before it is being sent to consumers. In contrast, the rich gas is a gas which is
having more carbon number hydrocarbon like C2, C3, C4.
Dry gas, when there is a small amount of oil is present, gas is mostly the dry gas, which is
having only the gaseous compound present in it, is called the dry gas. When the condensable
compound or the condensate is present in the gas, the gas is called the wet gas. In terms of
quantity, if the value is less than 0.1 galloon liquid per 1000 feet cube, it is a dry gas else wet
gas.
Other terminologies, sour gas, and the sweet gas, if the natural gas is containing H2S CO2,
means the gases those are sour in nature, they need to be separated out while removing these
gases, and after that process, the process is called sweeting process, and after sweeting
process, the gas is called the sweet gas. Residue gas, when all the compound has been
extracted. And the casing head gas, the gas which is being produced from a reservoir and
reaching the well head is called the casing head gas. The composition of the residue gas will
be completely different from the casing head gas.
Casing head gas will be having a higher carbon number hydrocarbon number as well as non-
hydro carbon gases in it. The associate gas can be in the form of dissolved gas, or just the free
gas this is just being produced with the oil. Non-associate gas, which is having a very
minimal amount of the oil present, mostly it is the gas. Unconventional gases like CBM, sand
gas, shale gas, gas hydrate, etc., will be discussed later while discussing unconventional
energy resources and their contribution to natural gas uses.
Other terminologies include bio-gas, marsh gas, swamp gas, landfill gas. Old-time, marsh
gas, swamp gas, landfill gas was named for natural gas. Gasoline, it is different from the
natural gas. In the United States or in other countries, gasoline is also called the gas. When
you go to any gas station, it does not mean you are going to get the natural gas, and it is the
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gasoline that is being sold at that station. Domestic gas is not actually natural gas; it is the
combination of propane and butane.
In the United States field unit system, the natural gas business is mostly done in the US field
unit system. So, when dealing with natural gas, we should be more careful about the unit
system we choose. During the course, you will see several formulas are there, and those
formulas are big because of the complexity involved in the process especially, because of the
properties of the fluid means, the natural gas is changing with temperature and pressure.
The form could be, natural gas could be in the form NGL, could be LPG, CNG, GTL. We
will understand all these terms one by one during this course. Altogether what we can say,
natural gas is having the composition dominated by methane. 70 to 90% is methane. Ethane,
propane, butane contribute altogether between 0 to 20%, and some higher hydrocarbon can
also present in the trace amount. Carbon dioxide, CO2, is 0 to 8%. Oxygen is also in a small
amount.
In a small amount, we have the nitrogen that goes up to 5%, and hydrogen sulphide could be
up to 5% and rare gases like argon, helium, neon. In fact, natural gas is the primary source of
getting rare gases. The reaction says, it is combustible by nature, and it produces the energy,
so that's why natural gas and its utilization to produce the energy becomes important, not
only because the natural gas contains the energy, that is why it should be considered as a
future energy source, but under the carbon constraint world when we talk about fossil fuel
utilization and compare natural gas with coal and oil emission releases by natural gas
combustion to the atmosphere are less compared to oil and coal. This chart shows about fossil
fuel emission level pounds per billion BTU of energy input. So, to get a similar amount of
energy like natural gas, oil, and coal, we are burning them, combusting them. The carbon
dioxide release from natural gas is less than oil and coal.
Carbon mono oxide is slightly higher reported, but it can also be converted to another form
like syngas and then later on to other types. The amount of Nitrogen oxide, sulphur dioxide,
particulates are less, and mercury is not present in natural gas, as reported in 1998. Thus,
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natural gas can be considered very environmentally friendly fuel. It releases less pollutants to
the environment than other fossil, fuels like oil and coal, and should always be given the
preference.
So natural gas production in demand, if we see this scenario, the primary producers of natural
gas are the USA and Australia. Russia, Qatar, or ASEAN are the primary importers. China
has increased the use of natural gas to that of coal power plants. So, the primary use of
natural gas in China is replacing coal and using natural gas as a source of energy. India has
increased its use of natural gas significantly. So, India also needs natural gas now. The
European Union has completely stopped the use of coal-based power plants, thus switching to
natural gas and lesser carbon emission sources. Altogether what it says, due to the nature of
natural gas, natural gas is being considered in several countries as a source of energy,
especially for electricity generation due to less emission, but it depends on the availability of
the natural gas in that region. Natural gas can be transported or imported and exported from
one point to another. For example, the United States imports natural gas and exports natural
gas. So, in part of the country, importing another part is exporting. Because of the nature of
the natural gas, it can be transported either by a pipeline in the form of LNG or some other
form.
It becomes important, yes natural gas can be used as a very effective environmentally
friendly source of energy, but is it available or not. Similar when natural gas is available, in
what form it can be used, are the pipeline are installed there, or it is just being flared to the
atmosphere. So, import and export business will be going to govern how effectively natural
gas can be utilized to produce the energy.
When we talk about the future of the natural gas industry, the nineteenth century was
considered the century of coal that supported the initiation of the industrial revolution in
Europe and, in fact, the rest of the world. The twentieth century was the century of oil. First,
coal was used for energy generation later on oil in the twentieth century, especially for the
support of the global economy because of the transportation fuel. At the end of the last
century, natural gas took over the position of coal as the number two energy source behind
oil. So now coal is being replaced by natural gas and especially in the electricity generation
sector. Natural gas is now becoming the premier field for the world economy because of its
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environmentally friendly nature, and due to imposing carbon taxes and carbon emission
releases, the world is moving towards low carbon emission fuels and, natural gas is getting a
good place in that segment.
Natural gas is superior to other energy sources, not only economic attractiveness but also
environmental concerns. If we see the natural gas industry's future, it depends on several
factors, such as where and how it is produced, conventional or unconventional production,
importing, or exporting natural gas. Having a local market for natural gas or one is supposed
to install the facilities to utilize natural gas and how the advancement is happening in terms of
the technology development to utilize natural gas.
For example, fuel cell technology, in fuel cell technology, we need hydrogen. That hydrogen
can be produced from methane + H2O, this process is called steam reforming. If it is done,
for example under nickel catalyst at a temperature range of 800 degree Celsius and 600 PSI,
it produces H2 + CO. The conditions can be modified by developing the technology,
developing the catalyst, suitable catalyst, reducing the temperature and pressure requirement.
But because of this steam reforming of methane, we can produce H2, that can be used for fuel
cell, and carbon monoxide. That carbon monoxide can go through the reaction, CO + H2O at
some catalyst, and some temperature and pressure condition, mostly it happens at
atmospheric pressure condition to form H2 + CO2. So altogether, by having methane as a
source of fuel or source material or a feedstock, we can perform this steam reforming and can
produce the hydrogen for fuel cell technology. If this technology can get an advanced
significant amount of natural gas will be required. Similarly, for the GTL, like Fischer-
Tropsch synthesis, if a better advancement can be done to use effectively gas to convert into
liquid, more natural gas will be required, and when it is getting more need, the business can
be set up effectively, and the price can be reduced significantly. Advancement in technology
development for LNG and GTL, pipeline infrastructure, again that I said, how it is being
transported, that's also a matter of its business development.
In today's lecture, we have seen there are significant possibilities of using natural gas as a
premier fuel source. Because of the environmental concern and its availability in the United
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States and several other countries are meeting their energy need with a significant quantity of
natural gas. So, it is already established, natural gas is a much better cleaner fuel than the
other fossil energy sources like oil and coal.
With this, I would like to end my today's lecture. In tomorrow's lecture, we may continue a
similar discussion, or we will also cover the phase behaviour of natural gas. As it is said,
natural gas is a mixture of hydrocarbon and non-hydro carbon. So, when dealing with natural
gas under the PVT or thermodynamics behaviour like pressure, volume, and temperature
conditions. When the conditions change, how natural gas will behave will be understood with
the help of the phase behaviour studies. It is a liquid phase, or it is in the gas phase, or it is
sharing some part of the liquid phase. Some parts of gas-phase depend on the temperature and
pressure conditions. With this, I would like to thank you for listening to the video. We will
meet in the next lecture. Thank you. Thank you very much.
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Prof. Pankaj Tiwari
Module No # 01
Lecture No # 02
Introduction to Natural Gas – II
Hello everyone, and welcome to the class of natural gas engineering. In today’s lecture, we are
going to continue our discussion of the introduction of natural gas. Before we discuss the phase
behavior, let us summarize what we discussed in the last class.
In that class, we discussed several aspects of natural gas engineering, from its exploration to its
business. We started with natural gas definition, its share in the world, then how natural gas as a
hydrocarbon source or a fossil energy source is going to play a major role in meeting world
energy demand and a particular country. The future can be predicted for natural gas based on the
published reports. They provide us the guideline based on certain models, which particular
component of energy is going to lead in the future, and in which sector the major contribution
will come. We discussed these aspects with respect to natural gas in the fossil fuel energy
domain or in a carbon-constrained world.
We also discussed the utilization of natural gas, means, from its feedstock, as well as fuel
properties, then how this can contribute to several sectors in the form of direct energy or indirect
source of the energy like, for generation of electricity natural gas can be used as a fuel. Similarly,
for fertilizer and petrochemical synthesis, natural gas can be utilized. Another aspect we
discussed is fuel cell technology, where the natural gas can be used to produce the hydrogen that
is the feed for the fuel cell.
Natural gas industry, we discussed from its byproduct to fuel to choice. So we discuss natural gas
engineering aspect where the people were not aware about it engineering aspects, where people
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not aware about its characterize as of fuel. Earlier, it was just a byproduct of other process like
coal mine, oil exploration. When the natural gas is being produced, either it is using locally, or
before that, it just flares to the atmosphere.
Over time, this became the important choice as a fuel and people, researchers across several
countries are exploring not only the conventional natural gas but also several unconventional
sources, considering natural gas is having a good future as a fuel and feed stockfor several
materials. We discussed the environmental concern also, that is within the fossil fuel comparison
like oil and coal, environmentally natural gas is more friendly, it releases no particular matters, it
has less harm to the atmosphere compared to coal and oil. That is why it is considered the most
clean fossil fuel energy source to produce the energy. We also discussed about the resources,
those could be conventional and unconventional resources. Conventional means the production
through this reservoir steam, the upstream sector, where several aspects are involved and, the gas
is being produced which is naturally stored in the reservoir domain.
Unconventional also, the gas is naturally stored in those domains, but the technology has not
been advanced up to the level and, coal bed methane, shale gas, tight gas, gas hydrate and other
forms are considered unconventional sources. It is believed that there is a huge amount of the
unconventional energy resources are available at several places, and if those can be exploited
effectively, there is plenty of hydrocarbon energy available still on this planet.
After that, we started understanding the origin of natural gas. So the origin of natural gas is
similar to the theory for the decomposition of organic matter that has been proposed for oil
generation. The organic material went through the temperature and pressure history, underneath
the surface over a geological time scale. The organic material got converted into coal, oil and
finally into gas phase.
To have resources like the fluid, gas, and oil, intact in the reservoir domain, there are three types
of rocks are required. Source rock, from where the gas will be producing, because of the organic
composition. Reservoir rock means, a permeable rock which allows the fluid to flow from one
place to another place and where they are getting big porous media or kind of bank formation
from where it can be extracted in a significant quantity. Furthermore, if there is no cap rock in
this reservoir rock, then the gas or the oil will come out to surface because of its own energy and
pressure energy. So there is, there should be a cap rock, that is holding this valuable reserve
underneath, and in a control, manner can be exploited while we reach to that resource by drilling.
That process of reaching these resources, especially natural gas, found at very depth, like around
70000 feet, mostly will find the natural. Moreover, to reach that point, it is very important, how
to find out the site where the drilling should be started. The business of natural gas process,
starting from exploration, several advance techniques have been developed. Those techniques
allow to predict very precisely the place where the well should be drilled to produce the natural
gas.
After finding the natural gas at a particular location where drilling is required then well will be
drilled. After well completion, natural gas production is started, the gas reaches the surface, and
surface facilities are required to refine this gas and take out the valuable compounds. The
remaining methane gas can be sent to pipeline or to consumer uses. Some impurities will be
separated out. When we talk about supplying natural gas to consumers, it is measured not only in
terms of volume but also in terms of energy-containing the gas being supplied to consumer
carrying. It is measured in terms of BTU, sometimes in therm also, the energy supplied to
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consumers is accounted. Conventional resources, we discussed how to classify the gas reservoir
based on the gas oil ratio, gas well, condensate well and oil well, are the major classification
based on the gas to oil ratio under the producing condition.
Future of the natural gas, it is discussed, if the transportation or the facilities or infrastructure can
be developed where the natural gas can be utilized at a place of interest from the place of
production, effectively. Well technology or the infrastructure can be developed, it may have a
bright future in terms of hydrocarbon energy resources. Other technologies, like fuel cell
technology, use natural gas in the form of LNG or convert this natural gas to liquid.
Before we go to phase diagram, let us discuss the conventional resources. Based on the
producing GOR, we can classify the well as gas well, condensate well, and oil well. The
reservoir is the particular domain where the possibilities of these hydrocarbon resources or, in
our case gas resources are high where we can drill the well and get the gas out.
This one type of anticlinal trap is shown here. There could be several types of formation
underneath. Those allowed the fluid, gas, oil, and water to be trapped which can be recovered by
drilling the well up to the location. Sometimes it may happen, the value is not at a particular
location like in this case, this is going like this, it is not going to hit properly or maybe a little bit
far away, then the decision needs to be made, we should stop drilling, or should also try
horizontal direction. Those are several aspects of those related to the exploration and well
completion process, and we are not going to discuss those in detail. However, what we discussed
about the natural gas is that it can be produced with the oil. When the well is producing oil, it is,
natural gas is associated with that well, and that could be the form of dissolved gas.
Gas is dissolved, when oil is coming to surface. Due to the pressure difference, gas comes out of
the oil phase or there might be a free gas. In the cap rock formation , when the oil is produced
after that gas is also produced, so it will be available freely in that reservoir domain.
Nonassociate gas, thats not carrying the liquid or carrying the liquid in a very small amount, is
called non-associate gas. Well gas, dry gas are the example of non-associate gas. Condensate
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gas, that is gas with high content of high liquid hydrocarbon. So when we have a gas which is
carrying higher hydrocarbon like C7+ and when it is being produced to the surface, those
because of the pressure difference, these are getting separated out in the form of natural gas
liquid and we are having the condensate gas type of the reservoir. This is the topic which we are
going to cover in today’s lecture in terms of the phase diagram.

So, before we go to the phase diagram, lets understand why the phase diagram is required.
Understanding the phase behavior of the fluid is required to export to different conditions,
especially in our case. Different temperature and pressure conditions, how the fluid will behave,
can be accomplished under the thermodynamic domain. How this particular fluid will go to gas
phase or liquid phase can be accomplished with the help of phase behavior study.
And based on that behavior, we can classify the reservoir, not only the gas reservoir but also gas
and oil reservoirs, which can be classified based on the phase diagram. This is very important,
because this phase behavior allows us to understand when the pressure is changing. For example,
here in the production system, where the reservoir pressure is Pe, the gas is travelling from Pe to
Pwf. Assuming it is under isothermal condition, and when the gas mixture, the hydrocarbon
mixture, the natural gas is the mixture of hydrocarbon and non-hydrocarbon gases, when this gas
is passing from a different pressure zone, it will behave differently.
Not only within the pressure difference in the reservoir domain, but from Pwf to Phf, and imilar
at this surface facilities, when it is going to meet the separator, will it behave differently. So with
respect to what is in the reservoir domain and the conditions at the separator, if we understand
the behavior, how the fluid, oil or gas is going to behave when it is travelling from reservoir
pressure to separator.
Over the time, the reservoir pressure will also decline. When the pressure changes within the
reservoir, phase plot will allow us to understand fluid phase behavior and allow us to provide or
adopt the appropriate mechanism for this hydrocarbon recovery mechanism.
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So the hydrocarbon recovery mechanism can be chosen based on the understanding of how the
fluid is behaving in a different temperature pressure zone. And the phase behavior mostly
understood by pressure and temperature behavior, PT behavior we call it.
Lets discuss the classification of oil and gas reservoir. A particular reservoir may produce the oil
or gas depending on three primary parameters: composition of the fluid produced, reservoir
temperature, pressure, and surface temperature and pressure, i.e., when the fluid meets the
separator.
These three things, composition, reservoir temperature-pressure, and surface temperature-

pressure, decide the classification of the reservoir fluid broadly. Broadly we can classify the
reservoir as oil reservoir and gas reservoir. We will discuss this later on. In terms of natural gas,
the unrefined natural gas, that is here in the reservoir travels all the way to the surface. Before it
goes to the consumer, it is just methane. So, the composition are also changing, and within the
reservoir also, we will see at the end of the class, the fluid that is being produced from the
reservoir, it is assumed like it is producing with the constant composition, and the composition of
the gas will remain constant throughout the production. However, if it is a different type of
reservoir where phase separation is happening the composition will also get changed. When the
composition is changing, everything designed based on composition will get affected.
Another application of phase behavior and where the phase behavior is going to help us is
production prediction. So we can predict the production if we understand well how the fluid or
the gas produced will behave in the future when the pressure declines in the reservoir.
So before understanding the complex behavior of this system, that is natural gas- a mixture of
hydrocarbon and non-hydrocarbon gases, let us understand the thermodynamic or the phase
behavior of a single component. Any component present in a system, we are going to understand
its behavior under different temperatures, pressure, and volume that we call the PVT behavior,
how it is going to be.
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In a 2D diagram, we always choose two parameters, for example here pressure versus volume.
For any component, it says, how we are going to achieve bubble point and dew point. Bubble
point means, first bubble of gas appears and dew point, last drop of liquid. Beyond this due
point, we have the gas and on the other side before the bubble point is reached, we have the
liquid.
So if we see here, for example we are having this pressure, liquid is there, and when we reducing
the pressure, what are going to see, first the bubble and then a constant line and then we are
going to hit the dew point, in this case only volume will change not the pressure and once we
reach the dew point, we are having the last drop of liquid is appearing. Here is the first bubble of
gas and head the last drop of liquid, after that we have the gas.
In this region, between in this region of bubble point and dew point, we are having the mixture,
which is an equilibrium. Generally, we understand PT behavior, we choose the PT behavior
instead of the PV behavior. And where we can say, with respect to pressure and temperature,
how a particular single component is going to behave. When it has the solid and vapor region,
liquid and vapor region, solid and liquid region. When it will be in the solid form only, when it
will be in the liquid form only, when will be the vapor form only. Our interest with respect to
natural gas is, in this region,when we are having the liquid and vapor.
So when we are changing the pressure or the volume, either we are reducing the volume or
reducing the pressure or increasing the volume or increasing the pressure or by varying pressure
or volume in any combination, we can change the phase of the component. It can go from liquid
to vapor, vapor to liquid, or condition where it exists at equilibrium. It means both vapor and
liquid phases are existing together.
So for a single component, again, with respect to pressure and temperature, we can see how fluid
behaves when the fluid is exposed when we have temperature and pressure. Single component
fluid is exposed to different temperature and pressure history. So we have the line called the
vapor pressure line. One side of the line, we have just a liquid phase, and on the other side, we
are having the vapor phase and, the point where on this line, where both liquid phase and vapor
phase are existing together.
And from this point, when liquid is going to convert into vapor because of the changes in
condition, this line will be called the bubble point curve and, by any means, vapor will change
into the liquid, this line will be called the dew point curve. Furthermore, the point, C here, is the
critical point, above which the gas and liquid cannot exist together. At this point, the temperature
scale is called the critical temperature and on the pressure scale is called the Pc.
Bubble point curve tells about changing the liquid to the vapor phase; for example, we are going
in this direction from the pressure to temperature. If we are increasing the temperature at
constant pressure, we are going to get the phase change from liquid to vapor. Moreover, similar
when we are reducing the temperature, the fluid passes this line or vapor curve line, and it will
change from gas to liquid.
So we can change the phase of a single component system just by changing temperature and
pressure. This phenomenon is just represented by one line that is called the vapor pressure line,
which accounts for both bubble point line as well as dew point line. The fluid is characterized by
a single point C that says beyond this point, and there are no changes where the gas and liquid
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can exist together. If we extend this for a two components system, here, I had shown the diagram
for multicomponent system, assuming there are only two components system. In this case, the
vapor pressure line is not a single line or the bubble point and dew point, they get separated. One
side, there is a bubble point curve, and on the other side is a dew point curve.
Between the bubble point curve and the dew point curve, there is a region called saturation
envelope or the phase envelope where both liquid and gas phases exist together. There will be
several lines; we called them the quality lines, which represent the amount of liquid in terms of
the volume. When we are at a particular location within this envelope, we can draw the quality
line. We can say how much percent the component mixture is in the liquid phase and how much
is in the gas phase.
The critical point is one above which the gas and liquid cannot exist together. The definition will
also be the same for this system. Two more points come here, that is the Cricandobar and
Cricandotherm that we are going to discuss separately. So for a two-component system, the
vapor lines just get spread and becomes kind of an envelope, where we can draw several lines for
the representing the volume.
Bubble point curve is the first bubble, so when we are changing the condition, a similar thing
will happen. When the liquid reaches this point, the first gas bubble will appear. As we go on a
constant temperature line, isothermal condition, we hit the point where the first gas bubble
appears, and as we go further down the amount of the gas phase increases.
Similar from this point, as we reach the dew point, the last liquid drop will appear, and below the
dew point curve we have only the gas phase.
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When it comes to hydrocarbon mixture, it represents different unique system. We will discuss
that thing. For a pressure and temperature history, when the hydrocarbon mixture is exposed, we
get two terms: Cricondenbar and Cricondentherm. Both are different from the critical point, if
you see, the critical point here. So the Cricondentherm simply says, the highest temperature at
which the two phases can exist here, so this is Cricondentherm.
Beyond this point, if the temperature is higher than this, we are only having the gas phase, no
matter what pressure is there. Similarly, on a Cricondenbar point, where we are having this point,
beyond that we are having only the liquid, it does not matter what temperature it is.
Corresponding to this Cricondenbar,we have Cricondenbar temperature, and similarly, with
respect to Cricondentherm temperature, we have Cricondentherm pressure also, which will help
to characterize the system.
Here we see several quality lines. Those are getting merge to a critical point, and when they are
merging at the critical point, they are reaching a critical point. The bubble point curve and dew
point curve are separated Again, we have the envelope here, as for the two components system or
multicomponent system, the envelope will also be there. The quality line will again represent the
percent of the liquid phase of that mixture when we expose the material to different temperature
and pressure history.
Other aspects that can be understood are the bubble point curve for the hydrocarbon mixture,
which says it separates the pure liquid. Here we have the liquid from the two phase region, that is
about two phase region, below the bubble point curve. So as the pressure reduces, reaching the
bubble point curve, and on further reduction, the first bubble of the gas will appear and, then the
phase will go to two phase region or the liquid will go to two phase region, where both liquid and
gas will be existing together.
Like the dew point curve, from here, we are entering into the two-phase reason. In that two-
phase reason, we have the condition where the gas will be converted into liquid. So here we have
just gas, and here we have the liquid. If we understand this, for the hydrocarbon mixture, I said
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that if we know the composition, we can draw this phase diagram. This phase diagram, the shape
of this phase diagram depends on the compositions if the compositions are changing the shape of
the envelope will get changed.
Furthermore, there will be very different shapes when the system produces different types of
hydrocarbon mixture. However, this is just a representation that says we have the bubble point,
dew point. Both the bubble point and dew point are going and emerging at a critical point. By
doing this, there is an envelope got created; within that envelope, we are having both gas phase
and liquid phase. Can we classify just based on this understanding what type of reservoir it is?
If we see, this is one of the examples; we have some specific reservoir fluid composition
obtained from experiments, we could establish its bubble point curve and dew point curve for
different temperature and pressure history. We got this envelope, inside this envelope we got this
several quality lines. Now, if we see, this is the critical point, if the reservoir temperature and
pressure on this point, or especially reservoir temperate on this part, we have the oil reservoir.
So, when the reservoir temperature is below the critical temperature of a hydrocarbon mixture,
we expect it is an oil reservoir. Moreover, it is higher than that we are having a gas reservoir. Oil
reservoir also further classified in several segments like black oil, volatile oil condense oi means
near critical point oil. Similarly on the other side, the gas reservoirs are also classified as gas
condensate reservoir, dry gas reservoir, wet gas reservoir, depending on whether the reservoir
temperature, and pressure are falling on that envelope. Based on this chart, we can say that the
fluid will behave like this type of reservoir fluid at the temperature and pressure conditions.
For example, we are having this black oil, if P is always greater than bubble point pressure it will
always remain in the liquid phase and we just have the black oil in this region. When it is going
down, the phase will get changed. We are more interested in the natural gas class, on this right
hand side, when we are having this gas reservoir domain, and in that case, we can see this is a
critical point, from here we are having the gas, the gas reservoir and this is a dew point curve. If
we understand this in detail, we can classify that as a dry gas, wet gas or gas condensate. The gas
to oil ratio, the degree API, and the color of the fluid, which is being produced, sometimes like in
condensate reservoir, are going to produce the liquid. So the color, degree API and gas to oil
ratio can tell us which type of reservoir it is in the domain of natural gas. It is condensate, it is
well, or it is wet gas or a dry gas reservoir. We will discuss this one by one. So we understand
now, the dew point, and the dew point is here, and bubble point curve is here on this side.
Furthermore, within this envelope, we have the solution gas drive, say if reservoir temperature
and pressure condition are falling in the near to bubble point curve, we can say the solution gas
drive reservoir is there.
We have the gas, that is dissolved in the oil and that is kind of the driving force which make it to
flow from the reservoir to surface. Moreover, when we are close to this dew point curve, we have
the wet gas, it means some of the components of the gas phase got converted into liquid phase,
but still it is, the majority in the gas phase and we are having the reservoir of a wet gas type.
Here, I had shown some diagram for like, how a typical PT behavior. We go further, we see the
PT diagram for a multicomponent system, and it is just a representation, where the envelope may
take any shape, depend on the composition. So here, the liquid phase is just here, when we are
having more than 2000 Psi, and the gas phase is here, when we are having more than significant
32
temperature. Between this, we are having the quality line, two phase region, where the percent of
liquid and gas is changing.
The critical point maybe somewhere here. If we see for a particular component, for example, the
ordinary black oil, we see the shape get changed. As the composition of the oil which is
produced as the black oil, varies from C8 to C100, and more than that. So 100 and 1000
components are there. If we do the PVT or PT phase behavior study for the ordinary black oil,
we will see, like the shape of the envelope will be very different.
Furthermore, this is a pressure path line in the reservoir, so when we are in the reservoir domain,
we are at one point. When we are going to produce, the oil will also travel from different path
regions or when the reservoir pressure is changing. The pressure the fluid is going to experience
may be different, considering the isothermal condition. The oil will hit the bubble point line, and
then we have the two phase region at the separator when this the black oil is going to reach the
separator, what about the amount, smaller or large amount dissolved in the oil phase will come
out automatically.
So we will have the two-phase production, even the reservoir is just a black oil reservoir.
Now focus is on gas-type reservoirs, so we have three types, broadly classified as three types of
the reservoir: dry gas, wet gas, and condensate reservoir. There is another near critical point
reservoir, or sometimes the condensate reservoir is also called as a retrograde condensate
reservoir. Let us classify in just three broadly parts, dry gas, wet gas, and condensate reservoir.
The same diagram is here, which we discussed here. Now we can extend our study further. The
bubble pint curve and the dew point curve, both are emerging to a critical point. Furthermore,
you see a region between the critical point and Cricondentherm. This region is called the
condensate region or the retrograde region. Furthermore, this is always covered by the shaded
33
region. This is a unique phenomenon that is an exhibit by the hydrocarbon mixture only; we will
discuss a little later.
. (Refer Slide Time: 32:17)
Based on this diagram, we can say that if the temperature is too high and that happens when we
go underneath, around 17000 feet or below that, the temperature is so high that we mostly get the
gas reservoir. So if the reservoir is at a very high temperature, beyond the Cricondentherm, we
are going to get only the gas reservoir under the reservoir condition.
Again, the gas will travel from that high temperature-high pressure reservoir region to surface, it
will be facing different temperate and pressure zones. So we have to specify the condition that
condition says under the reservoir condition. Beyond the Cricondentherm, the gas is always in
the gaseous phase, and we can say this is in the dry phase. We will discuss the dry phase again.
When we come down here, between the critical and Cricondentherm, we have the condensate,
and when we are within this envelope somewhere or near the dew point curve we have the wet
gas reservoir.
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So the phase envelope for natural gas can be very different depending on the compositions, if we
are changing the composition the phase will get change. The envelope represents how the
mixture, hydrocarbon mixture is going to change, when we are having the different pressure and
temperature exposure, will get different shape.
Let see here, for a wet gas we have this PT diagram, here is the liquid, here is the gas and when
we are going to get the wet gas reservoir, let us see, we are starting here. The reservoir pressure,
temperature is at point A. We know at point A, this is just a gas, because it is beyond
cricondentherm temperature. Beyond the cricondentherm temperature we are supposed to get the
gas reservoir.
Now, the pressure will change because the production is happening. When the production will
happen over the time the reservoir pressure will be depleted. When we assume there is no change
in the temperature that is not going to be the case. But let us assume the reservoir is under
isothermal condition. When we are reducing the pressure, what we will see we are going to go
like this and that’s happen, if we see here in the dry gas reservoir, we started producing here. We
are saying there is no change in the temperature, only pressure is reduced in such a manner that
the pressure or the line that is drawn for changes in the pressured is by any mean not going to
envelope, it is not going to the envelope side, temperature is not changing, just it is going like
this, we are going to have only the dry gas reservoir. So the dry gas reservoir's primary content is
methane. This is because the composition of the gas or the product is such that they had created
an envelope, where the pressure was reduced at a constant temperature. Hence it is not going
inside the two-phase envelope.
And the compositions are primary methane with little or no heavier compounds present. There
will be some compound present, but not in a significant quantity. Mostly dry gas reservoir
produce small amount of the water. Either surface temperature falling out side the two phase
envelope or the surface pressure-temperature conditions are falling outside the envelope, the gas
doesn't get out. It is going to cross the dew point curve, and will become the two phase system.
No formation of NGL, when it is not crossing the dew point curve, does not form any liquid
substance, has no natural gas liquid present in it. While in the case of a wet gas reservoir, as we
go down, the pressure changes. Because of depression, fluid travels from reservoir to wellbore.
Now when it travels to the surface, the temperature may get also changed. When the temperature
is changing the path line, reservoir pressure or path line will shift like this. When shifting,
crossing the dew point curve, reaching the two phase region, it is going to emit the liquid out of
the gas. We are going to have the liquid drops out once gas reaches the surface.
The surface condition, when we said here, for example, the separator where the temperature and
pressure are within the envelope, it means the gas will go to the liquid phase also. We are going
to get the two-phase system, and that gas produces under that condition is called the wet gas and
the reservoir is called a wet gas reservoir. It becomes very important when we want to run the
gas well under the wet gas condition or under the dry gas condition. That can be controlled by
precisely understanding the phase behavior. We will discuss how it can be useful and how it can
be a drawback.
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When we talk about the retrograde region, in the retrograde region what happens, between the
critical point and Cricondentherm, there are several quality lines, and when the fluid or reservoir
condition is between these critical temperature and cricondentherm temperature when pressure is
reduced at a constant temperature, it goes through the two-phase region and intersects several
quality lines. When it happens, a retrograde kind of behavior occurs; when we reduce the
pressure, the gas is going to hit the dew point curve, it should go to liquid part, now when we
further reduce it goes to vapor part.
See here, like from here it is going to 15% liquid now it is going to 10% liquid some of the liquid
got re-vaporized. This is a unique phenomenon that happens only in the case of the hydrocarbon
mixture. This kind of reservoir is also called condensate reservoir because of this retrograde
nature because they produce liquid. Sometimes they also called as the retrograde condensate
reservoir.
Because, not only they are producing the liquid at the surface that happens in case of wet gas
reservoir also, we are going to get the liquid on the surface, condensate on the surface in case of
wet gas reservoir, but in this case of reservoir in the retrograde kind of reservoir, we are going to
get very complex system where the liquid will further get re-vaporized when it is going to hit the
low pressure region and becomes very complexes system.
If we are not having a good understanding about the phase behavior, we are not understanding
when the gas is going to liquid, when liquid is going to gas when we are changing just a pressure
and, imagine when we are going to change both temperature together the line may go very
differently depend on temperature and pressure as we did for the wet gas reservoir.
When wet gas reservoir the pressure was declining isothermally. When we said, temperature is
also changing the quality line or the pressure path line just change and enter the two-phase region
and cross several quality lines. Between the dew point and the vapor point where liquid re-
vaporizes in the region of retrograde condensation, it is shown the shaded part.
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Liquid condensation forms from the condensate well around the wellbore, so what exactly is
happening from the high reservoir pressure the fluid is traveling to wellbore? Now it is going to
hit the low-pressure region the flow is happening, because of the pressure drop. Pressure drop
down there, then only the flow will happen, and because of this pressure changes, because the
pressure is changing assumption isothermal condition, we are going to get some of the gas,
getting converted into liquid and when there is liquid is getting converted near the wellbore
region it is going to form an oil bank near the wellbore region, and when the oil got accumulated
near the wellbore region, it is going to reduce the effect the permeability for gas passes, when
gas is not able to pass, it means it is reducing the recovery of the gases or other way it is ceasing
the production. Production is not happening at the desire rate because the effective permeability
for the gas got reduced. A bank of oil got formed near the wellbore region.
Another problem comes in the liquid loading. When this liquid just goes through the wellbore
and the gas is coming, it is not having enough energy to carry over the liquid and start getting
accumulated. While the reservoirs is a dry gas reservoir, but when it goes through surface
facilities, a production facility between it passes through the several temperature pressure zones
and similar happen in the wellbore.
Within this wellbore, liquid got accumulated, and the gas just not having enough energy to carry
over this liquid. Under those cases, several actions should be taken, like injecting the gas or
shutting the well for sometimes. Let it get equilibrated. Or some other means should be adopted
to reduce the liquid loading. That conversion from gas to liquid may be useful also.
Because the reservoir, those are having such kind of the behavior, those can produce liquid while
they are classified as a gas reservoir, the liquid is having more value than the gas, so if we are not
able to take out that liquid, which got converted near the wellbore region, for example, we are
going to lose the quality material inside the reservoir. We want that liquid is getting produced to
the surface, but sometimes we do not want the production is getting ceased. That is why it is
always a challenging task when we deal with the natural gas production system.
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So, in summary, phase diagrams study allows us to understand the hydrocarbon recovery
mechanism. They should be adopted to have a better production prediction as well as having
the profit, running the well under the profit condition. We understood the dry gas reservoir, a
wet gas reservoir, and condensate gas reservoir. The way to produce the reserve from a
reservoir that is initially beyond the cricondentherm temperature, which means it is
completely a gas reservoir. We also discussed the transition from the gas reservoir to the wet
reservoir and how it can condensate the gas well reservoir.
Furthermore, when it is condensate gas well reservoir, how effectively it should be produced,
so we are not losing the valuable product inside the reservoir, similar we are not going to
cease the production also. Understating the near wellbore gas condensate flow is very
complicated, and it is important to optimize the production of gas condensate reservoir. So
the gas condensate reservoir is one of the complex domain of natural gas production.
Here we can see that, like natural gas is being produced, here is the region where the liquid
loading may happen, here in the region when the oil bank may get formed. Based on the
understanding, several actions can be taken to account for or understand the effective
production mechanism that can be adopted. With this, the natural gas introduction chapter
ends. We are going to discuss some of the techniques that will be required when we are going
to understand several aspects of natural gas production, processing, and transportation.
For example, in the previous slide, when the natural gas is getting produced from this region
to Pwf, from Pwf from Phf, we set up the mathematical equations. Sometimes the
mathematical equations or most of the time of mathematical equations are complex because
the fluid properties will get changed based on the local temperature and pressure condition.
As the fluid or gas is being produced, it will face different temperature and pressure
conditions. Because of that properties will get changed, when the properties are changed, the
parameters that depend on the properties will also not be constant.
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Prof. Pankaj Tiwari
Module No # 01
Lecture No # 03
Introduction to Natural Gas – III
Hello everyone. This is the third lecture on the introduction to natural gas.
In this lecture, we will understand some of the mathematical techniques that will be useful when
we go further in our class. So let us revise what we studied in the second natural gas introduction
class. We discussed the phase diagram in detail. We started with one component system; when
only one component is present, we have the phase behavior, PVT diagram, and specifically PT
diagram. When we are changing temperature and pressure, how a component can go to the vapor
phase to the liquid phase and liquid phase to the vapor phase.
A line representing the separation is called the vapor pressure line and the dew point and bubble
point both are the same when the single component is present in the system. We extended our
discussion to a two-component system or multi-component system or specifically for
hydrocarbon mixture or system of multi-component systems composed of several hydrocarbon
components.
In that discussion, we had an understanding of when the mixture is considered for phase behavior
study or specifically on PT diagram, it creates an envelope. That envelope have a bubble point
curve on one side and the dew point curve on the other side. They just coincide at the point that
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is called the critical point. Compared to a single component critical point, there is no highest
temperature or highest pressure in multi-component system.
The highest temperature point were beyond that only the gas will be available or the system will
be only in the gas phase is called cricondentherm. Similarly, when the system is above that
pressure, it will always be on the liquid phase irrespective of the temperature.
We understand cricondenbar and cricondentherm. We also understand how to classify the

reservoir based on the phase diagram that depends on the compositions of the gas or the fluid
being produced, at what condition means reservoir condition and surface condition the fluid is
being considered. The shape of this envelope will depend on the composition; if we are having
the different composition of the mixture, the shape will be different.
Based on that, we can classify, what shape this particular envelope is taking. It is going to a
liquid side or more towards the vapor side if we consider the fluid at a reservoir condition. Our
case is more specifically towards natural gas. So natural gas reservoirs are classified as dry, wet
and condensate. It means the reservoir pressure initially is somewhere here, which is beyond the
cricondentherm temperature.
The reservoir condition is here, so for example, if it is here point A, this is a gas reservoir
because the temperature is beyond cricondentherm temperature and we are isothermally reducing
the pressure we are always getting the gas phase only. But there might be a situation when it is
entering the two-phase system we will be having the wet system or wet gas system.
Then will be a situation when the initial reservoir temperature and pressure are somewhere here.
Specifically, the temperature is between critical point and cricondentherm. If this is the situation,
isothermally we are reducing the temperature, then the system will pass through several quality
lines and those quality lines will say the phase change is happening the gas is going to liquid or
some part of the gas is going to liquid when it is entering in the envelope and further reducing
the pressure the liquid is getting re-vaporized.
This behavior is reversible compared to what single compound represents. That is why it is
called retrograde behavior. It produces liquid at the surface facility or when the pressure reaches
within this envelope condition. We call it the retrograde condensate gas reservoir. If the
conditions are very near to very critical point, it will pass through several quality lines it means
the system will be changing it compositions very frequently from gas phase to liquid phase,
liquid phase to gas phase.
This will be very complex phenomena to understand when exactly the pressure and temperature
are going to affect the compositions, and how the fluid is going to change from gas phase to
liquid phase and vice versa. The problem comes when the phase change is happening near the
wellbore region, near this region liquid gets accumulated, the liquid which comes out or dropped
out from the gas phase is getting accumulated, reducing the permeability for the gas, ceasing the
production of the gas and create a problem.
Similar may happen in the pipeline where the pressure and temperature are reaching up to certain
point. When the liquid is coming out from the gas phase and chocking the wellbore or creating
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different type of two phase flow system where it is required to understand how to deal with this
kind of problem, called the liquid loading problem.
With this understanding of phase behavior change, when the fluid is traveling from the reservoir
to surface, different temperatures and pressure zone, and how it is changing the phase, it is very
important to apply the proper mechanism for controlling the production? How to control a liquid
product produced from a gas reservoir is very important for predicting production behavior in the
future.
This also very important when we are designing the surface facilities especially the separator
when this fluid is coming to the surface it is going to be in a dry gas like this kind of the A point
it is going to be a wet gas when it is entering in this region phase envelope, and it is going to be a
condensate or retrograde condensate type of fluid where we are having a sudden change of from
vapor to liquid, liquid to vapor when we are changing the pressure.
That’s because very important. We will discuss this in the class of separator. When this
condensation happens or retrograde condensation happens, certain mechanisms can be applied
based on the experiences, understanding of the reservoir. This tells us or provides us certain
guidelines for taking appropriate measures, appropriate action to avoid the ceasing of production,
and sometimes recovering the valuable production like the liquid that is more valuable than the
gas. We are not leaving them in the reservoir itself.
That can be done by having the gas cycling, whatever the gas is being produced on the surface
can be re-injected into the well. This will change the compositions of the fluid within the
reservoir domain or in the wellbore that will allow the liquid to come out to surface with the gas.
Others could be injecting some solvent that could be gaseous or liquid solvents; those allowing
the liquid to come out to surface or artificial lift mechanism can also be applied.
So with this understanding, we can say if we understand the phase behavior from the reservoir
temperature-pressure to surface temperature-pressure. We can classify the system or the
production well at the separator based on the GOR, gas to oil ratio, what type of reservoir .it is. It
can also be understood with the help of degree API of liquid, it is producing for example, the dry
gas reservoir will produce no liquid, wet gas will have some very transparent liquid and
condensate will be having fluid of around 45 degree API.
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So GOR, API, and color can also distinguish the type of the reservoir or gas reservoir. I
would like to introduce to you some of the techniques that we are going to use very
frequently when dealing with natural gas classes. The need for this technique will start from
the beginning itself. We understand how to calculate the properties of the natural gas, how
the natural gas is being produced, how we are treating the natural gas, and how we are
transporting this natural gas to consumers.
Some mathematical tools are required to solve the mathematical expression that represents
each of these phenomena. So one of the techniques is the trapezoidal rule. This is to integrate
any function which we are going to get in your complex system of mathematical equations.
The system is very complex because the properties are functions of composition. When
compositions are changing, properties will get changed. Properties are changing certain
parameters will get changed. When parameters are changing the behavior or the nature of the
mathematical equations, those are presenting particular phenomena such as IPR, WPR and
CPR or any other will also get affected.
So the trapezoidal rule is a technique for approximating the definite integral and in this
technique, the area under the curve is measured, for example, we are having this kind of
function f(x), that supposed to be integrated from a to b with respect to x. So f(x) is integral, a
is the lower limit of integration,b is the upper limit of integration if the function is very
simple like we can integrate analytically. We can do that putting the limit. We will get the
answer or we will get what the area under this curve is.
For example, if it is represented by f(x), what is the area under this curve can be easily
calculated if this function f(x) is having an analytical solution or a very simple solution.
Certain cases, when the analytical solution either very complex or not available, we can still
integrate that thing.
In that case, we can use trapezoidal kind of rules, or there are several integration processes.
Trapezoidal is one of them and one of the simplest among them. We can integrate
considering the trapezoidal shape of the curve. We can use this formula, which says the area
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under this curve can be represented by b – a function value at a + function value of b divided
by 2.
So the average of both the function values multiplied by the range over which this area is
distributed, from a to b. We can do this. We can calculate the f (a) value, this function value
at a, we can calculate function value of b. When we are having like large area to be integrated
with what we can do to improve the accuracy of the calculation, we can divide this in several
segments. For example, if this area is divided in n segments and each segment has the width
of h, it is calculated by (b – a) / n.
n is a number of the segments; we are going to divide this x axis, for example. y axis is y =f
(x). So what we can do, we can calculate x(n+1) means next , just x(n+1). We keep adding h
increment in each and calculating the area using the same formula for that one segment,
second segment, and all the segments.We add up all these segments area using the trapezoidal
rule. We can say the total area under this curve can be estimated with the help of this formula.
Where A is the approximate area of this curve equal to h is a ((b – a)/n )/ 2, then we have the
value at one point means a. This is kind of f(a) , this is f(b). All the intermediate terms we are
having should be added up and multiply by two and this will give us the area. You will find
the application of this trapezoidal rule at several places specifically when we are going to
discuss about one of the mathematical way of representing gas property, is called pseudo real
gas pressure, that is defined as m(p) and that is mathematically defined as integration of (2p /
(Mu z )) dP.
Here you see, we are integrating with respect to P, but Mu and z both are not constant. They
are the functions of pressure, and for such kind of the system when we are integrating from
any base pressure to pressure of interest, we can divide this Pb to Pa in a small-small
segment, calculate the value of Mu and z between that small segment, we can calculate the
average properties of Mu, average values of z and submission or cumulative summation of all
these small integrant will give us the value of m(p) at that pressure of interest.
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Another technique that we are going to discuss is Newton Raphson methods. During the
course, you will find there are several situations or several mathematical equations with this
kind of the function, where x, the parameter of interest which we are supposed to calculate is
a function of itself like x is appearing on the left hand as well as on the right hand side. This
appears in IPR, this appears in several formulas where we need to do some iteration
procedure or optimization procedure to find out the root of, or the value of x that satisfy this
equation.
One of the simplest techniques is the Newton Raphson method or Newton method. This
method is based on the simple idea of the linearization. A recursive algorithm can be adopted.
Recursion means you are using the new approximation based on the previous approximation,
whatever the value you got in the last step, you are using that value as the new value for the
next step. So this is a stepwise procedure where iterations are performed, Newton Rephson
can provide us the value of x that should be used.
If it is just a simple first-order system, we know how to solve the equation and get the value
of x if it is a quadrating nature, we can get the formula. We are having even the polynomial
of third order or even up to fourth order we can solve it or when it is very complex in nature,
not necessary it is just a polynomial it may be in the log form, may the exponential form or it
may be a combination of anything, in that situation having a numerical method in hand is
very good to calculate the root of that equation or the value of the parameter which satisfy
that equation.
So in the Newton Raphson method, what we do, first we rearrange the equation given to us in
the form of f (x) = 0, take everything on the left-hand side, make right side 0. We are in this
situation, what we do, we start solving it by choosing suitable initial guess. That initial guess
is very important. For example,this is having this kind of shape when we know this
intersecting this x coordinate at r location. Means r is the root for this equation. y = f(x). we
want to know the value of r, means the value of x = r where this curve is intersecting x
coordinate.
But we do not what that value is. We can initially guess some value, for example, here it is x1
some literature it start from x0. Let us say we are starting first iteration if the guess value, that
x1 when we know x1 value, we can calculate this point on the curve. this is x1, f(x1), if it is
x1, this is f(x1). By having the tangent principle or the tangent on that point, we can guess the
new value x(n + 1) and that x(n + 1) is x2 for the first iteration, that x(n + 1) = x(n) – f(xn) /
f’(xn).
f’(xn) will come when we are drawing the tangent on this point. So to calculate the next
approximation, we need first condition, second the function value at initial value, the
derivative of that function f',and evaluate the value of the function f' at that condition xn. This
gives the new value x(n + 1) by using this formula.
So when we get the new value x (n+1), we have to judge the value achieved as the desired
value or not, which means the value going to satisfy the function. We can judge either putting
that value in function saying f (x( n + 1)) is becoming 0 or not, means it is a root of that
polynomial or that function f(x) or not. Another way could be calculated in terms of the
absolute relative approximation error that says if the error is too low, or up to the decimal
point you want; we can stop otherwise, we have to repeat.
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Otherwise next step, next step simply says, next x(n) = x(n + 1) this is somewhere x(n + 1).
After replacing this, we are again here, we can calculate the value at the next step and we can
keep doing this, we are approaching more towards our solution, so we started from x1, we are
moving towards r and when the value is acceptable when the function value f(x) is 0 up to the
decimal point we want, we are okay and we can say this is the solutions of that equation. Or
this is the value of x that is going to satisfy that equation.
As I said, this is going to be faced several times in our natural gas class, so let us better
understand this for more time with the help of an example.
That examples says, now the function is x = 10 / 5 + x cube. The first step we know in the
Newton Raphson method is making it fx = 0. When we had f (x) = 0. Step 2 says, make the
initial guess, how to make the initial gas that is also critical, the initial guess decide how fast
or how accurate you are going to achieve the actual root. That can be done by putting a few
values of x and saying when it is coming negative, which means less than 0 and greater than
0. We can take, if it is the situation.
When it is one condition, it is negative another condition is positive, we can say the value of
root between these two limits, and we can take positive side and start the calculation. For
example in this case we are going to assume one value, once we assume that value based on
certain understanding, how to choose the initial guess, we can go to next step. Third, and step
third says, calculate the new value, because the value you had in your hand for x(n), that is
assumed value, may not be correct.
So for the next round, we have to go x(n + 1), that says, use this formula x(n + 1) = x(n) –
f(xn) / f’(x), you will get x(n + 1). Once you get this, fourth step calculate the error, it is okay
otherwise, go to step 5 replace the value put it in the recursive mode go back to step 3 and
start doing this thing. So the example I had chosen is that if we rearrange this, it will like f(x)
= (5x + x to the power of 4 – 10), simple and equal to 0.
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Now the job is how to find out the value of x that is going to satisfy this expression f(x). Now
we can calculate f’(x) is also that is (5 + 4x cube). So the Newton Raphson method depends
on the function we are having, can we go through under the derivative or not. So we got this,
f’(x) = (5 + 4x cube). Let us either write mathematical code in some mathematical language
or just go do work in the work sheet excel or some other.
So let us say here we did work in the MS office excel where iteration one says initial guess
that I had chosen 2, put up to certain decimal point for the accuracy to that x(n), I calculated f
(x) and f’ (x), because I already know how to put the value of x(n) and calculate using the
function f (x), as well as f’ (x),. Now the new value x (n + 1), I can use this formula, I got the
x (n + 1). Next is calculate the error, when I calculate the absolute error it came out as 27, not
acceptable, of course.
We have to go to next step, 2. This value x(n + 1) should come here, and when it is x(n)
becomes 1.567, certain decimal points, we have to calculate again f(x), f’ (x), and proceed
like this then only you will get x(n + 1), again calculate the error, it is okay, no, we can go
back to iteration number 3, where x3 is from the previous calculation x (n + 1), again
calcualte f(x), f’ (x), we will get new value of x(n + 1), and error is still significant high, 2
point something.
We are going to the fourth iteration; when we are doing the fourth iteration, error is 0.05%. If
you are satisfied you can stop here, if you want more accurate result, we can go to another
step, then the value of the function at that point is 0.000006 that means we almost find the
root of the equation that satisfy it up to five decimal point and the error is also very low that
is why we can terminate our iteration and can say the value of x is 1.345165, is the root of the
equation that we are solving.
Here we can see, from picture also, this is the functionality for this y = f(x), initial guess we
had taken around this 2, and from 2 we moved further and further and in fifth iteration, we
reached a point where it is intersecting this, and the value came out as 1.345. This is very
simple technique and it will be very required when we are solving several numerical
problems of natural gas engineering.
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I hope you understand these numerical techniques for finding out the root. We can have one
more simple way of doing something using the MS office excel platform where we can put
our function and target a value we want. For example, in the previous case we had adjusted
our parameter in such a manner, we want f(x) is going to 0, it means we can set up our
problem where the function value f(x) is targeted to 0 by changing the value of x repeatedly,
and that can be done if we go into MS office, go to data.
Here I have highlighted that part, it says if we go to data we will see this, what if analysis
mode here you will see 2, 3 drop down, one of them is goal seek, you just choose the goal
seek and you will be able to get this kind of the small window which says, set cell, means you
ou can write the expression here, which I had written in the B2. If you write that expression
(5x + x to the power 4 – 10) in this form you can just click that cell here, means you are
setting cell B2 to set value 0.
Because i want this function to be 0 and while changing the value of x0, initial guess, I have
taken here very high 10. I had chosen that thing. When I hit okay, the iteration will start, the
Xo value will keep changing, and while changing this value of x0, the function value will be
evaluated internally and finally what we are going to get the answer is, like this, that says the
function value is 10 to the power – 6, this almost 0, and at that condition, the value of x is
1.345164.
And if you see, at this condition the target value was 0, we achieved almost 0, means up to
then to the -6 point we reach, it means it is 0 numerically. And the value we are going to get
for x is almost same, up to 4 decimal point is same as what we got from the Newton Raphson
method. So this is one of the simplest convenient technique that is available in MS office, you
just need to write the expression in that particular cell, and that another targeted cell changing
that particular cell you are going to achieve the function value and, that function value not
necessary be 0 it can be anything.
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For example in second case, when I adjusted this f(x) in such a manner 5x to the power 4 =
10. I had written the expression here (5x + x to the power 4) and I want this function is
getting conversed to 10, by changing the value x. Similar, I will go to data, from data I will
go to what if analysis, and from what if analysis we will get this window. I will set my B2
again, set value now I will change, my set value is 10.
So it asks the set cell should reach what value, now I say it should reach the value of 10,
when I am asking this, hitting okay the solution will come out like this, it says the target
value was 10, the software or the internal iteration could achieve 9.999388 something and at
this condition the value of x is 1.3451. So same equation, we solve the same, the value should
also be same if we compare almost up to 3, 4 decimal points the value is same.
So with the help of this goal seek, we not only able to solve any function which should reach
0 value like in the Newton Raphson case we take everything on the left hand side and make
the function value = 0, but with help of goal seek you can target. I want to calculate at this
production pressure what is my flow rate, you do need to take everything on the left hand side
and making the function value 0 that is one of the usefulness of this goal seek tool in the MS
office.
Another thing which you will frequently face in natural gas calculations or in the numerical
part, having several correlations or the charts, these charts are developed a long time back
based on several experimental experiences, mostly those are based on the experiments
perfumed or the data collected from the field experiments. For example, here I am showing
for the viscosity. It looks very complex, it says, how the viscosity is the function of gas
gravity and molecular weight and this is the temperature data.
Now corrections should be made for the impurities like the nitrogen, CO2, and H2S present
in that. So if you have a gas mixture which is having hydrocarbon and non-carbon gases, you
are supposed to calculate the viscosity, even this is at one atmosphere, if you are supposed to
calculate at higher pressure you have to read this chart, or you have to use some correlations
those are developed out based on this chart and, you will often found those correlations need
some iteration.
They need come iteration. That is why the Newton Raphson method or the Goal seek
technique or the Macros those can be written in excel will help you solve such complex
problems. Another example could be when we are having very simple case of fluid is being
flown from the pipeline and when the fluid is flowing through the pipeline if we want to
understand the behavior of the fluid, we know we have to calculate the Reynolds number,
because Reynolds number tells us the flow is under laminar conditions or under the turbulent
conditions.
It is very much required, because the value of friction factor appears in the energy balance
equation. When we are setting up the problem for fluid flow through pipeline, we see the f
value depends on the Reynolds number. Based on the Reynolds number and the roughness of
the pipe or the other parameter we have to calculate the either the Moody’s friction factor or
fanning friction factor.
To have that we have to calculate the Reynolds number, and when we look, Reynolds number
is a function of Q. and Q is a function of temperate and pressure, it becomes complex
systems. Just to read a small chart, we can read that chart if we know the Reynolds number
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value, and the Reynolds number value depends on other parameter that is why it becomes
little bit complex problem when we deal some real situation like the real gas system where
the properties are function of temperature and pressure and when we are going to read any
chart or any correlation that depends on the range has been chosen.
So in summary, I would like to say the empirical correlation and chart will often appear in the
calculation and we have to understand, how to read those chart, and how to calculate the
parameter of interest using the correlations, those have been developed from these charts. The
correlation may be little different because the way the chart has been read. Dependent
parameters, and independent parameters are chosen to represent the complexity involved in
these charts.
With this, I would like to end my week 1, and we are here, like if we look the syllabus we are
here in week one where we just completed the introduction of natural gas classes including
the mathematical tools those will be required those during the course. Now from next week,
we will move further, we will understand the properties of natural gas those properties of
natural gas and reservoir will be required at each stage when we are moving further.
Third week will be dedicated to the flow through the reservoir to surface. We will develop
the first IPR equation this inflow performance relationship when the fluid flows from the
reservoir to Pwf through a porous media. After developing this, we will put our well under
the testing. So the week three will also include gas well testing techniques.
In week 4, we will move further and understand how this fluid or the gas is travelling from
the Pwf to Phf, This means this wellbore region how the fluid is travelling and from this
CPR, Choke performance relationship. We will develop WPR and CPR relationships and
understand the nodal analysis concept that allows us to understand our production system in
the form of nodes. With that within four weeks, we will be able to complete the production
system or the upstream segment of natural gas engineering.
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Further in week 5, we will understand the natural gas processing as well as the first
equipment the natural gas is going to encounter at the surface, is separator, we will be having
the understanding of separator as well as separator design. Further moving, we will refine our
natural gas by using the dehydration and sweeting processes. So week 7 will be on the
measurement of natural gas as well as transportation of natural gas from surface facility to
consumer in the form of either LNG or CNG or through the pipeline, special focus will be on
pipeline design.
In the final week, we will discuss some of the issues those we encounter in the natural gas,
conventional natural gas production as well as we will dedicate some time to understand the
unconventional natural gas resources, and finally it will be a review class that is where I will
summarizing all the content of this course. If you see here, more number of lecturers are
appearing so it may happens some of the lectures are getting merged. For example,the special
issue with the natural gas production may be merged with transportation of natural gas class.
Similarly, here, the measurement of natural may get merged with the compressor design. So
there may be a slightly changes in the structure of the lectures but altogether it will be twenty
hours lecture and we will try to understand all the aspects or we will cover all the aspect of
the natural gas production system.
During this course I had taken, the help of several books as well as several materials,
published or unpublished. I would like to acknowledge Guo and Ghalambor's textbook, or
reference book that we had chosen for this course, other books I had listed here, especially
Mohan Kelkar natural production engineering, T Ahmed reservoir engineering, and others. I
had collected the materials to prepare my slides and the content of this moocs course. Thank
you very much.
We will meet next week and, discuss natural gas properties, the estimation of natural gas
properties when it is a mixture of hydrocarbon and non-hydrocarbon gases. Thank you.
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51
Prof. Pankaj Tiwari
Module No # 01
Lecture No # 04
Properties of Natural Gas – I
Hello to everyone and welcome to the class of natural gas engineering. In today’s lecture we will
understand why natural gas properties estimation is important. How are they going to play
important role in overall dealing with natural gas?
So, if we go to our natural gas production system, we see the natural gas produced from the
reservoir. It travels long distances from a wellbore, bottom of wellbore to top, then separator and
several process units and then finally it gets transport to the consumer. So, if I say natural gas is a
complex mixture of hydro-carbons with a minor amount of organic compounds that depend on
field, reservoir, particular well.
So a particular field may produce a natural gas with different compositions, the compositions of
natural gas vary from well to well, and from during the processing, the one point to another point
from composition may vary. Not only the compositions, the operating condition like temperature
pressure also vary as natural gas is not an ideal gas, not a pure gas, it is a real gas compressing
gas thus the property changes.
The compositions, natural gas can be formed so when the natural gas is being produced from a
particular well, how to find out the composition of natural gas. The dominating hydro carbon of
natural gas and what are the impurities means, inorganic gases, CO2, H2S, nitrogen and other
traces amount are present in the natural gas.
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So the analysis of the produce gas can be conducted, can be performed with the help of gas
chromatography. In gas chromatography, we can inject the sample through the injector, with the
help of the column we can separate the different fraction of the gases mixture and the detector,
most probably it is a TCD, thermal conductivity detector or the Flame ionization detector (02:44)
for heavier hydro carbon can be used.
TCD allows us to deduct the inorganic gases like H2S, CO2, sulfur dioxide that are present. So
the compositions can be estimated with the help of the gas chromatography. Once the
compositions are known, the properties can be estimated with the help of well-established
fundamental expression, correlations, charts and some empirical correlations.
The estimation of these properties is very important as I already mentioned, the gas which is not
ideal gas it is a real gas, changes its properties when it travels from one condition to other
conditions. Thus, designing and analyzing natural gas production and processing, transportation
needs, and how the properties of natural gas are being changed. So in semantic, when I had
shown here, so, this is the condition where the natural gas is traveled from the reservoir to
wellbore then it travels all the way to, from bottom of the wellbore to top.
Choke devises, here at the top, CPR, we will come to know these terms later on in the coming
lecture. This is WPR. This is IPR. So see here the pressure and temperature are different here
again the condition got change here. The CPR that says the condition of the pressure or the point
where the production is controlled, the pressure will be different and because of the pressure
change the temperature changes.
And then it goes to separator, where you are separating the gas, liquid and water if the water and
oil is present in the, being produce with the gas and after the separator it goes to series of the
processing unit where we are separating the water or the water which could not be removed by
the separator, we go to sweetening processes, where we go to remove the acid gases like H2S
and SO2, H2S, CO2 and SO2. then it goes to remove of heavier hydrocarbons.
Because those heavier hydrocarbons are having more value than methane, they can be sold out
separately to generate the money like our LPG that is having more energy than the methane.
Here we are having the dehydration systems, sweetening system, removal of value-added
hydrocarbons, and then it is ready to send to consumers it is mostly pure methane.
When produced, the unrefined natural gases as a variety of the compositions include
hydrocarbon and non-hydro carbon gases. Now, when it is ready to send to consumers, it is
mostly the methane with trace amounts of ethane and, C2 and C3 gases. So now the
compositions also getting change. Thus at each point, when we are designing the equipment like
dehydration column, sweetening column as well as the pipeline for the production site like the
wellbore or choke conditions everything.
And similar on the transportation side, what size of the pipeline should be there, at what flow
rate we can do during the transportation, we install some compression station. The compression
duty required to compress the compress from one pressure to other pressure, all this depends on
what type of the natural gas we are dealing, what are the composition of that natural gas and,
what are the properties this natural gas is possessing.
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So if we summarize the properties and compositions of natural gas, I already mentioned
composition varies, when the composition varies the gas specific gravity also varies, pseudo
critical properties also changes with pressure and temperature Viscosity which is very important
property also changes, density, compressibility factor shows the deviation of the natural gas from
the ideal gas formation and expansion volume factor.
Heat of combustion,determines the energy contain. The natural gas is containing how much
energy, because once we transfer the natural gas to end consumer it is being sold in terms of the
energy it contains. That is measured either in BTU or therm. Measurement: When we are
measureming, when we are designing the measuring device, the properties of natural gas will
again determine several coefficient those required for the measurement.
With the help of any meter or device and transporting this natural gas the safety feature like the
explosive properties flash point, fire point, volatility, and flammability also need to be known.
For this natural gas, the lower explosive limit is around 5% and maximum or upper explosion
limit if 15%, it means when the natural gas in air, the concentration of natural gas aie is 5% or
less than 5% it would not burn and when the concentration is more than 15% again it would not
burn.
So the flammability ranges, 5 to 15%. And all these are required for the evaluation of gas
reservoir and gas well, what is the potential of the gas reservoir? What is the potential of gas
well? What is the total gas in place? And what rate the gas can be produced. The production,
prediction, future performance all depends on the estimation of these properties. In this
subsequent lectures, you will see how important these properties are because the properties
depend on the operating conditions.
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That is why the complexity comes when we derive the analytical expression based on the
fundamental understanding of the system, the equation those come out are very difficult to solve
and that is why knowing this properties as accurate as we can, is very important to predict the
performance of each and every process as well as predicting of the future of a gas reservoir, the
processing like I mentioned, separation and other processing units.
For these safety features, the ASTM methods can be used, those are standard methods to be used
to understand the explosive properties, like flash point, fire point. But for the other properties, we
will try to understand the mathematical expression that allows us how to estimate all those
things. The natural gas production, when natural gas production started long back the properties
was estimated in the form of a very complex chart.
For example, if the viscosity is measured, it is measured under different temperature and pressure
conditions in the laboratory. The chart has been developed that accounts not only for the changes
in the temperature-pressure but also for different percent of the inorganic compounds in the
natural gas. So we will try to understand how those complex charts have been used to develop
mathematical expressions.
So now, what is the use of understanding all these properties? For example, as I mentioned,
actual gas is the real gas, not ideal gas, even the density of a natural gas that depends on the
compressibility defector. The compressibility factor should be known if you want to know the
density of our gas, which is the mixture of several hydrocarbon, non-hydro carbon gases. It
depends on the constituent of the natural gas it is being made.
Flow in pipe, so when the natural gas is flowing through the pipeline either during the production
time or during the transportation time, the compressibility and viscosity are two very important
parameters and, both depend on temperature and pressure. If they are changing, the flow in the
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well or the behavior of the gas in the well or in the pipeline will also change, that is also I
mentioned the pressure drop and pipeline for both in the well as well as in the pipeline, the
behavior will be different.
Again temperature also changes in pipeline, and when the temperature is changing, the heat
capacity value tells about the heat losses happening. When we are changing the pressure, for
example at the choke device, suddenly because of the Joule Thomson effect, the temperature
goes down and that determines how much energy is lost. Do we need to heat the gas to maintain
the temperature, so that it is not going to form the gas hydrate and several other places, the heat
capacity is also required.
You will see all these when you go in further lectures at a particular point when discussing the
well performance, when we discuss chock performance, or designing the separator, or while
discussing the transportation of natural gas by pipelines. Such other properties, like molecular
weight, need relative density, specific gravity, or other way that the property can also be
estimated in other ways like performing the laboratory measurements.
The Reynolds number needs density and viscosity. The Reynolds number is defined as
rho.v.d/Mu, and but when we convert this thing even in the quantity those are known, still we
need density and viscosity, and density can be converted with the help of some other known
parameters in some other term but is still we need to know compressibility or viscosity to define
the Reynolds number which determines the flow under certain condition is in the laminar region
or in a turbulent region.
Not only to understand the flow regime, even to calculate several properties like friction factor
we need to know the Reynolds number value. So that Reynolds number value depends on the
density and viscosity or in the flow rate. Thus, all these things need to be known or the as much
information about the natural gas that should be known to deal with all the processes involved in
the natural gas business.
Properties of pure compounds, so if we see, as already mentioned, the composition of the natural
gas varies from hydrocarbon to non-hydro carbon. In hydrocarbon, let us see, they are in the
range of this C1 to C7, they could be in isoform or could be in the normal form also. But most of
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the natural gas are dominated by the methane and the subsequent percent of other hardware
carbon C2 C34, C5, C6, C7 and non-hydrocarbon gases N2, CO2 and H2S.
They are the non-hydrocarbon gases. These are hydro carbon gases. So when we are dealing with
these kind of the compositions, those are part of the natural gas, we need to know the properties
of these compounds to estimate the mixture properties. aPure compounds properties can be found
in several reference books like, Ahmed book of the reservoir engineering, even the Economides
data collection, or even in any thermodynamics book. E.g., you can find out the properties of
pure compounds like the properties of methane, what is it is molecular weight, what the critical
temperature is, and the critical pressure.
All these compounds in the pure form can be found in the literature. Here I just gave an example
of the compositions of natural gas those compositions mostly dominated by the methane. The
natural gas means methane, with other hydrocarbon gases and non-hydrocarbon gases and the
percent of this methane various, other compound percent, just in very low compared to methane
and some percent of the inorganic gases.
This is one of the example of the compositions of natural gas and this composition of the natural
gas can be obtained with the help of gas chromatography or by other means also which can tell
us what are the composition or the number of moles of individual compound, a component
present in the mixture.
So with the help of knowing this information, what we can do, we can understand how the gas
law will be applicable to natural gas as mentioned. Natural gas is not an ideal gas. So PV = nRT
is not going to be applicable. If it is a pure gas like methane even up to certain point or are at low
pressure it may behave like ideal gas. But at a very high pressure, and having a different mixture
of hydrocarbon, non-hydrocarbon gases, our natural gas follows the real law. In real law we are
having this term, where this Z compressibility factor is accounted for the deviation from the ideal
behavior, so the compressibility factor Z that shows how much deviation, our natural gas is
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having if it is assumed to be ideal gas. Our natural gas mixture under reservoir condition is non-
ideal at a very high pressure, it is a completely non-ideal gas.
And when we talk about reservoir condition, most of the time information is transferred to some
known conditions, those are this reservoir standard conditions and the standard conditions are
pressure, means pressure value is 14.7 PSI and temperature value is 520 degree, those should be
in the obsolete term so the temperature either represented in the form of degree ranking or degree
Fahrenheit, either in the form of degree ranking or degree Kelvin not in degree Celsius or degree
Fahrenheit.
These are the absolute value and when you are here having the data in other forms to convert into
obsolete value to apply to gas law. So this compressibility becomes very important because that
compressibility says how much volume, especially the deviation in the form of the volume and
the natural gas is having, and the natural gas which is under the investigation is having from the
ideal gas law.
And, if we look in the literature, we try to find this deviation of the natural gas from the ideal
gas, there are several charts are given a long time back and those charts are very complex in
nature, because they are showing, for example, here just for the hydrocarbon gases. So if
assumed, the percent of the non-hydrocarbon gases are in the trace amount or not present at all
we have to use this kind of the chart, and this chart says the compressibility factor can be
determined if we know this pseudo reduced pressure and pseudo reduce temperature, that is here.
So if you pseudo reduce pressure here, and pseudo reduce temperature here, we can use this chart
to get the compressibility factor. So let us see this chart is divided in two parts, this is one
separate and in this way the reading of pseudo reduce pressure is from one to 8 here, and from 7
to 15 here. So the chart is same, upper side and lower side it is just a representation of the pseudo
reduced pressure on an extended scale.
Here is up to 8 only, while here its start from 7 to 15. At a particular reduced temperature of a
mixture, remember these are the pseudo reduced pressure, or pseudo reduced temperature means
these are the mixture properties,that is why the pseudo what has been used. The pseudo reduced
means pressure divided by critical pressure or temperature divided by critical temperature. So to
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know these chart to read this chart, first we need to know what is the pseudo critical temperature
and pseudo critical pressure values of the natural gas.
So if we know those things, with the help of this complex chart we can get the compressibility
factor, but again this chart is only for the hydrocarbon gases if we are having the non-
hydrocarbon gases present in our sample, or in our gas, we have to go to some other chart.
Standing and Katz report this chart for the hydrocarbon gases in 1942. They have done extensive
laboratory investigation to develop this chart.
If the non- hydrocarbon gases are present in the natural gas, the correction has to be applied
for the natural gas compressibility factor, which is calculated assuming there is no non-
hydrocarbon gases are present. So if the gas gravity or specific gravity with respect to air of
natural gases is known with the help of pseudo critical temperature and pseudo critical
pressure, this chart can be read and the value of compressibility factor can be corrected for
different inorganic gases like N2, CO2 and H2S. Each time we have to apply one correction
factor to correct the value. Again this the complex chart and, this chart need specific gravity as
well as pseudo critical temperature and pseudo critical pressure. (Refer Slide Time: 21:01)
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So when long time back when this chart were developed, there was not computational facility
available to read this chart and develop some mathematical relations, but several researchers
have put lot of efforts to make very complex expression or the correlation those can replace the
chart and those correlation can be used directly in a mathematical frame work to calculate the
value of the properties like the compressibility factor, in this case, similar we will see for the
viscosity also.
Another, for the inorganic gases, Wichert and Aziz in 1972, they said, for the inorganic gases,
only they had considered, CO2 and H2S, they said with the help of this chart you can estimate
this Epsilon 3 and this Epsilon 3 can be used to correct the value of critical temperature and
critical pressure, so these are the corrected critical value of pressure for the mixture which
accounts for the presence of the inorganic gases, but only for CO2 and H2S.
So with the help of this chart, knowing to the value of CO2 and H2S, again to read this chart, we
need to know the percent of CO2 and percent of H2S. Only this chart can be used to correct the
values, what we corrected is Tpc, has been corrected to T’alpha. This T prime pc, sorry this Ppc
has been corrected with the help of this T’ and I think this should be Tpc and Ppc, this has been
converted to corrected value of critical pressure.
Similarly for the viscosity, if we are going to estimate the value of the natural gas's viscosity,
again remember, natural gas is a combination of hydrocarbon, non-hydrocarbon gases, mostly
dominated by methane. Even in that case also, when the gas gravity is known and molecular
weight is also known, with the help of this chart at a different temperature we can estimate the
viscosity of the natural gas at 1 atmosphere, this is 1.0 means 1 atmosphere.
We can calculate the viscosity of the natural gas. The viscosity will change when the gas is
exposed to a high pressure condition, but at one atmospheric condition, the value of viscosity at
different temperatures can be obtained with the help of this chart. This chart also suggest how to
apply the correction factor for H2S and N2 and CO2.
So this chart is given for natural gas viscosity at one atmosphere, where Carr at el in 1954, they
also develop another relation for elevated pressure condition. They said, once you have the value
of reduced pressure, sorry here reduced temperature and reduced pressure. You can calculate the
viscosity ratio. The viscosity ratio is simply viscosity at elevated pressure divided by viscosity at
one atmospheric condition.
So with this chart, we can get the viscosity at one atmospheric pressure with the help of this. We
can get the viscosity ratio, knowing both the values, and calculating the viscosity at elevated
pressure condition. Again, reading this charts is very complex, so before understanding how the
mathematical correlations will be useful, let us understand how the simple properties required to
read this chart can be estimated.
This is very important because if you see this chart the correlation has been developed from this
chart only and to read this chart we need to know how to calculate the molecular weight of
natural gas? We need to know what is the gravity of the natural gas? How to calculate the critical
pseudo critical temperature and pseudo critical pressure of the natural gas?
All these chart are in the form of these parameters and these will be again reflected in the
mathematical expression or the correlation, mathematical model, develop to estimate
compressibility factor and viscosity or any other properties if that is the function of critical
temperature, critical pressure, specific gravity, molecular weight.
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So let us go one by one to understand these things. Before going further let us see one more
properties again developed by Carr et al for the viscosity of gases at one atmosphere, they said
for a different pure gases, even the pure gases the viscosity changes with temperature, even at
one atmospheric pressure and the gas viscosity changes with temperature and you can see
viscosity increases with increase in temperature. Similar behavior viscosity increases this
increase in pressure.
We will come back to understand all these things, these are just to show, why there is a need to
understand how to calculate the basic properties of the natural gas, just to understand viscosity
compressibility factor and some other parameter. We will revisit viscosity, compressibility factor
later on.
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So let us see, let us start with first property, that is the specific gravity, so gas is specific gravity
is denoted by Gamma g,, this is the ratio of apparent molecular weight of a natural to that of air.
So it is simply in a mathematical term, Gamma g, that is gas specific gravity is a ratio of
apparent molecular weight of natural gas. We need to know the composition of the natural gas,
applying the mixing rule or the chain rule, we can estimate the apparent molecular weight of the
natural gas, that will give the numerator and, the denominator is the molecular weight of air,
either we can take value 29, or we can calculate this with the approximation of assuming air is
just composed of 79% nitrogen and 21% oxygen. Other gases are in the traces amount and not
counted, with the help of that if we calculate the molecular weight of air that turns out is 28.97,
that can assumed approximately 29.
So the apparent molecular weight of the natural gas, as I mentioned, if we know the composition
of each and every compound present in the natural gas, yi is the mole fraction. So we convert the
information of the composition of natural gas in terms of mole fraction, multiply this with the
respective molecular weight, and summation for all compounds present in the gas. We can get
the accurate molecular weight.
We will do a numerical calculations to understand this, so I already mentioned, yi is the mole

fraction of component i and MWi is the molecular weight of compound i and Nc is the total
number of the compounds present. So we have to do the summation for all the component
present. For pure methane if we calculate for a pure methane, the value of specific gravity
gamma g will come out as 0.55.
This is very simple calculation, The apparent molecular weight of pure method is 16, or 16 point
something if we go with more accuracy, divided by 29. If we do this, it will come out around
0.54 or 0.55. And for a rich or heavy gasses, the composition of the natural actual gas is
dominated by higher percent of the higher hydrocarbons like C2, C3, C4, the apparent molecular
weight will increase in the same proportionality the specific gravity of the natural gas.
So for heavy or rich gases the value may reach up to 0.9 or even further, how to calculate yi,
either perform the gas chromatography, know the area, convert that area in mass percent. From
mass percent even convert into mole percent or mole fractions, So, yi, is ni / n. ni is the number
of moles of component I, divided by n total number of moles, total number of moles of natural
gas and with the doing this yi, we can also calculate the partial pressure of component i in
mixture just applying this Dalton’s law. Okay.
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So important point is knowing the compositions, that says even if we want to calculate any
properties of natural gas at atmospheric condition or STP, standard temperature and pressure
conditions, we need to know the composition of the natural gas. If this is dominated by methane
,99% methane then we can roughly calculate it the properties just assuming it is methane or
otherwise we need to know the compositions.
If we go further, as I already mentioned, these properties are called Pseudo properties because
these are the properties of a mixture not of a pure compound, critical because the critical
temperature and critical pressure are the pressure where gas and liquid can adjust in the
equilibrium. So for pure compounds, these are available methane, ethane, propane, CO2, H2S,
these are available in the literature.
For the mixture, if we know the mole fraction of each compound as in the case of the molecular
weight, and the value of yi, we can multiply the mole fraction with their respective critical
pressure and critical temperature to get the values of critical pressure, pseudo critical pressure
and pseudo critical temperature. Again this called either the mixing role we can call it is a mixing
role or chain role. So for both the cases similar expression can be applied to know the critical
properties of a mixture, we call them pseudo critical properties of natural gas.
So let us take example, it says if the compositions are given, calculate the apparent molecule
weight, Pseudo critical pressure, and Pseudo critical temperature of the gas. So first thing
should be known is gas compositions. For example, the gas compositions can identify with the
help of any lab measurement technique like gas chromatography or something and let us
assume the same number as I had put that which as shown in earlier slide. (Refer Slide Time:
31:48)
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C1 to C7 are the hydrocarbon gases, with this percent, dominated by methane relatively
dominated by methane is present and N2, CO2 and H2S are also in the significant quantities,
they are appearing in the analysis. So we know the gas compositions, what is the next step, we
can apply the mixing rule to calculate the apparent molecular weight, pseudo critical
temperature, pseudo critical pressure. Once we know apparent molecular weight, we know we
can also calculate the specific gravity.
So on the side of this solution, let us say we are having the compounds, we know the
compositions or the mole fractions of those compounds with present in the natural gas and the
summation of mole fraction should be 1, that I did here the summation and its say okay the
calculation done for calculate the mole fraction is correct and from the literature, from the
reference book, or from other sources, I know the molecular weight, critical temperature or
critical pressure of individual pure components present in the natural gas.
So what is the next step, I can apply the mixing rule and calculate individual yi multiply by
molecular weight. I can get the data to get the apparent molecular weight and I just need to do
this summation over this. I will get this value. Similar for critical pressure, and critical
temperature, I can calculate individual compounds fraction and do the summation over it, I can
get the value of critical temperature and critical pressure of the mixture.
So simple calculation, and knowing the apparent molecular weight here, I can divide this with
the air's molecular weight, I can get the specific gravity of my natural gas. That is so simple
calculation. Why I had shown this calculation because you may write one excel program or a
MATLAB program or any program where we can identify, you can list down all the possible
compounds that could be present in the natural gas with their properties from the literature.
And whenever you are given the set of data in terms of compositions of the natural gas, you just
need to enter that, the calculation can be done automatically and you will get the parameters like
these, specific gravity, molecular weight, apparent molecular weight, the specific gravity, critical
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temperature, critical pressure by just entering the data. Otherwise every time, if I change the next
time the compositions, I have taken another sample of the gas and the composition changes.
For example this changes to 0.81, and accordingly other compositions will also get change
because the summation of the mole fraction should be one. And in that case, if it is done by hand
or it is done not in a proper manner you have to repeat the processor again and again, and you
will see when we will go further all these are very important steps to reduce the work load in
more complex system when we need to understand more and more details of more complex
parameter involved.
So better from the beginning from this first example itself, we start writing our own excel
program or in a MATLAB program and whenever the data are given, we can calculate. For
example, if you see any chart composition got changed if a natural gas of different compositions
is given to us, and we want to read those charts again we have to calculate critical temperature
and critical pressure, thus writing program in the excel or MS office excel is very important.
Now let us see, how Pseudo critical properties of natural gas can be estimated. If we know the
compositions of the natural gas, there might be a possibility when the composition or unknown
but specific gravity was told to us. So the data are given to us in the form of specific gravity not
in terms of the compositions, then how to calculate the critical, Pseudo critical properties of
natural gas.
So correlation for Pseudo critical properties can be used. This temperature and pressure can be
determined from various charts or correlations developed in the past. This correlation has been
developed based on this chart, and we can see if Gamma g is given to us. That is specific gravity,
with the help of this set of the parameters, those are very simple linear expression or linear
relationship between the pseudo critical properties, and gamma g can be used to estimate the
pseudo critical properties.
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Just we need to put the gamma g value the specific gravity, because it is known to us we can get
this value. But there might be a situation when these are not valid. These correlations only hold
good when we have, the H2S is less than 3%, nitrogen is less than 5% ,and total content of
inorganic compound is less than 7%. Only these correlations are good enough to use. But if the
situation is not like this, the correlation with impurities correction for mixture pseudo critical
properties has been proposed by Ahmed in 1989.
Ahmed said, improved the position of nitrogen, CO2 and H2S in the expression and use of
gamma g. Because this properties are known to us, you can calculate the Pseudo critical
properties of the mixture, and pressure and temperature. But again to use this expression for the
correction impurities, we need to know the compositions or the percent of the mole fraction of
those impurities and to N2, CO2 and H2S as well as gamma g should be known to us.
The mole fraction of CO2 or H2S are known to us, with the help of this chart we can correct the
pseudo critical properties. We can calculate the Pseudo critical properties the type of this Guo
and Ghalambhur method, and this is a very simplified method and these values Tpc and Ppc can
be corrected for the inorganic gases, presence of the inorganic gases with the help of this Epsilon
3. Epsilon 3 can be read from this chart and we can get the correction, Wichert and Aziz propose
this in 1972.
Further, this chart has been read in a mathematical sense and it says if we know the percent of
H2S in CO2, and let us say percent of mole fraction of H2S is B and mole fraction, submission
of mole fraction H2S and CO2 is A, we can put in this manner, A and B and can get directly the
Epsilon 3 instead of reading the chart we can calculate the help of this correlation and this
correlation has been developed form this chart only. So using this we can go back and correct
pseudo critical temperature and pseudo critical pressure values.
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Several correlations have been developed, so reading the chart developed when the
computational facility were not developed, we were forced to use only the charts and read the
charts. With the information required to read these charts like the critical temperature, critical
pressure specific gravity and the percent of the inorganic compounds present. Later on several
researchers have put lots of efforts to develop several correlations, last slide has some two
correlations here you can see the several correlations.
This is the same, Guo and Ghalambhur correlation that we have started discussing. this is linear
relationship between the critical properties and the specific gravity gamma g, Sutton in 1985, he
had developed the correlation and that correlation is a quadratic form of the gamma g to estimate
the critical properties, pressure and temperature.
Each model that has been developed or the each correlation that has been developed based on the
chart are having certain limitations. The particular data set has been used to develop those such
relationship or they hold good only within certain limit of the other parameters like what is the
percent of the organic compound present? What is the specific gravity of gas being handled? For
example let us go one by one Sutton in 1985, he has a quadrating expression in form of gamma
g, and this correlation is good when we are having the gamma g in the range of 0.57 to 1.68.
And the gases are rich, the gas sample are rich in heptane+ with minor amount of CO2, N2
should be present and there should not be any H2S present in the sample. So if this conditions,
we are having the natural gas with this condition, we can use this Sutton correlation to calculate
the pseudo properties. And if nitrogen is less than 5%, H2S is less than 3%, and total inorganic
compound is less than 7%, we can always go with the Guo and Ghalambur and this is the
simplest form of calculating the pseudo properties.
Standing 1981, he had given similar expression as with the, as given by the Sutton, but in this
case the coefficient got change because the data has been used from the other source and the
correlation of this standing are good only without non-hydrocarbon gases. If the natural gas is
not having, is without non hydrocarbon gases the standing expression should be used instead
of the other expression. (Refer Slide Time: 42:57)
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Similarly, other expressions, 2000 and 1989 by Ahmed they also had also given, both, this is
the quadratic form and these are suitable for gas condensate system, we are dealing mostly
with the dry gas or gas with the very small amount of the liquid present. So mostly this
correlation give a more reliable value for the gas condensate system.
Ahmed 1989, we have already discussed that if we have the information about the individual
compound of inorganic gases mostly the nitrogen. Mostly the CO2 and H2S we can use
Ahmed expression to calculate, and this is applicable for mixture with impurities such as
nitrogen, CO2 and H2S should be present in the sample. I think this should be N2, sorry for,
this should be N2.
So the Ahmed 1989 expression is good when Ne, CO2 and H2S are present as the impurities
and knowing the percent N2, CO2 and H2S we can calculate pseudo properties. This should
be N2.

So other correlations are in the form of pseudo reduced pressure or pseudo reduced
temperature. We can get these natural gas mixture values just at what pressure the natural gas
is divided by the pseudo critical properties of natural gas. Similarly for the temperature, and
knowing the pseudo critical value we can calculate the pseudo reduced value both for
temperature as well as pressure and they are important because some correlations are given in
the form of pseudo reduce conditions.
So let us summarize, what we learnt today. Apparent molecular weight can be calculated if
the mole fractions of individual compound are known. Gas critical properties like pseudo
critical properties like pressure and temperature can be known with the help of known
compositions of the gas or the mole fractions of the gas. If gamma g is given to us instead of
the compositions, we can still calculate the critical properties depends on the other
information available or known to us. We can calculate this and after knowing the critical
properties we can also calculate this pseudo reduce pressure and temperature of the natural
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gas. With this I would like to end the lecture here, and in the next lecture we will understand
how to estimate the viscosity, compressibility factor and some other important properties of
the natural gas that are important in designing, processing and transporting natural gas. Thank
you very much for listening to the lecture.
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Prof. Pankaj Tiwari
Module No # 01
Lecture No # 05
Properties of Natural gas-II
Hello to everyone and welcome in this lecture of properties of natural gas II, we will understand
some more properties of natural gas and how to estimate those. So let us quickly revise what we
had learned in the last lecture.
So natural gas is a complex mixture; its composition depends on field and reservoir.
Composition may vary from light hydrocarbon like C1 to C7 along with non-hydrocarbon gases
like CO2, N2, H2S, the trace amount of SO2 and others. Some are the sour gases those need to
be treated before we are sending it to consumer. So from the production side to the consumer the
composition various because of the field conditions because of the several processes applied to
refine the natural gas.
The analytical techniques can estimate the composition of the natural gas. One of the analytical
techniques is gas chromatography. If the composition is known, We can estimate several
properties at different temperature and pressure conditions. These properties estimation can be
done with the lab measurements or using the correlation developed in the past. Our objective is
to know the properties of the natural gas that are required when we are dealing with the natural
gas.
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There are several properties required at different stages. However, we will deal some common
properties as we did in the last class. The other properties like solubility of the gas in the water
will be treated when dealing with the dehydration steps, the heat capacity, and heat related
properties. When we deal with cooling and heating the natural gas or compressing the natural gas
when its temperature and pressure condition are changing, it will be understood.
All these are required from the designing point of view because from the production to
consumer, several equipment’s need to be designed to handle the natural gas and all these
designing things require the properties of material to be handled or when it is a following system
what are the flow properties of fluid those should be known. So with this aim, when the variation
in properties happen throughout the process it is well required to understand how to estimate
those properties.
So let us say, we are having this production system, half of the part is shown here, where we are
having upstream part where natural gas is being produced from reservoir to separator. In fact
before the separator is the upstream segment, from separator till processing point it is mid-
stream, and when we are transporting the natural gas it is a down-stream segment. So the
reservoir fluid that is gas in our case is being flown from porous media, traveling in the pipeline,
facing the choke device, and then the separator, several dehydrates, sweetening processors, and
finally transportation through the pipeline.
It requires answering the following questions. What is the composition of gas? What is the
specific gravity of the gas? What is the viscosity? When we are flowing any fluid we need to
know the viscosity, what is the compressibility factor of the gas because the gas is not, the
natural gas is not ideal gas it is not compressible gas we need to know and the other properties
like formation and expansion volume factors those relate the amount of the natural gas from one
condition to other condition, must be known, how to establish the correlation for this.
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Here, I have shown different properties estimation needs in some detail, that need to be known
before we can estimate, for example if we want to know the density we need to know the
compressibility factor. Knowing the compressibility factor itself is a cumbersome job. However,
knowing the density needs compressibility factor and that is why knowing the defector natural
gas becomes a tedious job.
We discuss all this thing in the last class, so let us go quickly, so pseudo critical properties
,because most of the correlation given in the literature or given in the reference text book those
are laboratory measurement observation and have been put up in the form of charts and the
computer cannot read those chart, it is very difficult to quickly measure the properties that is why
the correlations have been developed several by several researchers.
And we had seen in the last lecture that the correlation, such as pseudo critical and pseudo
pressure measurement from these charts, depends on several other factors and those are very
tedious. We had seen the linear relationship between the gamma g, specific gravity and the
critical properties, quadrature form are there, more complex form are there and as well as not
only specific gravity those depends on the impurities present in the system.
So if we know composition of the gas thoroughly, we can calculate via the critical properties by
the mixing rule otherwise we need to know some of the properties of the natural gas we are
dealing like the specific gravity gamma g and CO2 and N2 and H2S. In this chart, we can see, if
we know the gas gravity, we can measure the pseudo critical temperature and pseudo critical
pressure of that gas.
Of course that will need to be corrected for presence of N2, CO2 and H2S and if we know that
things we can estimate the critical properties, and knowing critical properties is very important
because with the help of critical properties we can read several charts, with the help of critical
properties we can convert them to reduced properties like reduce temperature, pseudo reduced
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temperature, pseudo reduced pressure and some other charts those are given in the form of
pseudo reduce pressure and pseudo reduce temperature can be made readable.
So let us quickly summarize, what we learn in the last class of gas, specific gravity, the ratio of
apparent molecular weight of the natural gas divided by the molecular weight of air. We can
calculate the apparent molecular weight by chain rules similarly chain rule can be applied to
calculate the critical properties of the mixture or when gamma g is given, specific gravity is
given we can use some correlation of the quadratic form of the linear form, to establish the
critical properties and then those can be converted into reduce pressure, pseudo reduces pressure
and pseudo reduced temperature.
So now let us go ahead, in this lecture we are going to understand the viscosity and or some other
properties. let us start with the viscosity of natural gas. As we know natural gas is not a pure
component gas, if it is purely methane we can use several simple correlations existing in the
literature or charts those can allow us to understand the viscosity of natural gas, when it is a
mixture problem becomes little complex.
This chart shows the viscosity value in a centipoise for a different gases at a one atmospheric
pressure it is reported by Carr et al at 1954. Viscosity depends on temperature and on a pressure
as well as chart is given for only one atmospheric condition. If the pressure is changing, this
chart needs to be replaced by another chart and, it simply says when we are having the
temperature variation, the viscosity is also changing. So the viscosity of any fluid is a measure of
resistance to flow.
So whenever we have fluid to flow we need to understand the viscosity of that fluid, in our case
our fluid is gas. So the viscosity of a gas is a measure of the resistance to flow exerted by the gas
and it is measured in centipoise and, centipoise = 6.72 10 the power -4 lbm per feet second. It
can be measured in some other unit also like Pascal second. The dynamic viscosity can be
converted to another property that is the Kinematic viscosity, and that is the ratio of dynamic
viscosity to gravity of the gas, and the unit for the kinetic viscosity is centistoke.
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The important part is, the properties of natural gas can be established if some other correlation or
can be established this with the help of the fundamental theory. Natural gas is not a pure gas. It is
a mixture, so the kinetic theory cannot be directly applied. However, for individual components
of the natural gas, the viscosity can be established with the help of some kinetic theory. We are
not going into details of kinetic theory of the gases or some other complex correlations given
what is the our objective is. If we know the composition of natural gas and, we want to know the
viscosity, the property of natural gas that is very much responsible for its flow behavior. In order
ot find the property at different conditions, we have to have some strategy, some correlations,
some charts, some fundamental understanding to estimate that thing. So dynamic viscosity is
reported in centipoise while kinematic viscosity is centistoke. So remember this unit, because
whenever the data are given you need to convert from one unit to other unit. So it is very
important, in what unit the values are given, most of the charts as I mentioned, are given with
respect to field unit system that is centipoise for this dynamic viscosity and centipoise is also
equivalent to, like CGS unit system.
Gas viscosity, as I mentioned, if I know the compositions, say mole fractions and, viscosity of
individual components in the gas, then by applying, again the mixing rule I can estimate the
viscosity of the gas. So to apply this formula Mu.g, the viscosity of the gas, I need to know the
individual component i viscosity, its mole fraction and its molecular weight.
Using this expression, for all components, it should be i = 1 to n, this should also be i = 1 to n,
we can get the mixture's viscosity. This is a common rule for any type of the gas mixture. If
compositions and properties of individual component at the temperate and pressure are unknown,
still we want to know the viscosity of the mixture, we have to go to literature, we have to find out
some correlations, some already existing charts those can help us at the elevated temperature and
pressure conditions or any temperature reference, any temperature and pressure condition you
want to know.
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So Lee et al., they have given a sort of expression or correlation to estimate the gas's viscosity
and that expression includes the molecular weight of the gas and density of the gas and others are
like temperature and pressure, we want to know. In these expression you will see the pressure is
not appearing but later on, we will see in one of the slide, we will see the density gamma g
depends on composition, it depends on the temperature as well as pressure.
So pressure is here implicitly in the form of the density, so the viscosity of natural gas will vary
with temperature and pressure using this correlations proposed by Lee et al we can estimate. So
either if we are having the composition known, molecular weight known, we can use this mixing
rule just to have the estimated property but again to know this we have to know the viscosity of
individual component at the temperature and pressure of interest and this MWg is apparent
molecular weight of the natural gas that is equivalent to this expression, 28.97 gamma g. 28,967
is the molecular weight of air.
So if we know the gamma g, we can calculate MWg, put in the expression we can get the
viscosity,again remember the numerical coefficient appearing here depend on the unit system has
been chosen. With the expression proposed by Lee et al, we can get the viscosity of the natural
gas in centipoise Rho g should be in the form of gram per centimeter cube, that why remember,
this units system is very important accordingly the coefficient will get changed. Pressure is in
PSI, temperature is in degree Rankine system.
So if we see further, is this correlation good enough? how accurately one particular method will
give us? so the Lee et al method, which we chose we just discussed is considered good enough,
to accurate enough to have the viscosity of natural gas. There are some other methods proposed
and very famous and, those methods are frequently used in the natural gas industry to estimate
the viscosity of natural gas, one of them is developed by Carr, Kobayashi and Burrows, is called
CKB method developed in 1954.
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This involved two-step process, so if we see the chart here, here it is reported, if we know the
molecular weight of the gas, natural gas and we know the gas gravity that can be calculated just
by knowing molecular weight, we can know the gas gravity. So the viscosity at one atmospheric
pressure and in the unit of centipoise can be estimated with the help of this chart but this chart is
for at one atmospheric condition only. But with the help of this, we can get at different
temperature, how viscosity is changing with respect to temperature at one atmosphere pressure.
Once knowing this, we can correct again for the impurities those are CO2 and N2 and H2S
impurities in the system, after knowing this the value of the viscosity from this chart first step is
complete, that says I know the viscosity of the natural gas at 1 atmospheric condition and at the
temperature of interest. Now we want know the viscosity at elevated pressure, that is the
temperature whatever we have or what the temperature of the interest that we had calculated the
viscosity with the help of the chart 1, this one, now we can calculate the Viscosity ratio and, the
viscosity ratio will be related to reduced temperature, this is reduced temperature, this is reduced
pressure. So if we know critical temperature and critical pressure of the gas we can convert them
to reduced temperature and reduced pressure using the pseudo reduce temperature and pseudo
reduce pressure. We can read this chart and calculate the viscosity ratio at that elevated
condition.
Elevated condition is the condition of pressure of interest, so with the help of chart one could
estimate at one atmospheric condition and in that temperature, with the help of chart 2 we can
convert that into the temperature of interest as well as the pressure of interest and this two-step
procedure can give us the viscosity at the condition we want.
So how to use this chart lets us understand the mathematical relationship given to read this chart,
which simply says the atmospheric pressure viscosity, Mu 1, can be estimated by combining
these factors. These factors, simply represent viscosity contribution because of hydrocarbon gas
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present, because of nitrogen, because of CO2, and because of H2S, and all are at atmospheric
condition and, Mu HC , this one for hydrocarbon just simply include gamma g.
Gamma G means the specific gravity of the natural and the temperature of interest with the help
that we can get the hydrocarbons viscosity, the viscosity of the hydro carbon present in the
natural gas or the viscosity fraction of natural gas because of hydrocarbons. Similar for the
nitrogen case, we are having the relationship where gamma g is again used and corrected this
value with the help of nitrogen mole fraction.
So this is kind of a correction in the value because of nitrogen presence. Similar corrections can
be made for CO2 and H2S. The numerical coefficients appearing in all these equations are
obtained by fitting the data, fitting different curve or different values to the curve shown in the
previous slide. Now, this two-step processor can give us viscosity at atmospheric pressure. Then,
in the next step, the value of viscosity can be adjusted to the pressure condition we want.
Now, to read the second chart for system we had in the previous slide, Mu 1 is the viscosity at
atmospheric pressure can be estimated with the help of this numerical expression instead of
reading the chart. Another is for the viscosity ratio or it is called the Mu r, the parameter that
relate the viscosity of the natural gas at the interest condition like at a particular temperature and
pressure we want. This is Mu 1 viscosity of natural gas at one atmospheric condition and the
temperature of interest.
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This expression simply say, and it is actually the representation of the second chart that we had
discuss in CKB method, here that says Mu r can be related to reduced pressure, pseudo reduced
pressure and pseudo reduced temperature in this complex form, where you are having one set of
the data of the reduced pressure in a polynomial of third order, then second set of the data for the
pressure in the polynomial of the third order multiply by the temperature.
Similar, here in up to T3pr, we are having this complex, and if the model is fit, we got different
values for this constant, those are appearing here up to c15. So a0 to a15, sorry a15, we have this
numerical coefficient, so what we can do we can write a mathematical model either in the excel
or in MATLAB or in a platform where we can include all these numerical coefficients, can
develop the relation for Mu r using this Mu r and previously develop relation for hydrocarbon
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viscosity and the corrections because of N2,CO2 and H2S, We can estimate the viscosity at the
point of interest, at the condition of interest, let us see how this can be done.
So once this Mu r is known and, Mu 1 from two slides back, we can get this Mu g, let us
understand this with the help of an example. That example says, natural gas with a particular
specific gravity 0.65, containing 10 % nitrogen, and 8% carbon dioxide, and 2% hydrogen. So
the compositions are known the hydrocarbon composition are known in the form of the gamma
g, while the impurities nitrogen CO2 and H2S are known in terms of the mole fraction given to
us.
And it is asked to estimate the viscosity of the gas at particular temperature and pressure, in this
case it is 10000 psia is a pressure 180 degree Fahrenheit is the temperature. So we need to
convert this 180 degree Fahrenheit into Rankin. Then we can apply the method that is asked to
be applied CKB method, that is two step procedure, in first step processor we can get the
viscosity at atmospheric pressure condition.
So let us see what is given to us, similar to whatever is written to us. You can develop your own
program, where you can quickly estimate the value of the viscosity, just by knowing the
information. For example, what are the compositions of the natural gas? what are the impurities
present in the natural gas and what particular temperature and pressure we are supposed to
calculate the viscosity.
So instead of going again and again on those expression, you can write a mathematical program
in excel sheet for that I am showing few steps. It says, what is given to us or should be known to
us to calculate the viscosity of natural gas, of course the temperature and pressure at that
condition,we want to know the viscosity. So that is given, 10000 psi, 180 Fahrenheit and the
gravity, 0.65 and the compositions, the mole fractions are given to us.
What we can do? We can calculate with the help of the correlations, we understood previously
how to calculate the pseudo critical pressures, pseudo critical temperature. If we know this, we
can calculate the gas viscosity at one atmospheric pressure that is 14.7 psia, we got this, we can
use those corrections for nitrogen, correction for CO2, correction for H2S so here the expression
is written, we just entering the data and getting this corrections because of impurities present,
and, once we add all these four what we get, the viscosity of the natural gas, because of hydro
carbon, nitrogen, CO2 and H2S at one atmospheric pressure and the temperature of interest, that
is 180F. Now we need to convert this viscosity to condition of interest that is 10000psi and 180
F. So what we can do, again we can again use that big correlation and to use that correlation, we
need to know this reduced temperature, pseudo reduced temperature and pseudo reduced
pressure.
If we can, once we know this thing, we can use that big correlation to get this value of Mu r. So
this is actually the value of Mu r. The value of Mu r, we can get. If once we know the value of
Mu r in this expression, this is kind of a ratio relationship, we can get the gas viscosity in the unit
of centipoise.
So I think it is clear how to calculate the viscosity using this CKB method. We understood the
Lee et al method and this CKB method, any one of the method can be modeled just to have the
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quick estimation of the quick and accurate estimation of the viscosity while knowing the
information required to apply those correlations.
Another important property is, compressibility factor, so the compressibility factor is a property
of natural gas that shows how much deviation natural gas is having from ideal gas so if we
assume ideal gas law, how this compressibility factors will represent much deviation in the
properties or in the quantity we are going to measure with the help of this ideal gas law, how
much deviation we will obtain.
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In very short term, compressibility factor reflects how much the real gas deviate from the ideal
gas at given temperature and pressure. So compressibility factor depends on temperature and
pressure as the temperature and pressure conditions are changing, the compressibility factor will
also change. Compressibility of course depend on the composition of the natural gas also. So by
mathematical expressions, it is a ratio of V, actual volume of the gas occupied divided by if the
gas is considered ideal gas, how much volume the same amount of the gas will occupy, and the
compressibility factor.
So the compressibility factors are that the gas law for ideal gas results in gas law for real gas. So
this is measure of how much deviation is happening or if we assume the natural gas as an ideal
gas, how much deviation, how much error we will get, error means how much deviations we will
get in the real or in the real data. The expression can be modified, the ideal gas law can be
modified as a pV = nzRT where z is the compressibility factor. The value of compressibility
factor can be measured in the laboratory but every time, like for example, in the case of natural
gas, if any one property is changing like the natural gas compositions are changing, any
temperature and pressure conditions changing, the value will get changed. So it is important to
develop some charts or correlations, that depend only on the properties of the natural gas like
composition of natural gas, and with the knowing the composition of the natural or that gas we
are dealing, we can estimate very easily, the compressibility factor value at different temperature
and pressure conditions.
So for example, at elevated pressure if we want to calculate the compressibility factor, this is just
simply is p1V1 / 14.7 V0, if and only if the temperature is kept constant. So this relation says, if
you have natural gas at atmospheric condition, that is the volume V0. If we compress it or
elevate the pressure to p1, the volume occupied by gas is V1 than the compressibility is p1V1 /
14.7 V0.
So in this kind of relationship, we can estimate the compressibility factor value at a particular
pressure, knowing the volume occupied by the gas. In this relation, we also need to know the
value of R. R is the gas constant, the numerical value is 10.73 psia feet cube fper mole degree
Rankine, and the numerical value gets changed, when we are using a different unit system.
For example, 8.314 when we are having the SI unit system. The standard pressure is 14.7 and
standard temperature is 520 degree Rankine. These values should always be known because
whenever we are converting properties from one condition to another condition, and if the other
condition is the standard condition we need to apply these numerical values for the standard
pressure and standard temperature to convert the expression.
And the R value, of course, most of the cases we are going to use 10.73 because it is a US field
unit system, and most of the reservoir system deals with the US field unit system. But whenever
needed we have to convert this value into the unit system of interest.
So let us go back to compressibility factor, this chart we had seen in the last lecture also, so if we
know the reduced pressure and reduced temperate, that is in terms of reduced temperature and
reduced pressure of the natural gas, we can calculate the compressibility of the natural gas.
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Instead of reading this complex chart, we can use some correlations. Very complex correlations
proposed in the literature,one of them is Brill and Beggs, that simply says, the compressibility of
natural gas, z can be estimated with the help of this correlation and that’s include A, B, C, D type
of the parameters. Those A, B, C, D are defined in the form of pseudo reduced temperature and
pseudo reduced pressure.
So if we know the pseudo reduced temperature and pseudo reduced pressure of the natural gas,
we can calculate the value of compressibility factor at the pressure and temperature of interest
with the help of this correlation. Here in, like D we are having this F. So F is defined here, and
similarly we can write mathematical expression for this system also to estimate the value of
compressibility factor quickly.
So for Brill and Beggs also one excel sheet could be written, and that should be done actually to
reduce the time consumption, every time we are going to deal with the similar system. So for
example, if just viscosity need to be estimated in p1V1 condition, we can do the calculation
when we are going to another condition, just even a small deviation like T2, p2 we have to do
again each steps, it is better to write mathematical code, it is better to write the code in the excel
sheet or in a MATLAB.
So this Standing Katz method, sorry this is Standing and Katz chart read by the Brill and Beggs
in 1974 and we got one mathematical expression to calculate the compressibility factor. Another
method is there, but before going to that let us understand how this methods Brill and Beggs
going to work. We are having almost same composition as in the previous example, in fact the
same composition, just only the pressure value got change, now we want to know the viscosity,
sorry the compressibility factor of nature gas at 5000 psia.
Estimate the compressibility factor at 5000 psi, temperature is 180F, gravity is given as 0.65, and
the compositions of the impurities are also given to us. So what we can do, just let us calculate
the critical temperature and critical pressure with the help of those values, and knowing the
interest temperature and interest pressure, we can convert them into reduced pressure and
reduced temperature.
Now we know all these things, those are required to calculate the coefficient appearing here
A,B,C,D. We can write for A,B,C,D and put in this expression we get the gas compressibility
again in the centipoise unit.
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Another method for compressibility factor is Hall and Yarborough known as HY method, it is
more accurate correlation, and that simply says calculate a parameter 1/Tpr, and if we know that,
we can also calculate similar for the pressure, pseudo reduced pressure, this is pseudo reduced
temperature, and this is pseudo reduced pressure of the natural gas of interest multiply this some
coefficient A and divided by another coefficient Y, we can get the compressibility.
So what are those A and Y, let us see, A simply says, if this correlation t = 1/Tpr can be used
here, in this form and we can get the value of A. All these are like, model fitting approach for the
experimental data or for the chart, they appear very complex that is why it is very important to
setup some mathematical framework to calculate these values very easily. Similarly, B can be
calculated, C can be calculated and D can be calculated, then when we need B, C, D, another
expression is there, for the Y, known as reduced density and that parameter has a numerical
value that satisfy this condition.
So in this condition, you can say here it is A, B, C and, D are appearing in the form of reduced
temperature because small t is just one upon pseudo reduced temperature. So if we know pseudo
reduced temperature we can calculate A, B, C, D and knowing A, B, C, D in this equation, we
can get a fourth order polynomial equation with respect to Y, and we can solve this, or we can
just optimize the value of Y that satisfies this equation, that can be done with the help of
Newton0-Raphson iteration method or Goal Seek method or trial and error analysis.
We can calculate the value of Y that is going to satisfy this condition, and once we know Y and
A values, we can use this expression to get the compressibility factor at temperature and pressure
of interest. Let us see if you are having the same example, as in the previous slid, we can
calculate the compressibility factor by using this HY method at the temperature and pressure of
interest, that is 5000 psi pressure and 180F temperature. The viscosity, if this is changing, 0.71,
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what we are going to get, we are not going to have much effect here, in this calculation, what you
remember, the critical temperature and critical pressure are the function of gamma g.
So when gamma g value is changing our pseudo critical temperature and pseudo critical pressure
value will change. Knowing those values, using this value given to us, temperature and pressure,
we can calculate this pseudo reduced temperature and pressure. Those pseudo reduced
temperature and pressured can put up here, knowing other parameters we can get the value of
So the values are different than the previous example and the reduced temperature, reduced
pressure also different and assuming value of Y, solving for this expression we can get the
compressibility factor of the natural gas, that is 0.977 centipoise is appearing. So, it looks very
simple, but we need to have some optimization technique, especially for Y's value, to solve this
complex equation that can be done with the Newton Raphson method.
So now we know how to estimate the viscosity and compressibility factor of a natural gas at
point of interest, point of interest means the conditios, temperature and pressure of interest.
Now let us move to the next property: gas density, and natural gas is compressible. Its density
depends on temperature and pressure, but it is not constant. We know by the definition of
density, for any fluid this is mass divided by volume, and for the natural gas case, we can say the
mass divided by volume can be converted to this system, just by having mass equal to or we
know moles is equal to mass divided by molecular weight.
We know, volume is equal to, znRT /P. If we put both of them here, we will get this expression,
which says density can be related to the apparent molecular weight of the natural gas and the
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condition of interest like, pressure, temperature. R is gas constant that is 10.73 in the US field
unit system. Now you see here the compressibility is appearing as a function of temperature and
pressure.
So if you want to know the density, first we need to know the compressibility factor of natural
gas at that temperature and pressure. R is okay. T is in obsolete term, like degree Rankine. We
can further modify this expression to achieve this, and that can be done with the help of the
known-parameter like gamma g, we know, it is apparent molecular weight of the gas divided by
28.97. R value is 10.73. If we put both of them here, we are going to get this expression of gas
density. That is simply says gas density of natural gas depends on pressure, temperature,
compressibility factor, and compositions.
And those compositions can be represented in the form of specific gravity, gamma g, and the
value comes out as 2.7 gamma g P / zT. So density is inversely proportional to temperature and
directly proportional to pressure. But again, this compressibility factor that also depends on
temperate and pressure that will have effect on the density calculation.
Now we know density, viscosity, and compressibility factor. Let us know some more properties
of natural gas: those are important, not to have dealing with the natural gas but to knowing the
value of some of the natural parameters in some standard condition. One of them is formation
volume factor, when we will be dealing about how the natural gas is being produced from the
reservoir to wellbore, the relationship called this IPR.
In that IPR, we can relate the flow rate or other natural gas parameters with some known
conditions. That can be done with the help of formation volume factor that is the ratio of gas
volume at reservoir condition to gas volume at standard condition. So when we have a fluid in
the reservoir domain, it is occupying some of the volume, pore volume of the reservoir, and
instead of knowing the porosity and pore volume of that reservoir, we can convert those values
to some standard condition and our standard condition is one atmospheric pressure and absolute
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temperature, that is 520 Rankine. Gas value formation factor Bg, sometimes it is represented as
B is the ratio of actual volume under the reservoir condition divided by the volume of the same
amount of the gas at standard condition, we can convert this volume under standard condition
with the help of the relationship is p1V1 / z1 T1 = p2 V2 / z2 T2.
So representing the same amount of the natural gas at one set of the conditions to another set of
conditions is 1 and 2 and similar we can do with the reservoir condition to standard condition.
We know the value of standard condition, compressibility factor of the natural gas at standard
condition is always assumed as one, and knowing this we will get the expression for formation
volume factor that appears at 0.0283 zT /P, remember zT /P, so it is proportional to temperature
and inversely proportional to pressure.
The numerical coefficient, again depends on the unit system has been chosen to put this, Psc, Tsc
values and these values, the numerical value appearing here is, when the volume formation factor
is shown in reservoir feet cube per standard cubic feet. If the same is expressed in rb, rb stand for
reservoir per standard cubic feet, we will get this expression where the numeral value will be
0.000504 multiply by the parameter zT/P. So the formation volume factor becomes very
important. We will see later on, how to relate reservoir condition to standard condition.
The reverse of volume formation factor is known as expansion factor, it is normally used for
estimating gas reserve, how much gas reserve is available and express as the reverse of formation
volume factor, the numerical coefficient comes out as 35.3 because of the unit system is chosen,
the volume is represented in feet cube. If we convert this into scf per reservoir barrel, the
numerical value will get changed and we had the expansion factor, E = 19.32 P/ zT. These
properties will be helpful, B and E properties will be helpful, relate one condition to another
condition, and the other condition is always the standard condition.
So another important property of natural gas is compressibility of natural gas, it is not

incompressible, it is compressible gas. So the compressibility of a gas is defined at condition like
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represented by Cg, sometimes C, sometimes Ct. So this is also known as thermal compressibility
of gas that says the compressibility of a natural gas is the ratio of change in volume with respect
to pressure at constant temperature divided by the volume of the gas.
So negative sign comes, once we increase the pressure volume decrease, so – 1 / v Dou v / Dou p
at a constant temperature. So this is mathematical definition, the compressibility can be
expressed, And for the real gas law, we know how to replace the volume and if we take the
derivative of this, what we can get Dou v = nz R, we can assumed that T is constant because
under isothermal condition, this will become –p square Dou p + n constant R constant T
constant, p is taken out, the Dou z by Dou p.
If we adjust these here, putting the value of this, putting the value of this, Dou p or Dou v,what
are going to get, this expression, we can put it here and we will get the expression for thermal
compressibility of natural gas and that is = 1 / p – 1 / z Dou z by Dou p. By knowing the
pressure, compressibility, and how compressibility is going to change with pressure, we can get
the compressibility of natural gas or thermal compressibility of natural gas. The other means is,
if we know the thermal compressibility of the natural gas, knowing the pressure and
compressibility factor z, we can understand the change in compressibility with the pressure, the
slope of this linear equation in the form of the linear parameter will tell us the slope or the
change in compressibility with respective to pressure.
We can also calculate the compressibility of ideal gas with the same sort of definition and it
comes out as ideal gas compressibility is not a function of anything, compressibility does not
appear in the ideal gas law, this term will becomes 0, so the thermal compressibility of natural
gas is 1 / p.
So let us summarize, gas specific gravity we know, how to calculate apparent molecular weight,
pseudo critical pressure, and pseudo critical temperature. When the compositions are given,
when compositions are not given, gamma g is given. We can still calculate with the correlations,
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linear correlation, quadratic correlation correction for the impurities, we can get the critical
properties using this critical properties. We can get the pseudo reduce properties of natural gas,
and viscosity can be, the mathematical expression could be established for the viscosity
measurement, one of the method is CKB method, similarly for gas compressibility, two-three
methods we have discussed, like Bril and Beggs and HY methods those can be used, and gas
density can be estimated if the compositions or the gamma g is known to us.
Formation volume factor and expression factor can be estimated with the help of these
expressions. Gas compressibility, and all these will be useful when we are dealing how the
natural gas is being treated at different stages, from the production zone within the reservoir,
within the porous media in the reservoir to supply, when we are sending to consumer at the end.
The consumer is using this natural gas, all these properties will be used.
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Some other properties of natural gas those directly does not characterize the natural gas, but
knowing those calculations, like how to calculate those properties or those parameters,
characterize the combination of the properties of natural gas. For example, real gas pseudo
pressure, it is one way of showing how the compressibility factor, and how the viscosity of
natural gas altogether will change when we are changing the pressure condition from one
point to other condition.
(Refer Slide Time: 47:53
By knowing all these things we can get volumetric determination of gas in place. Let us see
the application of the properties, we have just learned, how they are going to help us, one of
the application is volumetric determination of gas in place. Now, another parameter that more
often appears in dealing with flow system, the Reynolds number for natural gas, depends not
only on the compositions of the natural gas but also on the temperature and pressure the
Reynolds number needs to be calculated to understand the flow regime in a pipeline.
In the next lecture, we are going to understand is, the parameters on the reservoir side. So far
what we have understood is fluid, but in the production side when we talk about the
production from the reservoir domain, it is not only the fluid property but also the reservoir
properties that are responsible for the production. We will try to understand some of the
properties that are related to natural gas production system. Thank you.
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Prof. Pankaj Tiwari
Module No # 02
Lecture No # 06
Natural Gas Production: Rock Properties
Hello everyone, and welcome to the third lecture of week 2. In the first two lectures of this week,
we learned about natural gas properties. In this third lecture, in the part of natural gas production,
we will try to understand how the rock properties can be estimated and how they will influence
the production of natural gas.

So let us see what we have gone through in the last two classes, comprehensively it can be
summarized that the natural gas which is being produced from the reservoir to surface, and there
it is getting refined and further it is transported, the properties of natural gas need to be estimated
because natural gas is compressible in nature, compressibility nature also changes with
temperature and pressure, thus it is important to understand how these properties can be
estimated at different temperature and pressure, those will help us to design the equipment and
facilities and maximum utilization of the facilities to process and transport the natural gas.
We had learnt about several properties, in summary, it is specific gravity, pseudo critical
properties, and important one is viscosity. The viscosity of natural gas is very low compared to
oil and water. It is in the magnitude of 0.012, 0.04 centipoise, density compressibility factor, and
properties that relate the change in volume under one condition to another condition, formation
volume factor and expansion factor.
These are inter related properties like density needs compressibility factor. Later on, you will see
the Reynolds number needs density, viscosity. So the reservoir fluid that is getting produced
from the formation domain, that is porous in nature, several factors are responsible for the
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production of fluid, that’s the number of flowing fluid in the reservoir, the fluids like gas, oil,
water are they present, what quantity they are present.
So in our case, we have the gas, when we deal about the natural gas alone we assume like it is
just 100% natural gas, 100% saturation of the natural gas or the reservoir is saturated 100% with
the gas only that we assume, otherwise the number of flowing fluid affects the production. Types
of fluid in the reservoir, what is the nature of that fluid, it is compressible, incompressible, how
the properties are getting changed and the flow regime that is transient condition or pseudo
condition, those are responsible for the production.
So in earlier time, when the production starts, the production is under transient time and later on
it shifts to a steady state case. A reservoir geometry, like the flow is happening in axial direction,
in a radial direction, spherical, semi spherical. So altogether it is not only the fluid properties
those are important, understanding the reservoir formation, its behavior for the production fluid
is also important to be understood.
And in that case, we are going to learn some of the properties of reservoir that are related to
natural gas engineering. There could be several other terminology, other definitions and other
aspects the reservoir, those should be understood by the reservoir engineer in particular those are
dealing with the oil reservoir or the condensate reservoir.
But in our case, as I mentioned here, we are assuming it is compressible in nature. We are in the
transient and pseudo steady state conditions when the natural gas is being produced and the flow
is happening under the radial condition. You will see all these things in coming weeks when we
are going to set up the mathematical expression for how the fluid flows from reservoir to
wellbore.
In this regard, let us see some of the parameters that help us understand how the natural gas
properties are going to be changed with the conditions and how to represent those changes in the
mathematical expression to understand the gas production. So the parameter that we are going to
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use is a real gas to do pressure denoted as mp, it is widely used for mathematical modeling of
IPR of gas well.
That I said, the fluid flow, assuming it is happening in a radial direction in all the reservoir
corner to well bore, this is our wellbore, and this is reservoir. From the reservoir, the fluid is
travelling because of the pressure gradient, and you see here the pressure is very high, reservoir
pressure, as well as pressure is high here, relatively reservoir pressure it is low value and the
difference could be 500 psi or it could be 1000 psi, it could be more also.
So when the fluid or the gas flows from high pressure to low pressure region, we have taken the
example of radial. The gas is going through several domains, several zones where the pressure
and temperature conditions are different. So the reservoir pressure changes from PE to PWF that
is responsible for the gas flow. We can assume the reservoir is isothermal with respect to
temperature. Changes in the temperature are not that much, that could be assumed. But the
pressure could not be assumed like this because the flow is happening because of pressure
gradient only.
And when fluid is flowing from reservoir to wellbore it is going through several pressure zones
and had each point when the fluid is having the experience of different conditions the properties
of fluid will change especially the viscosity and compressibility factor. So there is one parameter,
pseudo pressure that says when the fluid is under different conditions to pass through from one
point to another, you can club them, lump them in the form of 2p / Mu z.
The effect of viscosity and compressibility can be combined and integrated from pb to p to
represent all these changes. And that give us, like a flexibility or a very approximation tool that
says any changes are happening could be represented in this form. One of the simplest ways
could be to say the average pressure could be used to evaluate the viscosity and compressibility
factor.
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So for example the pressure is PWF here, and P here, we can take the average of these and after
taking the average of these, we can evaluate compressibility and viscosity at that pressure, but
that is not going to represent the changes, the gas is facing throughout this production process.
So the pseudo real pressure, that’s got lot of acknowledgement in developing the inflow
performance relationship, where the lumping these Mu and z can allow us to account the changes
happening in this lumped parameter because of the pressure.
It is a pseudo properties of the gas because if depends on the gas viscosity and compressibility
factor. While compressibility and viscosity, both are the function of pressure and temperature.
This properties is called the pseudo pressure property, how to calculate that, so if we see we can
prepare a table or the procedure can be explained like this. When we have a pressure, if you see
here the lower limit of this integral sign is Pb that is any base pressure, we can take atmospheric
pressure as base pressure that is 14.7 psia. We can integrate this to the pressure of interest. For
example, I want to know the mp value here, at the wellbore condition that will be mp (wf).
If I want to know at the reservoir condition, pe, here, I need to know, will be mp(e) so to know
the value of this pseudo pressure, mp at a particular pressure, what we can do, we can divide the
pressure range from base pressure to the pressure of interest in small-small segments. As small
segments we have are having the integration by the Trapezoidal rule, will be more accurate and
at each pressure, we can calculate the viscosity, compressibility factor, and this parameter,
lumped parameter 2p / Mu z and then by doing the trapezoidal rule we can calculate mp.
Knowing this, we can also plot how the mp is changing with respect to pressure, so at a
particular point when we have a different pressure, we can represent the changes of pressure for
Viscosity and compressibility in this mp form. Another parameter, similar to mp is np that is
called the gas normalize pressure. This is with respect to reduced pressure and only the
compressibility factor is accounted for the changes, it is assumed the viscosity we will be dealt
separately.
But how the changes are happening in compressibility for the pressure range, from 0 to reduced
pressure or the pressure of the interest, can be accounted with the help of this expression, np. But
this is not used widely in the gas industry, the more important is mp. You will see when we are
developing the relationship for IPR curve. We will see how mp makes the job easy, however it
needs the computational technique, any excel programmer MATLAB program or any
mathematical program that can integrate the function 2p / Mu z from pb to pressure of interest.
Another parameter that we will frequently have, when we are transporting the natural gas
through the pipeline, not only during the transportation, while in production also, when the fluid
reached wellbore, bottom part, it travels from wellbore bottom to well head, and the long
distance it travelled, the parameter that comes into picture is Reynolds number.
The Reynolds number is the ratio of inertial force to viscos forces, but in mathematical sense it is
written as rho vd / Mu. Rho is the viscosity of the fluid which is being flown, v is the velocity
which is actually apparent velocity that can be written flow rate per unit area. Volumetric flow
rate per unit area. d is the diameter of the pipe and Mu is the viscosity of the fluid. So, in the case
of natural gas production, when we are having natural gas produced from this wellbore or being
transported to through the pipeline, we know the pipe's diameter.
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The viscosity term that we know it depends on the pressure, so viscosity can be evaluated at
average condition. So we can write this, Mu1 that means we can evaluate viscosity at average
temperature and average pressure conditions using the correlations given or discussed in the last
lecture. This rho, the density of the gas, we know, density is m / v. The m is mass of the gas that
can be written in the form of number of moles of that gas, molecular weight that is again the
apparent molecular weight because natural gas is a mixture and this apparent molecular weight
can be converted into specific gravity multiply by the molecular weight of the air that is 28.97.
So we can convert this, if you write this here, we are going to get here the rho that is replaced by
n gamma z 28.97, we can replace this v / q divided by A. A is the area of the pipe, cross sectional
area of the pipe that we can say, Pie d square / 4, then d is here and divided by viscosity that is
evaluated under the average conditions. Now what we can do, this volume will also be here this
is v so by the real gas law we know pv = nzRT.
So we can write n / v = p / zRT. We know R is the gas constant, the value is known to us 10.73
in the US field unit system or 8.314 in a SI unit system. So depending on the unit system has
been, if we represent all of those we are going get this expression, here one more analysis, one
more correlation that is p1q1/ z1T1 at one condition, so pq /zT at condition 1 = pq/zT at
condition 2 we can use this standard conditions pressure and temperature in this expression.
If we write here, we are going to get the Reynolds number in this form, and you see Reynolds
number in this form is a function of gamma g. So we need to know the compositions of the
gases. The q, production rate under standard conditions, standard pressure, standard temperature,
diameter of the pipe and viscosity. So the Reynolds number when the fluid is being flown that
also going to change with the temperature and pressure the gas is going to experience, and the
Reynolds number is very important when we are flowing through the pipeline, we understand the
flow is under turbulent condition or under the laminar condition.
It determines the friction factor, the roughness of the pipe is used with the help of Reynolds
number to determine the friction factor value. So Reynolds number itself is a function of
temperature and pressure. If we put the standard condition of temperature and pressure, we are
going to get this expression here. It is very important again,the coefficient, numerical coefficient
appearing in Reynolds number or any other term depend on the unit system has been chosen.
So here p is shown in the psi, Q is in Mscf per day, D is in inches, that should be remembered It
not in feet but its in inches, Mu is the centipoise and temperature it is in the absolute system
degree Rankine. Knowing as much as accurately, the fluid properties will allow us to calculate
the accurate Reynolds number. That accurately measured or calculation of Reynolds number will
allow us to calculate the friction factor, which is an important parameter that we will we be using
very frequently.
Knowing the properties of gas, we can also estimate gas in place, as I already mentioned
previously like the pv/ZT, when R is gas constant that can be taken out. So at a particular
temperature-pressure condition or volume condition, one set of the data can be transferred to
another set of the data using the real gas law, and that with respect to base, we can convert any
data set to the base condition or to standard condition as we use during the calculation of
Reynolds number.
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Similarly, we can also express the same thing with respect to the flex also p1q1/z1T1 = p2q2 /
z2T2, under the standard condition we assume z2 as, z2 at standard condition is 1. So we assume
the natural gas under standard condition will behave as idea gas. So initial gas in place can be
calculated with the help of this expression, Bg, the volume of the gas under standard condition to
reservoir condition.
So if we know the Bg value, we can use this expression and can find out how much gas reserve
is available in a particular reservoir domain. It will depend on A, this is reservoir area in the unit
of Acres, and the numerical coefficient that we are seeing here is 43560 this is a conversion of
acre to ft square, we convert this acre to ft square, we are going to get this 43560 numerical value
for the multiplication part.
(Refer Side Time: 18:09)
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h is the pay zone thickness or the net thickness through which the fluid travels from the reservoir
to wellbore. Phee is the porosity, and Sg is the gas saturation. Here, you will see when we are
using the knowledge of the gas properties to estimate the gas reserve or gas in place of the
reservoir. We also need to understand several terms related to the reservoir. So in the further
slides we are going to understand more about the reservoir and its properties those are related to
natural gas production.
So reservoir rock properties are very important because they provide us the information or the
knowledge about the gas is or the fluid is available in the reservoir domain or not, how much is
the, how much volume of the particular phase is available and they also allow us to design and
implement the gas or fluid production schemes from the reservoir. So the reservoir rock
properties study comes under the head of petro physics that counts for the study of rock
properties and rock interaction with fluid.
So within the reservoir we have the rock and fluid, the rock could be of different types,
depending on the formation or its composition, it could be just a loose sand or unconsolidated
sands or it could be very tightly packed sand stone, lime stone kind of the reservoir. Depending
on the geological time scale, the other parameters those we are not going to cover in this, we just
going to understand the properties those are related to natural gas production.
So the petro physics includes the study of rock properties and the interaction with the fluid.
These physical properties of petroleum reservoir can be estimated either theoretically or
performing the laboratory experiment. The important properties can be counted as porosity is the
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void in the rocks, the rock that appears like it has no porous or it as no place to be in the form of
void.
So every rock has the porosity that may vary from 2%, volume percent to 40%, 50% like the
unconsolidated sand is having very high porosity, while the tightly packed shell has very low
porosity. That porosity actually depends on several factors so here I have listed some of the
properties those are related to natural gas production like the porosity, ,fluid saturation, capillary
characteristics, compressibility, net pay thickness, fluid rock interaction, reservoir heterogeneity.
All these properties, in one way or other way are going to be included in the natural gas
production study, important properties are porosity and permeability. Porosity accounts for the
voids in rock, permeability, it is ability to move from one pore to another pore. So the
permeability actually decides the fluid or the hydro carbon or the gas available in the reservoir is
recoverable or not as it can be seen in this pictures.

The pores may be connected or may not be connected. The gas may be stored here but that may
be recoverable or not recoverable, determined by the permeability of that rock. So if it is
permeable then only it is recoverable. The fluid saturation determines other properties like fluid
saturation, like which part of the rock is occupied by the gas and which part is occupied by the
oil and when both oil, gas as well as water, all phases are available in a pore domain in the
reservoir in one place, how they are going to occupy the places in the pore region.
Every property could be important, like net pay thickness. This is the thickness of the reservoir
that contributes to fluid recovery. So reservoir, like it is a very big area where we are having a
wellbore perforated and in this reservoir, for example this is the porous region where fluid is
accumulated we want to produce the fluid, when we are injecting our wellbore at the bottom of
the wellbore, we perforate.
We create the holes in that wellbore bottom part and the fluid travels, assuming it is a radial flow
the radially fluid travels from all the direction towards the wellbore and only a part of the
wellbore, that was, that is actually allowing the fluid to travel is a net pay thickness. In fact, the
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fluid may be available in large areas or in the large height that can be excess for the production
called the gross pay zone thickness. But the net pay zone thickness is the thickness through
which the fluid is coming to wellbore.
Fluid rock interaction, wettability also affect the reservoir heterogeneity, variation in reservoir
properties. So the reservoir properties like porosity, permeability, saturation compressibility, pay
zone thickness, all vary from location to location and the heterogeneity should be accounted
when we are going to understand comprehensively, how the reservoir property and how the
reservoir domain is going to contribute towards the recoverable hydrocarbon production. The
rock property data are essential because they quantify and calculate the hydrocarbon distribution
in the rock. When these properties are combined with fluid properties, they control the flow of
the existing phases within the reservoir.
So assuming reservoir is having oil, gas and water, how they are going to be produce determine
by the rock properties as well as fluid properties, and the reservoir properties can be estimated
either by the logs, performing the experiment in the laboratory, using some established
correlations or some maps those are available. It is very tedious job, it is very complicated job,
knowing the entire reservoir spectrum how the porosity, permeability, fluid saturation are
distributed, so sometimes those are calculated either on average basis, based on the experience
and some other parameters correlations are used to correct the properties.
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We are not going to detail that, but we will try to understand more detail about some of the
important properties here.
Like the porosity, porosity is measure of the storage capacity, so reservoir has several voids that
voids could be in the range of just 2% or less than 2% to 40% or 60% of the total volume of the
rock, but only the volume that’s can accommodate the fluid or the pore volume contributes
towards the porosity. So the porosity, by mathematical definition, it is the pore volume divided
by bulk volume.
For example, we have one core plug sample with a certain height and certain diameter. We can
calculate the bulk volume of that core, but this is not pore volume. Pore volume is something
when we are using the pores of the core sample to store some fluid or the fluid is stored in that
core sample that can used to calculate the porosity of that core sample, so the porosity is pore
volume divided by bulk volume.
Pore volume is also known as a void volume so the definition comes us void volume by bulk
volume porosity. Further classified or defined in two other important set of terminology, absolute
porosity that is represented by Phee a, that is total pore volume divided by bulk volume, and the
bulk volume – grain volume is the total pore volume.
So the absolute porosity definition is similar to what is the general porosity definition. Thus
simply says the total pore volume available within the domain of study divided by the bulk
volume is absolute porosity. Effective porosity simply says the volume that is available or the
voids that is available in the bulk volume is not going to contribute the recovery of the hydro
carbon or production. It is only the interconnected pore volume. So the pore volume that are
interconnected can be used to calculate the effective porosity by definition comes out as a ratio
of interconnected pore volume to bulk volume. We will see with one of the example how these
absolute porosity and effective porosity can be calculated, but in most of the engineering
application or reservoir engineer application, this is the effective porosity that is used because
effective porosity is something that is actually account for the recoverable hydrocarbon.
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There might be plenty of hydrocarbon available in the reservoir domain, but only those are
recoverable, those are found in the connecting pores are recoverable.
The effective porosity as it is shown in this picture again is, these are the pores and the pores
which are connected will contribute for the production. Let us take an example we have one
sample, core samples, cylindrical core sample with certain diameter and certain height, h is the
height, if this is a core and this is some area cross sectional area is A.
So we know the dimensions of the core, we can calculate the bulk volume. Now this core is
saturated with the fluid of known properties. We are saturating this 100% so what we will come
to know, the pores those are connected, the fluid or the fluid of known density can travel to only
those connected zones. So we can calculate the weight increase of this pore sample when it was
100% saturated with the fluid of known-properties. The Increase in the weight is because of the
effective porosity which is available in this core plug.
So we can calculate the effective porosity. Another definition absolute porosity so assume like
this core sample is crushed and when we are crushing it, we just destroyed the connected and
non- connected, terminology we just simply said this is a sample, after crushing it this is a
sample which is having grain volume or the volume occupied by the rock only we can calculate
the actual volume of solid.
So we crush it, mix it, we destroy the connecting nodes also. So we are going to get actual
volume of this solid, knowing the actual volume of the solid and the bulk volume that was
already there before crushing it, we can calculate the obsolete porosity of this and that obsolete
porosity simply because the isolated pores are counted. The pores which were not accessible
before or also counted in this and that the obsolete porosity, here an example is shown.
For example, the height and area of the reservoir are known, we can calculate the bulk volume,
and A is the area, h is the height. This is the numerical coefficient because of converting acre
into ft square, pore volume is simply, this volume multiply by the porosity so by knowing the
porosity we can always calculate the pore volume or connecting pore volume here the pore this is
effective porosity. The reservoir rock porosity varies in all the direction, vertical and horizontal,
vertically it varies more than the horizontal section.
In fact even in a, from location to location the value varies, the node those are connected just
here may not be connected just next one inch or one feet away. So in a large domain of like kms
regions, there are large variations in the porosity value with respect to location that can be
classified as a vertical porosity variation or the horizontal variation. This picture simply shows
how the porosity is distributed in some domain. For that what can be done, we can calculate the
average porosity of the interest domain or the reservoir of interest.
Average can be calculated in several forms, first mathematical average. We can classify several
zones with vertically, horizontal, or small segments. We can say the porosity of different regions
and the number of samples we are having. We can simply sum the porosity of different core
samples divided by the number of core samples. Number of core samples means, for example,
this is our reservoir domain in a 2D manner. We are collecting the sample from the different-
different locations of the core sample, estimating the porosity of each. We can just take the
arithmetic average.
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Other way could be, thickness weighed average porosity, in that case we know the porosity
changes with sample to sample, we can just weight with the height similarly we can weight with
the area or by the volume, volume is again Ai hi. Ai hi is the volume of core i which is having
area Ai and the height hi. So the variation can be accounted by using any one of the formula and
that represent the average value of the porosity.
Another property is saturation, so the voidage, those are available, and connecting voids in the
reservoir are filled by fluid. Those fluids could be water, oil and gas. So the saturation of oil, gas
and water is just a fraction of pore volume occupied by the particular fluid so if it is occupied by
a gas the volume of gas divided pore volume is the saturation of the gas. Similarly can be
explained for the oil So, that is volume of the pore occupied by the oil divided by the pore
volume.
Like the water, the pore volume or the voidage occupied by the water divided by the pore
volume is the saturation of the water. So this saturation can range from 0 to 100 %. For example
in a reservoir domain, there is a no gas available only the oil and water then this gas saturation is
0, when the area is just having single phase that is gas phase, the gas saturation is 100%. So the
saturation can range from 0 to 100%, the saturation of each phase that is available, gas, oil,
water, the summation = 1.
Critical gas saturation, another important parameter that determines like the condition above
which gas beings to move and any fluid begins to move, when the fluid move its critical
saturation then only it is start to move. Gas saturation increases as the reservoir pressure decline.
So what exactly does critical gas saturation mean? When we are having the two phase gas and
liquid because of the pressure decline in the reservoir, gas comes out of the oil phase and the gas
saturation increases. And when the gas saturation reaches critical condition, just gas start to
move. The average value of the gas saturation can be calculated in the weighted form like it is
weighed with the porosity as well as pay zone thickness, Phi i and hi. Similarly it can be
estimated for the oil and water.
Permeability is the property of the porous media that measures the capacity and availability of
formation to transmit the fluid. So it is kind of the property of the rock that says the fluid can be
pass, can be traveled from one location to other location or not. It controls the direction
movement of the flows if the permeability is in the X direction only, the fluid will travel only in
X direction not in Y and Z directions, or any particular direction where the permeability is there
where the fluid will travel otherwise not.
So it controls the directional movement and the fluid rate of the reservoir fluid in the formation.
Henry Darcy defines the permeability in 1956, when he was performing the laboratory
experiment under the laminar flow condition when there was not reaction happening and only
single phase was present, he had developed a correlation that says the apparent velocity is
proportional to the pressure gradients and inversely proportional to viscosity of the fluid.
And the proportionally constant came out as K, and that K is permeability of the , or availability
of the rock that says the fluid can travel with that particular velocity, that can be converted, the
apparent velocity can be converted into flow rate. So velocity = q/A, area we got on the right
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hand side, the minus sign simply says, the length decrease when pressure increase or other way
when pressure decreases length increases that is why we have the negative terms here.
Important is, this expression is only under the condition of laminar flow, no fluid and rock
interaction and only single phase is present and in our case when we have the natural gas flow in
the reservoir, in the radial direction, when there is no reaction is happening only gas phase is
being flowed under the laminar condition we can perfectly use Henry Darcy Law to account for
that.
Here the permeability that we get is the obsolete permeability, we can understand the other
permeability later on. So here the apparent fluid flow velocity is v in meter per second, it could
be any one unit system here I had mentioned in the CGS system, proportionality constant of
permeability in Darcy, Mu is viscosity of the flowing fluid, this is k that I forget to mention, the
pressure gradient per unit length, q is flow rate in centimeter cube per second, A is cross
sectional area across which flow occurs and all together ,we get with the help of this expression,
we can get the Darcy permeability and then 1 Darcy is 1000 milli Darcy.
So this permeability can be measured by passing a fluid of known-viscosity through a core plug
of measured dimension. For example, we have a core, we know the dimensions, the cross
sectional area, the length of that core, here, and flowing because of that pressure gradient, p1 is
higher than p2. Fluid will flow in this direction and when we are collecting the flux at the outlet,
establishing the relationship of the Darcy law the proportionality constant, we are going to get is
permeability and the permeability is absolute permeability.
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The permeability can again be the absolute permeability when we consider only one phase or one
single phase is present in the system, means the permeability at 100% saturation of that fluid, it
is a property of the rock and it is independent of the fluid using the measurement, under the
100% saturation it just becomes the property of rock means how interconnecting pores are
available in the rock, this assume that the fluid does not interact with the rock. So all these are
the conditions of Henry Darcy.
Effective permeability, when the reservoir have more than 1 fluid there is a competition of,
which one will travel first, which will get the preference from the reservoir to flow from one
point to another point, and that is where the effective permeability comes into picture and says
the permeability of a fluid A when other fluids, B and C are present in the domain.
It is a function of the fluid saturation and the wetting characteristic of the rock. So which phase
has more wettability or non-wettability towards the rock will effect the effective permeability.
Relative permeability is another term that is often used in the reservoir calculations, that is the
ratio of effective permeability to absolute permeability.
Permeability depends again on the pore geometry, what type of the pores are, they are connected
or not connected, wettability means the interaction between the fluid and rock and, the fluid
distribution like how many phases of the fluids are present and how they are distributed, gas is
on the top or it is dissolve in the oil, and the saturation history. Like porosity, permeability
distribution is also there because the pores may be connected here and just one foot and next
distance they are not connected.
So like porosity, permeability is also having the distribution across all these direction X, Y, Z
and again like the porosity, average absolute permeability can be calculated, mathematically
average the permeability. So for example first one is, like arithmetic average, we can also go
with the harmonic average and geometric average. They are just representation of different
mathematical forms will be used to calculate the permeability. It is like we are having the
reservoir or let us say we are having some domain of 2D.
We have different zones of different permeability. We can consider the flow is happening from
bottom to top or top to bottom and because of different permeability of each layer, fluid will
travel differently, to know the average absolute permeability, we can average out the
permeability of each section and that can be done to calculate the average absolute permeability.
Another important property is wettability, which is mostly used in the production of oil, which is
more important than the gases. The tendency of one fluid to spread on or adhere to a solid
surface in the presence of others immiscible fluid. When two immiscible fluid are in the pores or
in the domain or in the contact of rock, which one has more tendency to adhere or spread on the
surface on the rock is measured by the wettability.
The wettability of reservoir rock to the fluid, it shows the distribution of fluid in porous media,
so which is having more affinity towards the rock, it will go towards the rock, other will be on
the other side. It is measured from the contact angle, which is the characteristic of the liquid for
the solid. If the contact angle is 0 it means complete wettability the oil ,the fluid is having
complete wettability means it adhere or it is stick to the surface of the rock, when the angle is
180 degree means it is complete non-waiting situation.
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So with the help of wettability, we can understand, which fluid has access to enter in the pore or
coming out of the pore region depend on the wettability behavior of that fluid available with
respect to rock.
Other definitions is surface tension, interfacial tension often comes. The forces at the interfaces
when tow fluid or two immiscible fluid are in contact, this is measured in force per length.
Surface tension is between the liquid and gas, while the interfacial tension is between two
immiscible liquids in the contact. These expressions can be obtained simply by equalizing the
surface tension force at the interface and the gravity forces. When we do that thing we can get
the expression for this surface tension and expression for the interfacial tension.
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Those depend on the density of the phases. Here in the surface tension case, we are having the
water, this is a gas-water system, where we assume the gas density is negligible and we are going
to get this expression. When in the case of two liquids, when we have oil and water, the density
of both phases will come into the mathematical expression to account for the forces acting at the
interphase.
Rock compressibility also becomes important when we talk about the pore volume available in
the reservoir to be occupied by the fluid. As we know, we go down, the reservoir is subjected to
an over burden pressure. So it is assumed like when we are going down, 1 psi/ft, the pressure
should increase, but because of the availble pore volume, it is just 0.5 psi per feet depth. The
pores in the rock does not experience the over burden pressure completely. The difference in the
overburden pressure and internal pore pressure is called effective overburden pressure. During
pressure depletion process, when we start producing the fluid form the reservoir, the internal
pore volume decreases.
When the internal pore volume is decreasing, the effective over burden pressure increases. When
this process happens the bulk volume of reservoir rock is reduced. Sand grain with in the pore
space starts expanding and because of these two things the pore volume available for, the bulk
volume available in the reservoir as well as the pore volume, both get changed. The properties
those are responsible, those are depend on the bulk volume of the reservoir also get influenced.
Mathematically, the core rock compressibility is defined as, change in volume with respect to
pressure at isothermal condition divided by the initial volume. So any change in volume with
respect to pressure divided by the initial volume is the rock compressibility, because of the over
burden, when we are going to a different depth the over burden pressure will be different, when
are we producing, the pressure, internal pore volume pressure will also be different with the time
and thus the rock compressibility will also be different.

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Another application of Darcy law is, when the flow is happening from the reservoir domain to
wellbore that can happen under the linear condition or in a radial condition. Radial condition,
when flow is from reservoir to well bore, flow is happening from all the direction radially, linear
flow when we are having some experimental setup or the reservoir domain in such a way when
the flow is happening in only one direction, linearly.
Here we are having fluid and this is just travelling towards one direction where the production
well is. We can use the understanding of the Darcy law to establish the relationship, how the
flow will happen because of the pressure gradient and both the cases under the linear flow or the
radial flow, we are having q as a function of other pressure, draw down, p1 – p2 in the linear and
reservoir – wellbore pressure here, with other properties like here.
Several assumptions have been made here, like the viscosity is not changing, the q is also
constant, reservoir is homogenous, most of the properties like the permeability is not changing
with respect to direction in the reservoir. We will see the application of Darcy law when we will
be developing the relationship for the IPR. We will get almost this kind of the expression that
says how the q flux is related to the pressure, the radius of well bore, and reservoir, viscosity of
the gas which is being produced, k is permeability and h is the pay zone thickness.
So using the Darcy law, again we have to emphasis, Darcy law is applicable only for laminar
flow condition, when there is no interaction between the fluid and rock is happening and only
one phase is present, either gas or oil or water. In our case we are going to use, the gas flow is
happening in radial direction from reservoir to well bore.
In summary, the fluid properties, there are several fluid properties influence the performance of
any particular process or particular equipment. To understand the performance or designing of
the equipment or understand the production system, we need to measure the properties of natural
gas, and those properties change with the condition like temperature and pressure and
composition.
Similarly, understanding of reservoir rock is also important especially when we are having the
objective of knowing the gas in place and at what maximum rate gas can be produced from the
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reservoir and all these calculation if we see we are having several parameters those are appearing
like the Reynolds number, the value of numerical coefficient of Reynolds number depends on the
unit system chosen for each parameter involved in the calculation of Reynolds number.

Similarly when we have the expression for gas in place, we have the area, pay zone thickness,
porosity etc. When we have the Darcy law, we have the permeability there, pay zone thickness
there, pressure there, and viscosity. It becomes very important to understand how to convert from
one unit system to another unit system. The dealing with the reservoir calculation is done in US
field unit system. Here I have summarized a small table that is taken from one of the reference
that says from US field unit system how to convert into SI system or the reverse.
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For example, the area in US field unit system is given in acre while in the SI unit system it is
meter square, so the conversion should be applied. Similarly for the other especially for this
gas production system, where it is, in US field unit system it is Mscf per day while in SI unit
it is meter cube per second and, permeability in US field unit system it is milli Darcy while in
SI unit system it is meter square. You can prepare your compressive list for all the
calculations or for all the conversion those will appear in several calculations.
With this, I think, we are ready to understand natural gas production where we are having the
identified well location. In this reservoir location, the gas well can be drilled and the
production can be started. So in the next week, we are going to establish the relationship for
this segment, IPR, inflow performance relationship. The fluid will be travelling from all the
directions, radially towards this wellbore, the pressure PWF is lesser than the reservoir
pressure that is the driving force for the fluid to travel.
In our case of the natural gas production system, we are going to assume that only one phase
is project some amount of the water, some amount of the oil, some amount of the sand
particle may be present, but we will treat them as negligible. We are going to assume our gas
is compressible in nature and establish the relationship for the pseudo steady state condition
and transient condition.
I already mentioned the flow, we will consider under the radial conditions so with this
understanding we will go to establish the IPR relation in next week. Thank you.
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Prof. Pankaj Tiwari
Module No # 02
Lecture No # 07
Inflow Performance Relationship (IPR) – I
Hello, and welcome to the class of natural gas engineering. In this lecture, we will go through the
conventionally natural gas production. The first thing is the gas reservoir deliverability. That
means how the flow rate will happen and the reservoir's potential, at what maximum rate
production can be achieved from a particular reservoir or gas reservoir. This is accomplished
with the help of inflow performance relationship that is the topic of today’s lecture.
Inflow performance relationship relate this segment of our conventional petroleum production
system. Suppose we look the overall picture of the production system we can divided this in 3
segments. In that case, this is IPR, where the flow is happening from reservoir, a complex
domain that is pores in the nature, gases stored there in the pores region. Due to the permeability
in the reservoir, the gas is flowing from reservoir to well bore.
And the relationship developed here called the IPR. Next segment is WPR, where from this point
the pressure is 𝑝𝑤𝑓 , we call it bottom hole pressure, from this point the gas travels all the long
distance to reach surface and the pressure is 𝑝ℎ𝑓 , and the performance relation that related
pressure drop-down from 𝑝𝑤𝑓 to 𝑝ℎ𝑓 with the flow rate is termed in the form of WPR or TPR,
tubular performance relationship and, WPR is well bore performance relationship.
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Once the gas reaches the top, the first thing it encounters is the choke device or the Christmas
tree. This Christmas tree, on the top that is the visible part. When we visit any field, the
Christmas tree has few devices, and some are for monitoring purposes like the temperature
pressure, some are to control the flow rate and safety point of view like safety walls are there.
So the choke is there that is restrict the flow, actually that controls the flow production from this
particular reservoir well, and the relationship here called CPR, choke performance relationship.
In today’s class we will focus on IPR, not only in today, today’s and tomorrow’s classes, we will
be discussing in more detail about this inflow performance relationship.
Suppose we see, the mathematical expression for one condition that is called pseudo steady state
condition. In that case, the expressions says Q is directionally proportional to pressure difference.
The form is shown here. The pressure is pseudo real gas pressure that we understood in the our
properties classes, how to represent pressure in the form of pseudo reduce pressure, and why we
should include this type of terminology in the expression will be discussed in today’s class.
Overall Q is related to pressure drop plus fluid and reservoir properties. IPR provides the
potential of gas production rate, at what rate we can produce the gas from a particular well.
If we go further, we see the IPR depends on flow regime, what type of flow conditions are
existing in the reservoir. For example, the well is being produced under steady state condition,
pseudo steady state condition or the transient condition, mostly it is operated under the pseudo
steady state condition while steady state condition are really achieved in the reservoir or
especially in gas reservoir, this phenomena happens when the pressure reservoir is maintained
constant by any means.
That any means could be by injecting addition fluid from outside to maintain the pressure or
some nearby aquifers is able to maintain the reservoir pressure to the constant value, and
transient condition is the condition when the reservoir pressure or the bottom hole pressure is
changing with respect to time. We will discuss this in detail later on. The performance of IPR is
affected by fluid properties like the fluid which is being produced from a reservoir, it is a single
phase fluid, multiphase fluid or even in case of single phase fluid, the fluid is compressible in
nature or incompressible.
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Formation properties, as mentioned earlier, reservoir is very heterogeneous system. We assume
certain type of the phenomena are happening there under the homogenous condition. For
example the porosity and permeability are distributed throughout the system, we assume for the
representation purpose or the calculation purpose the average value, that we understood from our
properties class how to provide the average value for the reservoir parameter.
Not only the properties, but the formation itself is very heterogeneous and the flow may not be
happening in a uniform pattern that we will discuss. Geometry of the reservoir, further what type
of the formation it is and how the flow is happening in the reservoir that will also affect the IPR
performance. If we summarize quickly, the compressible nature of the fluid that is the nature of
natural gas will affect it, we are going to deal with single phase system, when it is multi-phase,
this system will be very complex.
Again a complex set of equations that need to be solved to represent the multi-phase system,
flow behavior, transient steady state, and pseudo steady state will be discussed. Darcy and non-
Darcy effect: the flow under pseudo steady state condition or steady state condition or in
transient condition could be Darcy or it could also to be non-Darcy. When it is going to turbulent
region Darcy law is not applicable we have to apply some factor to account for the turbulent flow
and that turbulent flow can be represented via term called non- Darcy term, that will be discussed
in the entire IPR discussion.
The skin effect: Due to some conditions the reservoir may have addition pressure drop down
near the well bore. If this is happening the skin effect will play a role and we have to account that
also. The well which is installed could be vertical could be horizontal or could be in the
combination of that will also affect the performance of IPR and if the fractures, artificial
fractures are created or not created they will affect the permeability and porosity of the reservoir
ultimately and if that is happening we have to account for that also.
So let us discuss, one by one, the geometry, as discussed, we are going to assume in our case the
flow is radial, but in actual reservoir is heterogeneous it may not have any uniform flow pattern,
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and if we see the Pipe that is perforated to allow the fluid, from the reservoir to well bore and if
entire pay zone thickness or the net pay zone thickness that is responsible or that is contributing
for this flow is being utilized and the flow is happening from all the directions of the reservoir
towards this well.
We may assume that the fluid is flowing only in the radial direction. However, if that is not the
situation, for example, the perforation is only one side. The fluid is just traveling from this side
to reservoir well, or from one direction to another direction, axially it is traveling, then the flow
regime should be considered under axial flow.
There might be a situation, when the entire perforated region is not being used or there may be a
situation when the gas is just passing through only small perforated region, entire region is not
perforated. Example, this is not perforated only this section is perforated and the flow is
happening like this. So the spherical flow is happening we have to account that kind of the flow
behavior in our model development.
There might be a situation when the flow is just happening from the bottom section of the pipe. It
means there is no perforation in the pipe, the flow happening is just from the bottom of the pipe
or the pipe is inserted in a gas bank where the flow is just happening from the bottom, and that is
called the hemi-spherical flow. So the flow which is happening, the flow regime which is
existing in the reservoir or the geometry of the reservoir or the configuration chosen to produce
the gas from the reservoir will affect the IPR equation.
Let us consider the case in which we are going to study, the geometry is considered as radial. So
this is our center point, where the well of radius 𝑟𝑤 is installed and the fluid is being produced
from a reservoir of radius re. The dotted reason shown here for the radius re that means it is a
very long distance, from a long distance fluid is being transported towards this wellbore, and the
pressure here at the reservoir boundary condition is Pe while the pressure at the wellbore is 𝑝𝑤𝑓 .
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This is also called sand face pressure, and if this is happening, the flow is like this. If we see
from this side view, and this is happening from all the directions, here it can also be seen but
from entire pay zone thickness, h is contributing to production. More clearly it can be seen here,
which we just seen in last slide this h is a pay zone thickness, this is reservoir pressure 𝑝𝑒 at a
distance re that is the boundary of the reservoir, 𝑟𝑒 is the radius of the wellbore, and that pressure
at that point is 𝑝𝑤𝑓 . The p represents pressure at any particular location at a particular time
between re and 𝑟𝑤 .
. (Refer Slide Time: 11:34)
The next part is flow regime, so when the well is completed, production is supposed to start, and
when we open the well for the production at a constant flow rate q, what we see, the flow rate q
is maintained constant, q and the pressure at the well bore and the production is not happening it
is reservoir pressure 𝑝𝑖 or 𝑝𝑒 and when the production starts, the pressure at the wellbore start
declining because of the pressure difference only the flow will happen.
So the pressure is declining over time and achieving some pseudosteady state condition called
semi- steady state condition. During this time, it is first going through the transient phase, and
later on, it is the later transient phase. Altogether, we can say, in this region or at the early time
of the production, the condition is transient, and the pressure is changing with respect to time.
In steady state condition, what happens, there is no change in pressure with respect to time as
well as position, means no reservoir information can be obtained under steady state condition
because nothing is changing with respect to time, and this is not phenomena which frequently
occur in the reservoir, actually this has only occurred when we maintain the pressure of the
reservoir at a constant value by some external means.
The most common phenomena that happens in reservoir is semi steady state condition. As we
can see from here, when the pressure is declining, and reaching some semi steady state condition,
the reservoir will be flowing or will be producing the gas for most of the time and the reservoir
pressure will be behaving like this.
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So from 𝑝𝑤𝑓 to 𝑝𝑒 , there will be pressure gradient, that pressure gradient will be constant at a
particular location, change in value of p with respect to r will be constant throughout this region
as well as additional boundary condition will be obtained that says, pressure change with respect
to the position at 𝑟𝑒 = 0, means, there is no influx of any fluid is happening from the boundary
condition, and in this condition, the change in pressure with respect to time will be constant for
any position x and any time t.
ⅆ𝑝
Here it is ⅆ𝑡 = 0 under the steady state condition. In transient condition, your pressure changes
with respect to time and is a function of both position x and time t. And these phenomena are
very important when we do the gas well testing, we will learn the gas well testing after the IPR
where we will see how the transient condition can help us to understand more information about
our reservoir what exactly happens near the well bore.
When we are doing the pressure transient test, it means we are playing with our test well doing
some test at understanding how the properties of reservoir are going to evaluated with the help of
gas well test. Like the MI steady state condition, we can establish the IPR relationship with the
field data and represent more accurately what exactly happens in the reservoir or in a particular
reservoir.
That information, gas well testing will be learned after the IPR classes. If we move further, we
want to develop the mathematical relationship for the phenomena when q is related to pressure
gradient from reservoir properties, from fluid properties. We understand the relationship of IPR
is going to be affected because of the changes in the properties of the fluid. Knowing the
properties of reservoir will allow us to establish that relationship, and that can be accomplished
with the help of material balance equation for radial flow, single gas flow from a reservoir well.
Analytical and empirical expressions can be established for IPR. In today’s class we are going to
understand the analytical expression, means from fundamental theory, we can relate q with
pressure difference that is existing in the reservoir, which is responsible for flow in terms of
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reservoir properties as well as fluid properties. It will be established under certain assumptions
like the phase is only single phase, that is gas phase, types of flue will also affected.
For example, when we are assuming our gas is compressible or in fact, natural gas is
compressible, because its density changes with pressure. So we will have the relationship and
how the density is changing with pressure, if it is not changing,. If it is semi or slightly
compressible it would be linear relationship, when it is compressible fluid the non-linear
relationship will exist between the pressure and density, and our natural gas is compressible in
the nature, we have to account that phenomena also in our mathematical balance equation.
We will solve for steady state and pseudo steady state conditions, because the boundary
condition those going to be applied on material balance equation will ultimately result in a
mathematical expression that is represent that particular flow behavior, either it is a pseudo
steady state or steady state condition. We will also see the expression for transient condition.
So the big expression that says, how q is related to the parameters those are appearing in this
expression, q is directly proportional to permeability, k. So if the reservoir is having more
permeability it is allowing the fluid to flow more towards the wellbore the flow rate can be
achieved at a higher value. Similar if the phase one thickness is high and entire pay zone
thickness is being used as a net pay zone thickness it means entire pay zone is contributing
towards the production, the q can be enhanced, if the h is high.
Other parameters appearing here like, s, this account for the skin effect and Dq. This accounts for
the non-Darcy behavior because this mathematical equation that is shown for pseudo steady state
condition has been established with the help of Darcy law. Darcy law is applicable only for the
laminar flow. When we face non Darcy behavior in the flow we also have to account for some
coefficient that can be accounted with the help of Dq in this equation.
Other is 𝑟𝑒 and 𝑟𝑤 , T is also the reservoir average temperature is also in the denominator of this
equation. Important point here is this numerical coefficient. We will see when we are developing
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the relationship for steady state and pseudo steady state, we will see how this numerical
coefficient comes in the expression. And this value depends on the unit system chosen for a
particular parameter in the reservoir expression.
In this case, the q is represented in Mscf per day. All these are in US field unit system, and that is
why the value of 1/1424 appears in this expression as a numerical coefficient when we are using
the SI unit system the numerical coefficient will get changed. k is the effective permeability that
is represented in milli Darcy, h is thickness that is represented in feet.
m(p), and m(𝑝𝑤𝑓 ) are pseudo real gas pressures and the unit associated with it is pressure sqaure
per centipoise or psi square per centipoise in the US field unit system. T in Rankine, 𝑟𝑒 and 𝑟𝑤
are in feet, s has no unit, its a skin factor that as no unit, D is the non-Darcy coefficient, and the
unit is day per Mscf.
As we are going to deal with a US field unit system, and sometimes its important to convert from
other unit system to US field unit system. We have to be more careful about adjusting this
numerical coefficient that is appearing here, and this expression is based on certain assumptions
like flow is single phase flow and gas is compressible, homogenous reservoir is considered
means the pay zone thickness and the porosity are not varying, similar isotropic nature means the
permeability or the reservoir properties are constant in all the directions.
Constant permeability was assumed, flow is radial only. First, it is started with the laminar flow
and later on it has been extended for non-Darcy flow.
So let us set up the mathematical equation how to achieve the expression which is just shown in
the last slide. That can be done by applying the conservation of mass, which simply says mass is
concerned whatever goes in, equal to whatever comes out plus whatever is left within the system
or within the control volume or in simple way, out – in = accumulation.
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We are going to establish the mathematical expression under certain assumptions we are having
for our system single-phase flow, compressible nature of the gas, homogenous properties, and
isotropic nature of the reservoir. So let us start with the shell balance as we do in our courses
especially in the fluid mechanics class, where we establish the shell balance at a distance r from
the reservoir, from the center of wellbore at a distance r, there is slab of 𝛥𝑟 thickness, we can
write the in and out type of the material balance equation and you can get the mathematical
model.
So let us see what we do for the mass conservation equation for this thickness 𝛥𝑟, which is at r
distance, the mass balance equation simply says q.𝜌, q is volumetric flow rate this is multiply
with density, rho at a condition in that is 𝑟 + 𝛥𝑟, so from here the fluid is entering – whatever
comes out is again q.𝜌 at r = accumulation.
Accumulation can be represented in terms of change in volume multiply by density, and this
volume can be represented as 2𝜋rhdr, 𝛥𝑟 is the thickness of that slab. This is not the volume
where the gas is going to store, from our properties of natural gas class we understand the
volume which is being occupied by the natural gas should be the actual volume multiplied by the
porosity, and this is the volume that will be used by the natural gas to get accumulated in that
slab.
If we assume our delta r tense to 0, we can write this in the form of derivative, and that is simply
ⅆ(q.𝜌) ⅆ𝜌
coming out is ⅆ𝑟 = 2 𝜋 r h 𝜙 ⅆ𝑡 . Here you see what we assume h is constant; that is why it can
be taken out. We again assume here phee is also constant, that is porosity so this is porosity, h is
pay zone thickness, this entire thing is the volume occupied by the gas, and this called the mass
flux rate in the equation.
This equation includes this q and the flow is happening through a porous media. To understand
how the flow is happening in the pores media, we have to go to Darcy law to establish the
relationship and how q is related to pressure.
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That can be done considering how reservoir properties are going to contribute for the
transportation equation that can be represented by the Darcy law. Darcy law simply says for a
ⅆ(p)
radial flow condition, q = (A k / 𝜇) ⅆ𝜌 , k is a permeability of formation, allowing the fluid to
travel from one point to another point from reservoir domain to well bore.
Μ is the viscosity of the fluid being produced, so in our case it is natural gas, the viscosity of
natural gas, viscosity of let us write viscosity of fluid, and A is the area that is 2 𝜋 r h. h is pay
zone thickness. Here minus sign comes when we are writing for the axial flow but in the radial
flow the pressure drop is happening in the same direction when the radius is also getting reduced
so the minus sign will go away. With the help of this we can modify out material balance
equation or the mass balance equation.
In that equation, we are having density of the fluid also and the natural gas is compressible by
nature. So we have to modify that equation for that density term also, that can be represented in
thermal compressibility definition, for a compressible fluid under isothermal condition the
ⅆ𝑣
compressibility, C can be defined as (1 – v) ⅆ𝑝 at isothermal condition. We know this from our
properties of natural gas class. Change in volume with respect to pressure under isothermal
condition divided by volume = compressibility of that gas.
This can be modified in the form of density, we know 𝜌 = m / v, if we substitute this we will get
1
ⅆ( ) ⅆ( 𝜌)
𝜌
– 1 / 𝜌 ( ⅆ𝑝 ) at T and finally we are going to get 1 / 𝜌 ( ) or in other form we can write this
ⅆ𝑝
C rho del p is equal to del rho, and whenever we needed we can take the derivative with respect
to time or derivative with respect to position also of this equation to replace in our basic
equation.
When we substitute the fluid properties, and the reservoir properties by the Darcy law and use
equation of the state for the real gas, that simply says pv = nzRT, or in other form 𝑝1 𝑉1 = 𝑛𝑧1 R𝑇1
means the real gas law at one condition = real gas law at second condition. We can replace
several parameters that appear in our material balance equation to get the basic form of the IPR,
which allows us to understand how these parameters are going to affect. In equation of the state
we assume one of the condition as standard condition and under standard condition our 𝑧2
becomes 1. So if we include these in our previous equation of the mass balance, what are going
to get as a mass balance equation, we are going to get
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So what we did, we converted the equation of material balance density form to pressure form.
And solving this equation can give us the expression that is relate to how Q flow rate is related to
pressure, but this equation is not having any analytical solution, because the properties of the
fluid, as well as other properties like the compressibility of the fluid as well as the permeability
of the reservoir, are the function of pressure.
That is why this is not having any analytical solution, to solve this equation we have to make
other certain assumptions. So let us say what are the functions of pressure, density,
compressibility, viscosity. We assume our reservoir is isotropic. We can take this k permeability
outside. We can assume the reservoir is under isothermal condition, so T can also be either taken
as average or just one value that can be taken out of this derivate term.
So to solve this equation, we have make certain assumptions, certain approximation to account
for the changes happening in the properties and then only it can be solved. Simplest part is the
reservoir properties can be assumed constant. However, the changes in properties of the fluid
because the fluid is travelling from reservoir pressure to wellbore pressure, it is a very high
pressure zone. The pressure, and the properties like compressibility, viscosity will change
significantly. To account for those changes happening in these properties, we have to mix certain
assumptions, so let us see what we can do.
We can go to literature to under the nature of this property, so individually one properties is
changing for example, viscosity is changing with pressure, compressibility is changing, what the
𝑝 1
terms those are appearing in our equation, like 𝜇𝑧 or 𝜇𝐵 . 𝐵𝑔 , I will explain it is volume
𝑔
formation factor, we understand from our previous classes, how to relate volume formation
𝑝
factor for reservoir condition. 𝐵𝑔 , 𝜇𝑧 if we lump these parameters, and see how they are going to
change when the pressure is changing, will allow us, those can be taken out of the derivative
terms or the integral terms or not, if yes, we can take them out, or if not, we can substitute those
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in other form to make this equation soluble. So let us say, if we see the behavior, the pressure is
2𝑝
very high, region three is high pressure region. The properties, or the lumped properties 𝜇𝑧, for
example is becoming constant, it is not changing with pressure. So if we are having high pressure
𝑝 1
region, wherever this combination of 𝜇𝑧 or 𝜇𝐵 is appearing in the equation, we can take them as
𝑔
a constant value. When the lower side, or in the region 1, when the pressure is less than
𝑝 1
2000psia, we see, the p changes, affecting 𝜇𝑧 or 𝜇𝐵 varies linearly, it means this lumped
𝑔
parameter changes linearly with respect to pressure and for that region what we can assume, we
can assume this parameter is having linear relationship with p with some constant, let us say A.
𝑝 1
So with the assumption, we got for this region is 𝜇𝑧 or other way 𝜇𝐵 wherever it is appearing, we
𝑔
can assume it is a linear relationship with pressure with a constant A that shows the slope of that
linear relationship. When we are between 2000 and 3000 psi, the relationship is neither constant
nor linear. It has some curvature in the nature that may vary.
This case is discussed for very ideal condition, where the relationship this lumped parameter in
pressure are shown in this graph, there might be more complex situation. What if the situation is
like that when we take the lumped parameter constant or where we cannot take any linear
relationship of this lumped parameter with pressure, we should go with the m(p) approach and by
𝑝
the definition of m(p) approach what it does, it include 𝜇𝑧 in the form of m(p), it integrates this
term or this lumped parameter from base pressure to the pressure of interest, and during this
integration, it accounts all the changes are happening in individual parameter, p and 𝜇 and z
altogether and represent the true changes in the properties those are happening when the fluid is
travelling from a distance from one pressure region to other pressure region.
Suppose we can afford to do the computational integration of this lumped parameter to estimate
m(p). In that case, it should always go with m(p) approach because m(p) approach does not
assume it is a linear relationship or it is a constant relationship. You can see this m(p) approach
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𝑝
can be substitute to p2 approach when we see this is constant, and we do the integral we can
𝜇𝑧
calculate this value of viscosity and compressibility factor at average value.
In both the cases, region 1, and region 3, how to calculate the value of the coefficient because
pressure is changing, which one I should have taken high pressure is region or low pressure
region, so it is approximated further in the p approximation. All the parameters, all the values of
the fluid properties should be calculated at an average reservoir pressure or the arithmetic
average reservoir pressure.
While in this region, when the linear relationship is there, the average pressure should be used to
2
calculate the value. That average should be calculated like (𝑃𝑒2 + 𝑃𝑤𝑓 )/ 2 and square root of this
term, okay. In this region, we already integrate the term from 𝑝𝑏 to p and as small as interval we
are choosing for this integration. The more accurate result we are going to get.
So now from this understanding, we can see, the basic IPR equation can be modified or can be
linearized to make it solvable. So when we are having this equation, mass balance equation, we
can do the substitution for some of the parameter to get the linear form of this. One of the way
we can do is, let us say where we can assume the constant, T is constant and gamma g is also
constant ,what we can do the rho that is still here can be represented as (2.7 g gamma P)/ zT.
ⅆ𝑝
Now gamma g is constant, so we can take it out. Another thing is, we can replace this 2p ( ⅆ𝑟 ) can
ⅆ𝑝2
be represented as( ). So by doing all these things, we can make this assumption or
ⅆ𝑟
𝑝 𝑝
approximation of below 2000psi possible, and say 𝜇𝑍 or 2 𝜇𝑍 is linearly related to pressure. Now
with the help of this expression, we can substitute all this in this equation, and finally we get is,
1 𝜕 𝜕𝑚(𝑝) 𝜙𝜇𝑐 𝜕𝑚(𝑝)
(𝑟 ) = .
𝑟 𝜕𝑟 𝜕𝑟 𝑘 𝜕𝑡
So this is in the form of p approximation, if we substitute everything, what we are going to get is
1 𝜕 𝜕𝑝2 𝜙𝜇𝑐 ⅆ𝑝2
(𝑟 𝜕𝑟 ) = 𝑘 ⅆ𝑡 . So what we did, we transformed the basic IPR equation in the form of 𝑝2 ,
𝑟 𝜕𝑟
so this is linear in terms of 𝑝2 . Now we can solve this equation for 𝑝2 . Similarly we can linearize
that equation for m(p) approach also, by the definition of m(p).
We know this is a pseudo real gas pressure that is equal to p base pressure to the pressure of
1
interest 𝜇𝑍 dp and, if we do the derivative of this with respect to r, we are going to guess this
2 𝜕𝑝 𝜕𝑚(𝑝) 2𝑝 𝜕𝑝
term, 𝜇𝑍 𝜕𝑟 , and with respect to time = = 𝜇𝑧 So now in the equation or basic IPR
𝜕𝑡 𝜕𝑡
equation, that is in the form of p, we can go with substituting these two and get the relationship
in the terms of m(p).
And when we do that what the basic IPR equation in the form of m(p) we can get is
1 𝜕 𝜕𝑚(𝑝) 𝜙𝜇𝑐 ⅆ𝑚(𝑝)
(𝑟 𝜕𝑟 ) = 𝑘 ⅆ𝑡 . So this is the basic IPR equation in the form of m(p), and seeing this
𝑟 𝜕𝑟
equation we can say, all the properties are appearing here, all the parameter those are appearing
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in this term, 𝜙 and k are the reservoir properties, 𝜇 and z are fluid properties. Other fluid
properties are accounted in the m(p) for the changes are happening.
This 𝜇 can be calculated at average reservoir pressure condition, so this IPR equation now
becomes linear in the form the m(p), and it can be solved with certain assumptions that we made
during the derivation of this basic IPR equation. First thing, we have to apply the boundary
conditions to solve this equation. We can further establish the relationship for steady state and
pseudo steady state condition.
The m(p) approach needs computation facilities to calculate ,and if we cannot afford to write the
computer program, we have to look some other approach like 𝑝2 approximation or p
approximation or in other terms, we have to go to some imperial correlations that will be
discussed in the next class.
When are talking about steady state IPR, what we get for the steady state condition, the boundary
condition we get or the initial condition we get, del p / del t is 0 for entire duration or the
reservoir is under steady state condition. Similar we can write for m(p) form also or 𝑝2 form also
ⅆ𝑚(𝑝)
= 0, just substituting this on the right hand side of our basic IPR equation and that basic
ⅆ𝑡
1 𝜕 𝜕𝑚(𝑝)
IPR equation in the form of m(p) is 𝑟 𝜕𝑟 (𝑟 )= 0.
𝜕𝑟
So the right hand side becomes 0 for steady state condition, and under steady state condition that
I emphasized, no reservoir information can be obtained, this is just a kind of hypothetical
situation when we assume, nothing is changing with respect to time. If we solve this with the
help of Darcy law, what we are going to get is, we can replace some of things here, when we do
ⅆ
the first integral of this term ,what we are going to get ⅆ𝑟 will go away and we are going to get
ⅆ𝑚(𝑝)
r. = constant.
ⅆ𝑟
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To know the value of constant, we have to use the Darcy law and Darcy law simply says at r =
𝑟𝑤 , near or at the wellbore, the production q will be 2𝜋rh, this is the area, permeability k viscosity
ⅆ𝑝
𝜇, at r = 𝑟𝑤 . From this equation we can convert this into m(p) form also that =
ⅆ𝑟
ⅆ𝑚(𝑝)
(2𝜋rhk/𝜇) at r = 𝑟𝑤 .
ⅆ𝑟
We can substitute in the equation, and can get the value of constant, and the value of constant
𝑞𝑝 1
will be c = . When we are putting this in the equation along with the gas law that is qp / z T
𝑧 𝜋𝑘ℎ
at condition 1 = qp / zT, R is cancelled out that is common in both the condition 1 and 2, even
the 𝑧2 if it is standard condition let us write is 𝑞𝑠𝑐 , 𝑝𝑠𝑐 /𝑇𝑠𝑐 , 𝑧𝑠𝑐 .
So the 𝑝𝑠𝑐 the standard pressure, 14.7 Psi, Tsc is the standard temperature or obsolete
temperature that is 520 Rankine and 𝑍𝑠𝑐 = 1 and if we substitute both of them in the equation for
ⅆ𝑚(𝑝) 1
the steady state, we are going to get 𝑟 = 𝑞𝑠𝑐 T (𝑝𝑠𝑐 /𝑇𝑠𝑐 ). 𝜋𝑘ℎ and integrating this from 𝑝𝑒 to
ⅆ𝑟
𝑞𝑠𝑐
𝑝𝑤𝑓 , we are integrating in form of m(p) so m(𝑝𝑒 ) to m(𝑝𝑤𝑓 ) we can integrate this, and get ( )
𝑇 𝜋𝑘ℎ
(𝑝𝑠𝑐 /𝑇𝑠𝑐 ), integrating from 𝑟𝑒 to 𝑟𝑤 , dr / r. By doing this separation of variable we can integrate
this.
After the integration we are going to get the expression of this form, m(𝑝𝑒 ) – m(𝑝𝑤𝑓 ) = 𝑞𝑠𝑐 ,still
let us write in the form of standard condition first, multiply by reservoir temperature, standard
𝑟 𝑟
pressure, standard temperature, 𝑙𝑛 (𝑟𝑒 ), this 𝑙𝑛 (𝑟𝑒 ) came from the integral of previous slide. We
𝑤 𝑤
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can adjust this equation in the form of 𝑞𝑠𝑐 that says kh/T multiply by pressure difference, m(𝑝𝑒 ) –
𝑟
m(𝑝𝑤𝑓 ), divided by the radius relationship 𝑙𝑛 (𝑟𝑒 ), multiply by 𝑇𝑠𝑐 /𝑝𝑠𝑐 .
𝑤
When we substitute the value for 𝜋, standard temperature, standard pressure, we are going to get
some numerical coefficient here and other things will remain the same, like kh /T ( m(𝑝𝑒 ) –
𝑟
m(𝑝𝑤𝑓 ) ) divided by 𝑙𝑛 (𝑟𝑒 ). This numerical coefficient will depend on the unit system has been
𝑤
chosen. So for example if US field unit system is chosen, the value will be 703 x 10 ^(-6).
So if US field unit system is chosen the value for this x’ will be like this 703 x 10 ^(-6) and in
this case, the q is measured in mscf per day, k is in Darcy h in feet, pressure m(p) is in Psi square
per centipoise and the radius re and rw are in feet, temperature in degree Rankine, that is why in
US field unit system the numerical coefficient comes out like, this when we are measuring in SI
unit system the value of this x prime will be 7.63 x10 ^( -7) and in this case the Q is measured
Qsc is measured in standard meter cube per day, k is measured in milli Darcy the h in meter and
m(𝑝𝑒 ) and m(𝑝𝑤𝑓 ) ,both are measured in kilo Pascal square per Pascal second, radius re and rw
they are measured in meter and because of that unit system has been chosen in numerical
coefficient will get changed, and that we should be careful when we are writing this
mathematical expression and we are assigning the unit for each parameter that is appearing in the
expression.
Another thing could be the Pe, reservoir pressure can be express in the average reservoir pressure
and that can be done with the help of volumetric average or taking the volumetric average of the
reservoir pressure, comes out as 2/𝑟𝑒2 , 𝑟𝑤 to 𝑟𝑒 , mpr dr, because this is 𝜋𝑟𝑒2 ℎ𝜙. So by doing all
this thing we can get the steady state IPR equation in the form of general pressure, average
pressure or the pressure from the volumetric average.
Similar can be done for 𝑝2 approach and p approach. You can solve in the similar manner for
this steady state condition for 𝑝2 approach as well as p approach.
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Now what happens under the pseudo steady state condition, if we see by the definition of pseudo
steady state we are having this boundary condition or the condition says the pressure changes
with respect to time is constant. So the basic IPR, equation on the right hand side, what we are
going to get is a constant value, instead of 0 that we got in steady state condition. Pseudo steady
state condition we are going to get this relationship which is the function of, so this is function of
r and t, but at a particular r and t the value is constant and, another condition we are having
change in pressure with respect to position at r = 𝑟𝑒 is 0.
Using this equation in the basic form of IPR let us write again in the form of m(p) we have
1 ⅆ ⅆ𝑚(𝑝) 𝜙𝜇𝑐 ⅆ𝑚(𝑝)
(𝑟 ⅆ𝑟 ) = 𝑘 ⅆ𝑡 . If we substitute using the compressibility as well as knowing the real
𝑟 ⅆ𝑟
1 𝜕 𝜕𝑚(𝑝)
gas law, we can get the expression 𝑟 𝜕𝑟 (𝑟 𝜕𝑟 ), so this is left hand side that will remain
constant on the other side we are going to get – 2 p q /( 𝜋𝑟𝑒2 k z h ) By doing the substitution,
using the Darcy law and the compressibility of the gas, we are going to get this.
ⅆ𝑚(𝑝)
Integrating first time, we will get 𝑟 ⅆ𝑟 = - pq 𝑟 2 /( 𝜋𝑟𝑒2 h k z) + constant, because of the
integration. Constant can be obtained by the boundary condition because we know from this
ⅆ𝑚(𝑝)
at r = 𝑟𝑒 will also be 0, and putting this condition we can get the value of constant C1 will
ⅆ𝑟
be equal to pq / (𝜋 k h z), substituting this back here, and integrating one more time, we can get
relationship for m(p) with respect to q, and let us say how we can do that.
So after substituting c1 we got d m(p) / d r – pq 𝑟 2 / 𝜋𝑟𝑒2 k h z) + pq /( 𝜋 k h z), integrating this

from m(𝑝𝑒 ) to m(𝑝𝑤𝑓 ), and other side from re to rw for –pq / (𝜋 k h z) ( r / 𝑟𝑒2 + 1/ r) with respect
to r, and assuming the reservoir radius is too large compared to the wellbore radius that true also,
𝑟𝑤2 / 𝑟𝑒2 will be lesser than 1.
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Substituting all these thing using the gas law, we are going to get the expression is in the form of
m(𝑝𝑒 ) – m(𝑝𝑤𝑓 ) = p q / (𝜋 k h z) ( ln re / rw – 1 / 2). So this is the IPR to the form of m(p) for
pseudo steady state condition.
This equation can be adjusted to get the Qsc, that is equal to some numerical coefficient again let
us write it X’ again, (kh /T) (m(𝑝𝑒 ) – m(𝑝𝑤𝑓 )) /( ln re /rw – 1 / 2). So this is the same expression,
what has been solved earlier on the first or second slide where it says the flow rate under
standard condition is a function of pressure draw-down, this means reservoir pressure – the
pressure at the sand face, and it also depends on the properties of the fluid as well as reservoir.
Here the X’, again the numerical factor that depends on the unit system has been chosen. The
same expression could be written in the form of 𝑝2 , and 𝑝2 approximation can be assumed. The
similar exercise can be done as we did for m(p), similar can be done for p approximation also.
The relationship between Q and 𝑝𝑤𝑓 and pe can be established in the form of p, 𝑝2 and m(p).
So let us summarize the analytical expressions those have been developed for steady state
condition and pseudo steady state condition in today’s class. The final form here, simply says
how pressure difference is going to be related to q for steady state, and pseudo steady state. As
you see, there is an additional term appearing here, this is because of the boundary condition is
different in pseudo steady state condition compared to steady state.
Suppose the equation is represented in the form of reservoir pressure like pe. In that case, the
pressure at reservoir boundary re, the expression simply r will be replaced by re here. In the
pseudo steady state condition we will get addition term because of rw / re replacing this re for re
will cancel out. When we are taking the volumetric average at the reservoir pressure, the
additional term will appear in the steady state condition. Similarly in the pseudo steady state
condition, this term will get modified and converted into -3 / 4.
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So the similar expression can be written for 𝑝2 approach and m(p) approach. We solve for m(p)
approach, are just shown the expressions here in the form of p, similar can be done for
𝑝2 approach also. The expression can be formulated to known-parameters for example, volume
formation factor is known for a particular gas well reservoir, we can substitute some of the
parameter like we know volume formation factor 𝐵𝑔 = 0.000 ZT / p.
Suppose we know some of the parameters those cannot be estimated. In that case, we can replace
them always in the form of some other parameters those values are given to us or those values
can be calculated easily. As shown, the formation factor can be used to substitute some of the
values here. It can be substituted here in this form, and we can get the expression for q versus
pressure drawdown. This relationship is called IPR .
127
Here it is shown in all three forms, pseudo approximation, pseudo reduce pressure, and a square
pressure form for steady state condition. You will see the expression looks same, it is just some
of the parameter those appears in the expression, otherwise the q is related to the pressure
difference, either in the form of p or in the form of m(p) or in the form of 𝑝2 . So q is always
related to the pressure drop-down,
Similar can be done for pseudo steady state condition, and the usually meaning of the term those
are appearing here are listed and the unit associated for each parameter is also summarizes in this
list, that says, the coefficient, again the coefficient will depends if the same unit are used for each
parameter, if any of the parameter is especially the radius or the area, some time reservoir area is
given in acre we have to use acre for US field unit system, or when we are converting the radius
from acre area we have to be careful because the radius is chosen here in this formula in the form
of feet.
One more thing that is transient condition, we call it infinite acting radial flow condition means a
transient condition, in this condition the well is producing in such a manner where the boundaries
of the reservoir are not felt, it actually happens near the wellbore region, and it happens mostly
the early time of the production when the well, just start producing, the pressure at the well bore
drop down to achieve the pseudo steady state condition. The expression here is shown, which
also count for the t, time that shows how the pressure is changing and the time to reach pseudo
steady state condition can be calculated with this formula.
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So, to summarize, in today’s class we understood, how to set up the stead state and pseudo
steady state conditions from the mass balance equation. So this is mass conservation equation,
considering the thickness of the slab tends to 0 we can get the derivative of this form. using the
Darcy law and properties of the fluid, compressibility, we can establish the mass balance
equation in the basic form or the IPR form. It won't have a solution, we can make certain
approximations in p form, 𝑝2 form or m(p) form to linearize the equation, and get the solution
for steady state condition and pseudo state condition that we did in today’s class.
(Refer Slide Time: 01:00:25)
In the next class, we learn how the other parameters not discussed today like the skin effect, and
the non- Darcy effect, will add in the material balance equation and the more complex form of
the reservoir IPR will be established. The empirical correlations that are developed will also be
discussed in the next class. With this, I would like to end my class today and see you in the next
class. Thank you very much.
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Prof. Pankaj Tiwari
Module No # 02
Lecture No # 08
Inflow Performance Relationship (IPR) – II
Today’s lecture is a continuation of the previous lecture, where we discussed the inflow
performance relationship, so I named this lecture as IPR 2. Before we move further, let us revise
what we did in the last lecture.
This is a petroleum production system. We are working on this. The IPR relationship has been
developed for flow through porous media to wellbore. So in the last class, we were developing
the relationship using the mathematical relationship as material balance. We could establish the
relationship with how the flow rate is a function of pressure drow-down that is the pressure of
reservoir minus the pressure of wellbore.
The wellbore is also known as the sand face, and with this relationship, we could understand how
the fluid properties and the reservoir properties are accounted in the mathematical expression, so
the big expression looks like this.
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So if we see, the flow through this reservoir depends on the flow regime, that is steady state,
unsteady state, or the transient .We discussed all these things in the last class. The expression
written here is for the pseudo steady state condition. It says, how q, the production rate under
standard condition is related to permeability and the pay zone thickness, h and this is in the form
of pseudo real gas pressure.
So in the last class, we discussed the different forms of writing the mathematical expressions,
that is the p approach, p2 , and m(p) approach. This approach has been adopted to make that non-
linear equation that appears because of the material balance, that we can linearize this, using the
approximation.
We discussed all these things. This expression for the steady state and pseudo steady state using
all three approximations is based on certain assumptions. We discussed in the last class, we said
the flow is single gas flow in the reservoir, the gas is compressible in the nature, the reservoir is
homogenous in terms of porosity and pay zone thickness as well as isotropic in terms of
permeability.
The fully radial flow was assumed, and the laminar, means viscous flow regime was considered
so the Darcy law as applied to stimulate or replace the expression in the mathematical balance
equation. It is important, in what unit each term which is appearing in this mathematical equation
is defined. If we change the unit of any of this parameter, the numerical coefficient that is in this
equation is 1/1424 will take the different numerical value.
So one should be very careful in what unit system is adopted, either the US field unit system or
the SI unit system as well as in a particular unit system, the definition of each parameter should
be considered with unit system, accordingly the numerical coefficient should be adjusted. For
example the area may be given in Inch square or in ft square depending in which unit it is given
and how it is going to affect our mathematical equation, It should be corrected with the
conversion factor.
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You will see a small difference in a steady state or pseudo state case. That is in the ln something
and that is appeared because of the boundary condition applied. If we choose the average
reservoir pressure the expression takes different form, here we get 1 / 2 because 𝑟𝑒 = 𝑟𝑝 , if we
choose the reservoir pressure at the re location, and we use as average pressure means volumetric
average pressure.
We get additional term here in the steady state, -1 / 2 and, -3 / 4 in the pseudo steady state
condition. This we had done in the last class, similar expression can be written for p2 and m(p)
approach.
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We understood how the approximation should be chosen, p approach, p2 approach or m(p)
approach should be chosen. The choice depends on this curve, roughly, because the properties or
𝑝 1
the combination of properties like 𝜇𝑍 or 𝜇 𝐵 , 𝐵𝑔 is a volume formation factor, how this particular
𝑔 𝑔
term that is appearing in our material balance equation is a function of pressure.
We can change from one unit system to the other. One parameter set to the other parameter set
for example here, the formation volume factor, if ZT and p are not known if the formation
volume factor value is given to us we can always use this relationship to replace some of the
parameters and those has been done here for a pseudo steady state case.
Similar can be done for steady state case or any other form and as well as here I had mentioned
in terms of the pseudo real gas pressure that can be done for pressure approach and p2 approach.
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To summarize, the IPR looks differently in steady state conditions. One will always see
everything is same except how we are changing from pressure term to pseudo reduced pressure
term and from pseudo reduced pressure term to p2 approach. That is given here how m(p) and
p2 can be approximated if the pressure is less than 2000psi. So, depending on the approximation
that we discussed, the particular form can be taken. If you see here in the first expression, the 𝐵𝑔
volume formation factor is considered instead of the temperature here.
Whatever the properties are known to us, we can choose appropriate form of the IPR equation, as
well as the accuracy needed or the computation facilities available we can choose particular
approach like p, p2 or m(p) approach. Again the unit system should be defined for each
expression otherwise, the numerical coefficient in the expression will be changed.
In pseudo steady state case, if you compare the steady state case, in pseudo steady state case the
only think is here, that is, 0.472 is appearing in the log form and this is because of, if you
remember the table when we compared this steady state or pseudo steady state cases we have
𝑟 𝑟
addition term – 3 / 4. If we club this with 𝑙𝑛 (𝑟𝑒 ) we are going to get this 𝑟𝑒 and, this expression
𝑤 𝑤
has this addition term in the denominator for the pseudo state otherwise, everything is same.
So, if a particular problem given to u, the properties are given to us, for the reservoir formation
or the fluid properties or at least the pressure conditions at the desired locations are given to us.
We can estimate the relationship, how my flow rate will change with a particular parameter.
That particular parameter could be the pressure at the wellbore or change in the permeability, or
change in the viscosity of the gas, or change in the wellbore radius, or could be change in the
reservoir's radius any other parameter that is appearing in the expression. For example q is
directly proportional to permeability, if the permeability is increasing our flow rate may get
increased.
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For example, lets say the gas of specific gravity of 0.65 is produced from a reservoir and the
wellbore diameter is given to us. Let us say X and the h, pay zone thickness are given to us, for
example is given in this example is 78 feet. So from 78 feet long pay zone thickness the radially
fluid is flowing to a diameter of Di, that is also I can write in a numerical term that is 7-7/8 inch.
And the area from the drainage area, other temperature and pressure is given to us. So, the
temperature at the reservoir or the average temperature is given to us and the condition at the
wellbore, what is the pressure at the wellbore or the average pressure of the reservoir?. Now, we
can calculate what is not given to us, like if we are using the formation volume factor 𝐵𝑔 we can
calculate that thing.
Of course the question becomes which method should be chosen. The approach we can choose
depends on the pressure value, the range of this pressure, or the pressure through which the gas
will flow like from reservoir pressure to wellbore pressure. If they are below 2000psi, we can go
with p2 approach, if higher than 3000 psi we can go with p approach.
Those are the simplest approaches, and if it is in between 2000-3000, we should go with m(p)
approach and what we can do, we can calculate the relationship between, how value in a
different conditions, like p2 , p or m(p) approach, what is the value of flow rate I am going to get
and if I change the flowing condition, so this is my Q and if change my flowing condition bottom
wellbore pressure if I change, how this Q is going to change we can record this and we can have
a IPR curve construction.
In this example, it was given like you are having the pressure at around 4600, reservoir pressure
is 4613 psia. It was then asked to calculate the flow rate when the bottom wall pressure is 3000
psi. So it is very clear from this that the pressure range is 3000 to 4000. We can go directly to the
simplest form of the IPR, that is the p approach and we can calculate, but let us consider for the
comparison purpose.
If we calculate with p2 approach and m(p) approach how much deviation we will get, we will
discuss these things later on. But we can do that thing. Every method will give us the different
value and the different value will come because the parameters involved in the mathematical
expression are calculated at different pressure conditions.
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In this class, we will understand further about this IPR relationship and the inflow performance
curve or the relationship can be expressed with two other parameters. So the two other
parameters commonly used in the gas industry or gas production system, are the productivity
index and the absolute open flow condition..
Analytical expression so far we developed is based on certain assumptions like only radial flow
is happening, only gas is getting flowed from this reservoir to wellbore. Only Darcy law is
applicable, means flow is under the laminar conditions, or the permeability is constants means
isotropic reservoir condition. Now we will extend to some more realistic data. We are deviating
from ideal case or towards the real case, but not comprehensive real case. We can consider two
more phenomena those happen when the production happens like, the skin effect and non-Darcy
effect, those two we will be discussed.
Further as we had seen in the analytical expression, we need certain parameters like the
permeability, pay zone thickness, viscosity of the gas and some other things. So the solutions for
the situation when we do not have the values for those parameters are the empirical method. In
fact empirical methods are more accurate than the analytical expression and the field test data
can be used to have empirical relationships.
The empirical relationship established in the gas industries, we can call them the back pressure
approach that is also the called the deliberability approach. We will discuss that in detail that the
simplified treatment approach. Another approach developed by the Forchhiemer and that is
account more regressively about non-laminar behavior means when the laminar inertial turbulent
treatment approach is called and, in that case the quadratic form of the flow equation with
respect to dp, with respect to pressure gradient is proposed by Forchhiemer.
Modification in IPR equation should be done when we are having the fracture or the horizontal
conditions in the well flow and or multiple wells. So the discussion of IPR- 2 will be around this
subject. Productivity index can be defined as the flow rate divided by pressure drawdown. That
simply says, the J that is productivity index is flow rate divided by the pressure draw down.
Here I am saying that in the form of the pseudo real gas pressure, m(p), similar expression can be
written for p2 or p approach. So we re-adjust our equation of the IPR for m(p) approach. In this
case, we will get, if we take Q on the numerator and pressure gradient or pressure drawdown in
the denominator.
Whatever remains on the side is kh upon the part, that should be here and all these k h t are the
reservoir properties, like permeability and pay zone thickness. We can say J depends only on
reservoir properties and J value is very important because it can give us the flexibility to find out
certain things.
So for example, if we adjust our equation ,we get very simple form Q = J multiply by the
pressure difference here, the pressure difference in m(p) form and this situation when the
reservoir pressure and bottom whole pressure. Bottom whole pressure means sand phase pressure
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sometimes it is called the flowing bottom hole pressure. If both become equal 𝑝𝑤𝑓 = 𝑝𝑒 , in that
case whatever the approach we are using either the p, p2 or m(p) approach, the Q will be simply
0, means no production is happening and that will be the situation here.
So when we are not producing anything from the reservoir, the pressure at the bottom whole will
be equal to reservoir average pressure and that we can say here, in this situation point 1, we can
name it, and another situation could be there, where the bottom hole pressure is set as a
atmospheric pressure or absolute atmospheric pressure. Or in other terms, where my 𝑝𝑤𝑓 is 0,
m(𝑝𝑤𝑓 ) is also 0, and in that case where i will be in this chart, at point 2, the flow rate under this
condition will be the maximum flow rate.
There is major pressure draw down that is happening when my 𝑄𝑤𝑓 is set to 0. The production
under that condition will be the maximum production can be achieved from that particular well.
That situation is called the AOF, absolute open flow condition. We can write it as AOF, and so
this is a curve between pressure and flow. If we have two points, more than 2 points we can get
the curve, and that curve simply allow us, when this is intersecting at Q, we can say this is
absolute open flow condition, the maximum flow rate can be obtained. When intersecting the Y,
we can say this is reservoir pressure. The slope of this curve will give us 1/ J that is a reciprocal
of productivity index. So the productivity index has the unit that depends on the approach we are
using, p approach, p2 approach or m(p) approach, accordingly, this will get changed, but the
processor is same.
Q is the maximum flow, and AOF is the absolute open flow potential. This is the terminology
that is used just to communicate in the reservoir industry. Like what is the productivity index of a
particular reservoir, particular well, as well as this, can allow us to understand the IPR
relationship with just a single data point set. Irrespective reasons, we cannot shut down our well
for a longer duration. We are having just one set of data where our flow rate at a particular
bottom hole pressure, we can still develop the IPR relationship that allows us to construct the
IPR.
So for a single point analysis, we can get this maximum Q, max at a particular condition when
the 𝑝𝑤𝑓 is 0. Using this relationship when we have the equation 1, and equation 2, we can just
divide Q / Q max. So if we know what Q max or AOF condition for the reservoir is, one can
know the reservoir pressure, and develop the relationship of how Q will change at a particular
𝑝𝑤𝑓 .
So the relationship can be developed just using 1 single data point. That is always available when
our reservoir is being operated or the well is being operated at a particular flow rate. You know
what the 𝑝𝑤𝑓 at the bottom hole condition is. In some cases, when we need multiple data sets or
at least two data sets, they will be discussed later on.
So as discussed so far, what we did we consider just a laminar flow conditions, and very ideal
condition when the flow is just radially happening and before it is going to the wellbore, it is
having perforated region, the well bore is perforated, so the gas is just defusing in the well bore
without having any additional resistance, but that the ideal case near the well bore some other
phenomena happens that is we call the skin factor.
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The skin factor because of several reasons, the simplest reason being the damage happening near
the well bore. The damage may happen during the drilling part, during the well completion
time,or because of some other reasons like over the time the sand particular deposited in that
region. It is restricted it is not allowing the gas to flow as it was flowing under the ideal
condition.
So to account that, the restriction offered by this layer, we can see there is kind of a layer that is
getting deposited. So this is kind of a situation where we are having this well bore and near the
well bore something getting deposited here. Assume here is something happening over the time.
That could be like pressure that is offered some additional pressure change due to this deposition
or damage happening near the well bore.
The additional pressure change due to heterogeneity close to the well bore occurs. The deviation
from the ideal inflow happens near the well bore and that is should be accounted when we are
developing the more realistic mathematical expression. This deposition can be understood with
the concept of film coefficient in heat transfer. There is additional film on this surface of the heat
exchanger devices that offers the resistance.
The skin factor is very well used to quantity the magnitude of the skin effect that is happening
here, on the surface. So we can see, how this is going to be. So in ideal case, we were having the
reservoir pressure draw down like del P because of that the flow is happening , so we will call
this this is happening because of the Darcy law. The actual pressure drop will be not only
because of Darcy flow but also because of this skin effect.
This skin effect could be positive, could be negative. In most cases, it is positive until and unless
something happens in the well to reduce the damage, to eliminate the damage that happens to the
well. That could be done by acidizing the well, cleaning the well , by other means. This is my r
and the pressure that was happening like this. However, we are having this additional pressure
drop. This additional pressure drop del Ps is going to affect my Q.
Because I know the Q is related to the pressure gradient, now I got additional pressure gradient
and that additional pressure gradient will reduce the flow rate. So what exactly can be done, we
can do either in form of the m(p) or p2 or p approach, we can say this addition pressure in del
m(p) form is because of this skin factor. We can write this skin factor, S in the form of like this
so if we do this material balance as we did for the just a Darcy case we will get some additional
pressure drop.
That additional pressure drop can be written in form of the other parameters like how
permeability kh and the formation of volume factor and viscosity of the fluid is going to effect.
The expression can be written in form of the del p, whatever is appearing here we can denote that
as S, thats skin factor S. So for positive skin factor the S value will be added in the numerator of
the expression.
There are two cases when the well is getting damaged and well is damaged S is actually positive,
this skin factor is positive. It means near the well bore the permeability has been lower down so
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the K, skin in this case, when the S is positive, K skin is lesser than K. So what exactly having,
the fluid was flowing from here at a different at a particular permeability. Suddenly it got some
region when the permeability is low.
When the permeability is low it means pressure drop will happen there, and that pressure drop
can be accounted. When the S is negative it means near well bore is improved by any other
means, by cleaning or acidizing or something, in that case when the fluid was flowing from this
constant permeability, because we assume the constant permeability. Suddenly it experience a
permeability region, where the K of this region that we called skin region is greater than K.
So the fluid will flow at a higher rate, it will often less resistance and this situation of that type
will be like this. Here, the pressure drop is small compared to when the skin is there or when the
ideal gas is there when the pressure will be less than the ideal case and the flow will improve.
There might be situation when there is no skin and that case, the K skin near region will be equal
to K.
Suppose we write the expression, considering everything we did for the analytical expression,
without the skin effect. In that case, we get the expression where we are having this S in the
denominator of the expression. So the Q, if I take this here again the same expression as we are
having the standard equation for the IPR, we will see the addition term S appears in the
denominator and that is reciprocal to flow rate.
If S is positive, damage happens near wellbore, the Q will get reduced. So this is the way it is
going to affect. We can get these similar productivity index as we did without the skin effect in
the previous two slides back. We can get a similar analysis of how the AOF and Q will be
affected with the skin effect. Knowing that, we still have the single point test that allows us to
develop the IPR relationship or by sketching the relationship between the pressure and Q. We get
the AOF reservoir pressure and inverse of the productivity index by the slope.
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So the skin effect is just going to add in the denominator and going to offer the resistance, if it is
negative then of course the flow rate get improved, but what exactly it is doing, it is not changing
the nature of the equation. The nature of the equation is that Q is related to pressure gradient,
while if we go to another concept of non-Darcy effect, you will see the equation becomes
quadrate, still in the first order system where Q is related to pressure gradient.
It may be non-linear, so it may be non-linear equation because other parameters are involved so
the, of course the pressure drop down and flow rate is having the non-linear relationship but it
becomes second order or more non-linear when we having the second concept of the non- Darcy
flow regime.
There is a well which is producing under the Darcy law and, under the viscous condition, under
the isotropic condition. However, why any mean it happens, like the skin gets deposited, we
could account that thing also in the mathematical expression. However, the assumptions of
laminar flow are still there, while exactly what happens when we are having the radial flow. In
radial flow the area far from the well is having significant radius and the flow is going just like
this, towards the well.
So far from this it is not having the experience of change in the velocity very significantly when
it approaches near the well bore exactly what happens, the area that is 2 pie r h. So h is the phase
on thickness, which is constant, but the radial r is getting reduced when r is getting reduced, your
area is getting reduced and the definition of velocity v = q/A . So when the area is getting
reduced, our velocity will go up and this velocity increase crosses laminar region to high flow
region, high velocity region.
That is always the turbulent region, the velocity increases and that happens because the area is
getting reduced. Another reason is, gas expands, because our gas or our compressible gas when it
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goes near to this region, velocity increases pressure drop occurs. Additional pressure drop
happens and the volume formation expansion or the gas get expanded.
So because of this reason, primary reason is the velocity increase. The velocity increase says the
deviation is happening from the Darcy law. We have to account for this turbulent or the non-
Darcy behavior so Forchhiemer has developed the mathematical relationship. He said the flow is
happening under the non- Darcy region and the inertial forces are also becoming important. The
equation should be modified to account for both Darcy flow and non-Darcy flow.
So the pressure gradient in a, this is given for the axial position, like if you write in a radial
coordinate system, the minus will go away so the pressure gradient is because of the Darcy flow
that is our Darcy equation, and this is because of the non-Darcy equation, in terms of the
velocity, will be related to square of velocity some constant and the density. So the expression is
given, which accounts for Darcy and non- Darcy flow. We can convert this expression using the
relation like v = q/A in this form.
Where addition g are given for the gas case, that can be avoided simply, it is a Mu means
because our system is just a gas system. So this is the pressure gradient this is the summation of
Darcy and Non – Darcy, with the help of this equation written like this, we can replace the
density. We know density = 29 gamma g, or some other 29 gamma g is P / zRT we can replace.
Similarly to the Q, that is the reservoir condition, we can replace it to standard condition, that we
say Qsc, what exactly we can do we can say using this non- Darcy coefficient.
Total pressure gradient happening in the system under the actual condition is the summation of
pressure gradient because of the Darcy law or Darcy flow + pressure gradient because of the skin
factor. Similarly pressure gradient is happening because of non- Darcy flow, and as we did the
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equation adjustment for the simpl Darcy flow, later on we did with the inclusion of skin factor,
we can do similar for the non-Darcy flow also.
In the non- Darcy component, there is some beta prime that is beta prime is beta parameter of
gas. It is a function of porosity and permeability some time it is also function of the tortuosity.
Several expressions are given in the literature based on the experience, based on the several field
tests, how this turbulence coefficient or the turbulence parameter in this equation gets affected.
With the help of some other known- parameters are converting from 1 unit to the other, we can
write this beta in the form of F here, and F to, we can write in D form. Here you can see, the beta
that is appearing in the non- Darcy coefficient is a function of the permeability, and porosity.
beta is related to an additional term, we can say related to the fluid properties or the reservoir
properties in this form.
We write in the form of D, this expression can be adjusted here, equation can be adjusted for the
IPR which accounts all these pressure drawdown happening. Here I am showing the analysis by
different scientist on how to calculate the turbulence parameters and it is a function of porosity,
permeability or tortuosity or it is just a function of porosity or permeability so in different format
is given we can choose one of them and the mostly used expression is this.
So we got the overall expression for our system IPR curve that says how Q is a function of Darcy
flow as well as how it accounting S, the skin factor and how it is accounting the D, non-Darcy
flow, so D represent the non-Darcy coefficient or non- Darcy flow coefficient. Here you can say
if we adjust this equation Dq will multiply with Q and we will get the quadratic equation and that
is exactly what Forchcheimer said the in the case of Non- Darcy flow your Q and pressure will
be having a relationship and Q will be having the quadrate form.
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But we have adjusted in this equation simply says Q left hand side can be evaluated with this big
expression. Now in this expression we are having Q on the left hand side Q on the right hand
side; thus the iteration process is required like the newton Raphson method is a required. Not
only because of this region Q is that the both the places some properties like the viscosity,
viscosity calculations need some parameters those depends on the Q or the pressure conditions.
So the iteration is required with some a objective function to have the Q value in this P approach.
Similarly it can be written for m(p) approach we call the pseudo approach and p2 approach. We
already discussed under which condition we should use, but again I could emphasize, if we are
having the capacity to calculate to numerical integrate the pressure range, we should always go
with the m(p) approach because this is the most accurate approach.
So similar expression can be written for the pseudo steady state case. The IPR curve for pseudo
steady state are shown here, the difference is here only terms of 0.472 in each form otherwise
other expressions, the numerical expression all are same. Again I am emphasizing the numerical
coefficient will depend on the unit chosen to represent a particular parameter in the system, this
is the US field unit system.
So the production rate, from here we can say the production rate as a non-linear function of
pressure draw down, and so my Q is here, if I adjust this become non-linear in fact under certain
assumption, if we assume it become the quadratic nature. Now the parameter which we are seen
here is S and D, how to estimate them either we are having sufficient information of the
parameter those appears in their expression like for non-Darcy coefficient D we need to know
the beta, and beta depends on a permeability and porosity first, and later on it depends on the pay
zone thickness and other parameter.
So this can be done. The skin factor non- Darcy coefficient can be estimated based on pressure
transient analysis. This is the analysis that we will discuss in the next lecture: when we will be
discussing how the gas well testing can be performed, what does it means when we have a
reservoir, when we are having a well ready to produce we do certain type of the testing or the
reservoir to know certain parameters, unknown parameters as well as know the future
performance of a well we do analysis that is called the gas well analysis and discuss later on but
here I would like to emphasis. These values S and D can be estimated using some field test.
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So let us summarize it again, pseudo pressure approach for the pseudo steady state conditions,
we got this expression, and this expression simply can be adjusted to get other form, that I can
write it, for example, if I say my kh, all this thing is constant, and I can say this is let us say x so
what I will get q x m(𝑝̅) means sometimes it is written m(𝑝̅ ), sometime it is written m(𝑝̅)
0.0472𝑟𝑒
sometimes m(𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑓 ) – m(𝑝𝑤𝑓 ) divided by ln ( 𝑟𝑤
) + S + 𝐷𝑞 . I can write that way correct.
Now I will take all of them here so what I can write my q, sorry this ln is just here, ln, so my q
0.0472𝑟𝑒 𝐷𝑞 2
multiply by ln ( 𝑟𝑤
) + , and I will get m(p) – m(𝑝𝑤𝑓 ). So what I got, I got something that
𝑥
could be the constant, if my reservoir is having a constant radius re, if my wellbore is constant
radiant of 𝑟𝑤 , the skin at a particular time is S, similarly D, the porosity in permeability are
known of the reservoir are constant, we can say all this can be the constant.
So if I write, I can write this expression, m(p) – m(𝑝̅) and should write average m(𝑝𝑤𝑓 )= Aq +
Bq2 , this entire thing I can represent as A and this as a B. So what I did, I can simply transform
my relationship of this big expression in this form x is kh/1424T, so the k, permeability, h, pay
zone thickness, T is the temperature. So all these are the part of the system when no Darcy,
means non- Darcy flow was not there, it was case when the laminar flow was happening and the
Darcy equation was at adequate enough to represent the flow.
The A here just represents Darcy condition with the skin effect of course, and here B says that D
is truly the non- Darcy flow coefficient divided by some parameter that kh/1424T. So this
simply, because of the non- Darcy or the pressure draw down, difference, is non-linear function
of the flow rate or in fact it is a quadratic relationship with the flow rate with the coefficient A
and B, A represent for Darcy flow, B represent for non- Darcy flow.
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What I just discussed there, is explained here that is m(p) – m(𝑝𝑤𝑓 ) is Aq + Bq square, and this
model which is given by the Forchcheimer is also called the laminar inertial turbulent treatment
model because here we are having the system where other than laminar or deviation from the
laminar has been accounted in terms of the Bq2 , in this form. Now the question comes what is
this equation, how this equation is going to be useful and how to get the constant A and B, those
are the big expressions that we just represented in the form of A and B.
Either we can get the analytical expression, or this can be empirical correlations, means the field
test data can be collected over the time, can put here, and we can estimate the value of A and B,
because we understand, if we are having this expression and if this expression further adjusted in
m(𝑝̅) – m(𝑝𝑤𝑓 ) ivided by q, we are going to get A + Bq. So this quantity, if plotted with respect
to q, we will get the linear relationship and this linear relationship will give us A and B by
intercept and slope.
A similar thing has been done here in p2 approach. We can do the same for the m(p) approach or
p approach, so the expression is given in the m(p) approach while the graph is plotted for p2
approach just to show, yes, we have just need to have the left hand side divided by the flow rate
q, but we will get on the write hand side, just mx + C type of expression where we can have the
linear fitting for the curve and intersect will give us the A and slope will give us the B.
A1B1 is written, if we are getting the difference form, there could be other way this is the way
when we are having the multi rate data we can just put those data here and plot it. However, this
method, the empirical method allow us to calculate the value of A and B if we are having just 2
data set, means the well which can be just operated at two difference condition of flow rate, we
will be having the two different bottom hole pressures. If we get those two conditions we can get
the constant value we can get the B and A, just by adjusting this equations.
So for example this equation if we put it condition 1 and then condition 2, what we are going to
do, by adjustment, how to get constant B where it is the first condition, m(p) – m(𝑝𝑤𝑓 ), one
condition multiply by the flow rate of 2 – the pressure draw down, and that condition to multiply
by flow rate 1 divided by this expression. This can be done if we solve it algebraically, we will
get, how to get the value of B, once we know the value of B here, we can put it back and get the
value of A.
Now this can be done for p2 approach as well as p approach, similarly, as we did for this. By
knowing the A and B value we can put any value of 𝑝𝑤𝑓 . We can get the flow rate it means we
can operate our reserve our well at any condition 𝑝𝑤𝑓 to adjust the flow rate q.
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So another method, back pressure model this is a purely empirical method, that is also called the
deliberated methods, and in this method what is said, for example here you are having this
expression, let us assume we are not having this Dq and that Dq is just because of non- Darcy
affect. So we can say, we can write this q = all this is constant. I can write, let us say, I will write
C is a constant, is m(p) – m(𝑝𝑤𝑓 ).
So this is similar what we got the expression in the productivity index, and we can say this C
equivalent to what is A there in the Forchchiemer model or quadratic model, both are equivalent
C and A. The way those are calculated is different however for the case when we are not having
the Darcy coefficient, C and A are same and this C represent the Darcy flow in the system and
when we are having the non- Darcy effect, what we can do we can adjust this equation with
some exponent n and can say this n is going to represent going to account the changes is
happening in our model equation because of the non- Darcy flow.
So for example when n = 1, we have the fully Darcy flow condition, fully laminar flow
condition, means, no non-Darcy effect is there, but when n is getting changed or for example
when it is becoming 0.5, it mean we are having the fully turbulent flow condition. So the n value
is usually between 0.5 and 1, 0.5 represent for fully turbulent flow condition and 1 represent for
fully laminar condition.
But for having this relationship, what we got another empirical relationship. That empirical
relationship says, by any means if you can get the value of C and n, put those in this empirical
relation, get the IPR construction curve relationship, put different values of 𝑝𝑤𝑓 you will get
different values of the q, with the help of that you can construct the IPR curve. How to get the
value of C and n? Again if you have the multi rate test data we can plot by taking the logarithmic
of this.
And on log-log scale, if we plot the log q versus log of this expression, again here I am showing
in terms of p2 approach, it can be just done in the form of m(p) – m(𝑝𝑤𝑓 ). If we do that on the
log scale what we are going to get, this slope will be 1 / n and with the help of n we can get the
value of C from that. So with this expression we can get the C and n, with this test we will
estimate what is AOF, we will again estimate what is the reservoir pressure, and knowing the
value of n we can say the flow is still in the Darcy region it is deviating or going to non- Darcy
reason.
All these kind of the analysis will be done in a separate lecture, that is where we will having the
gas well testing analysis. If we know the condition of the well at two points, for example the well
is running we are operating at one point and the second point as we did for the Forchcheimer
model of the quadratic model we can say similar done for this back pressure model by running at
two different conditions, putting those two conditions in this log form of this empirical model.
We can get the value of n just log of flow rate 1/ flow rate divided by log of pressure drop down
one condition divided by pressure drop down is second condition. With the help of that we can
get n, putting n back in this equation, we can get for any one condition with the help of one
condition we can get the value of C.
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So now C and n are known to me, now i got my model equation, the model equation is known to
me, I can get any value of the 𝑝𝑤𝑓 to get. Both are empirical model, and most of the time these
empirical models are based on the field experience and until-unless there is not major changes
happening in the field, for example here is no changes are made in the formation, means any
mean has changed no permeability or there is a more changes are happening in the pay zone
thickness, there is no changes in the diameter of the pipe
Any condition is not changed even if the reservoir pressure is not changed significantly over
time. These equations are pretty much valid if we know the coefficient of equations like A and B
for the Forchchiemer equation and C and n for the back pressure model. Again I would like to
emphasis, both the empirical model can be written in p approach, p2 approach or m(p) approach.
T
he m(p) approach is more accurate because it accounts all the changes, those happens and those
changes happen because the viscosity and compressibility of the function of gas is pressure and
the pressure is changing from reservoir pressure to wellbore the pressure is changing not only
reservoir pressure to well bore pressure over the time even the reservoir pressure will be
changing accordingly 𝑝𝑤𝑓 will also be changing if we change the flow rate.
So if I summarize the empirical model, we can use quadratic form or logarithmic form to
construct the IPR curve. If the coefficients are known to us, A and B for the Forchcheimer model
C and n for the back pressure model.
Once the equation is known to us, in either of the methods we can construct the IPR curve. Here
I have compared theoretical equation and empirical equation, so this theoretical equation we
have just q in a big form where the S and Dq also present in the denominator that account for
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skin effect and the non-Darcy coefficient. So the pressure approach and pressure square approach
are presented here, may be m(p) approach could also be included in this.
But important point is, seeing what is the AOF predicted by both the models, there is a large
deviation as well as at a particular bottom hole, what should be the production rate are
represented differently. When they are at early part here, it is okay. However, yes we are going
with a higher part flow rate the deviation is more or other way we can say when we are at higher
pressure when the changes in the properties are not much, we can use the P approach itself, there
is not a much deviation. However, as we are going to a lower deviation pressure side, the
deviation is too much.
The approximation for P and p2 approach is completely different and that is where you will end
up getting the two different production profiles, two different AOF conditions, two different
estimation of the well performance and the judgment will be very difficult, so for that empirical
correlation should be used. Those empirical correlations give us more accurate data than
analytical expression because those are based on the field experience.
For example, empirical methods for both methods were used to construct the curves, knowing
the coefficients. We can put the different value of the 𝑝𝑤𝑓 here and get different flow rate. So for
example both the methods are coinciding here and this is happening because both are based on
the data used from the field test to find out the coefficient that is the where the fully representing
the situation.
But if you see interesting point here, this point is around 1700 and this is around less than 2000
,while the other point here is 1000 + with the pressure square approach. But as our reservoir
pressure is around 4500, this pressure approach is more close to this. But the nature of the curve,
here, is straight line. The curvature here differentiates that thing, we can use the m(p) approach
that is more accurate that we can, if we do so, we will see, the m(p) approach is more close to or
the trend of the change in the flow rate with bottom hole pressure is more close to empirical
models.
Those are the Forchcheimer model and back pressure model, so with the help of this once we can
understand the equation we can construct the curve, we can predict AOF.
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So if am having a well which is producing the natural gas, and this is 𝑝𝑤𝑓 , I am interested in the
bottom part only and my reservoir pressure is pe and my reservoir pressure is fixed, 𝑝𝑒 , what I
did, I just changed this bottom hole pressure to get the Q. So I did this at two conditions when I
get 𝑝𝑤𝑓1 I got Q1 when I changed, I got another condition 𝑄2 , and I was asked when my 𝑝𝑤𝑓 is 3
what is my Q.
So we can go by p2 or m(p) approach, but as I said, the m(p) approach is more accurate, we
should go with the m(p) approach, and for that we need to calculate m(p) at point 1, at point 2 or
the point of interest, that this 3. Once we do that thing we can construct either the Forchcheimer
model or the back pressure model. In the Forchcheimer model we will calculate A and B with the
formula given previously, with just using these two points. C and n in the back pressure model
once the equation is known to us, let us say for example in m(p) form, we got this back pressure
equation that is simply says, I know the value of C let us say known value is X for this C,
numerical value, that is m(𝑝𝑒 ) – m(𝑝𝑤𝑓 ) and, y for the n value numerically I got, that is equal to
flow rate Q, now I can put this third condition 𝑝𝑤𝑓3, I know this, , I know this, I know this, I
know this also, I can calculate the value of A.. I can do with both the models, back pressure,
Forchcheimer and I can check which one is giving the most accurate data. In most cases, both
end up giving this similar data, again depending on which approach is used, and m(p) will give
us more accurate data.
So in the next, we will have the gas well testing lecture, where we understand how a particular
gas well can be put for the test analysis, and the test analysis can be done in a pressure transient
test situation or the deliverability test situation, depending on what is the objective of that well
testing. It is very important tool because several properties those are not known, those cannot be
accurately measured like the pay zone thickness, the permeability and another parameter can be
estimated with the help of this test as well as the production rate, what will be the future
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production rate? What will be nature of the curve after certain time can be established with the
help of gas well testing. There are several ways of performance the gas testing that we will learn
in the next lecture. Thank you very much.
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Prof. Pankaj Tiwari
Module No # 02
Lecture No # 09
Gas Well Testing
Hello to everyone, in today’s class, we will understand the testing of the gas well. We will go
through the concept of why well testing is required, what are the advantage it will offer?, and how
it is going to be helpful in managing the natural gas production as well as the business concept.
There are several methods through which the gas well testing can be performed. In fact gas well
testing itself is a three hours per week a semester course. But in today’s lecture we will try to go
through some of the important process through which the gas well testing can be performed and
some of them will be discussed just in the form of overview and some will be discussed in detail
considering the mathematical analysis of the gas well testing.
So before we go further let us understand the petroleum production system what we did so far we
had developed the relationship that we called IPR. We said the flow is happening from the reservoir
to well bore for this bottom part of our entire production system. Because of the pressure
drawdown and the flow rate is related to pressure gradient and the properties of the fluid, properties
of the formation and the geometry of the formation. For example, k Permeability, h pay zone
thickness, T Temperature and other two parameters are s and D. The expression appearing here
will take a different form depending on the scheme or the approximation approach adopted to
establish the relationship. The numerical coefficient here will depend on the unit system chosen to
represent each parameter appearing in this expression.
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To derive this expression, we assumed the flow of the fluid is happening in a single phase, that is,
the gas phase, and the flow is happening in a radial direction. The fluid from the drainage area of
the reservoir of a pay zone thickness h is travelling radially towards the well bore. The fluid or the
gas is compressible in nature, reservoir properties are constant which means it is homogenous
reservoir and isotopic in the nature.
We also assume laminar flow but later on after developing the expression we had converted this
expression to account for the skin factor as well as non-Darcy coefficient. That accounts for the
turbulent flow near the wellbore reason and the constant pay zone on thickness.
So ultimately we had received this expression if the parameters are known. We can establish the
relationship between q and Pressure drawdown, which will help us predict the gas well production
system's future. But it is not easy to get all these properties like permeability, pay zone thickness
known every time and for that there are some other schemes, those are called empirical schemes.
Those are based on the experimental field data have also been established.
The Pseudo steady state system with similar represent can be written for the transient and steady
state conditions. But let us take the example of Pseudo steady state because that is the condition
through which the reservoir produces most of the time. So the analytical expression we can write
them in terms of P approximation, Pseudo pressure approximation and Pressure square
approximation.
We know how to choose this approximation, so here I have written P greater than 3000 psia it
means we can take the pressure approximation because during this pressure reason the
multiplication or the combination of the fluid properties 𝜇 and Z remains constant. Pseudo
pressure, it is the most accurate approach that is account how the fluid properties are changing
from one reservoir condition to, from one pressure condition to other pressure condition how this
transition is happening and if the pressure range is between 2000 psi to 3000 psi Pseudo Pressure
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approach should be adopted. In the other case when the pressure is very low less than, very low
means less than 2000 psia the approximation for the pressure can be taken in the form of square
forms so that is pressure is called Pressure square approximation.
When we take this expressions solve the general IPR curve IPR equation, we get this analytical
approximation where in case of pressure approximation we are having P in the numerator, Pseudo
pressure we are having mp and Pressure square we are having P square and by combining the
parameter non-parameter or the combining one form of parameter to the other form of parameter
we can get the coefficient the parameters appearing in the expression.
For example in a pressure approximation we are having this 𝐵𝑔 , 𝐵𝑔 is a volume formation factor
converted to the reservoir condition using the volume formation factor conditions. Similarly in
mp approach we could eliminate fluid properties appearance in this equation by combining this
in a real Pseudo gas pressure like in mp, while in p square approach we are having this fluid
properties 𝜇 and Z, but those are in the form of average properties.
So further if we know the values of this parameter we can establish the relationship but in most of
the cases as I said these knowing these parameters accurately is a difficult task and even knowing
this parameters what exactly is happening in the future, for example, how this skin formation
deposition is happening, is there any changes in the Darcy coefficient D is appearing over the time.
The gas well testing would be performed to know all these changes happening over the time.
But before going to gas well testing let us understand in more detail what exactly happens to this
parameter when we are going to perform those testing and several empirical correlation has been
proposed. We are going to discuss two mostly used correlations, first is quadratic or laminar
inertia Turbulent approach LIT approach. In this if we adjust the equation carefully we can see
the equation may end up like having the 2 coefficient 𝐴1 and 𝐵 and in the quadratic form q,
because of this and another q square will come because this q in the D will multiply with the q on
the left hand side you will get q square.
So ultimately what are we going to get, we will get quadratic equation which is relating pressure
with q and other parameter those are appearing in the expression like permeability, Pay zone
thickness, properties of the fluid all are combined in the form of 𝐴1 and 𝐵1. We will discuss later
on what is 𝐴1 and 𝐵1. But similarly can done for the form of pseudo pressure approach and pressure
square approach.
Just to distinguish this I had numbered them 𝐴1 , 𝐵1 for the pressure 𝐴2 , 𝐵2 for the Pseudo pressure
and 𝐴3 , 𝐵3 for the Pressure Square approach. Identically they are representing the same kind of the
phenomena that is happening. So what exactly we can do using this empirical model we can predict
the future performance. For example, we are performing the field test if we can know 𝐴1 and 𝐵1
B will be having the IPR correlation. Using this inflow performance relation, we will predict the
future of Gas well.
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For example, at a particular bottom hole pressure if I am running my well what will be the flow
rate at that particular bottom hole pressure as well as what will be what is the potential of the
reservoir that is AOF maximum production we can achieve with this well can be established by
knowing this coefficient.
This is not only the approach, there is another approach the back approach or called the simplified
approach. In this backpressure approach the expression can be written in this form where
everything which is like 𝐴1 is here in the form of 𝐶1 , and the n1 is corresponding to this 𝐵1.
This expression can also be written the backpressure approach can be written in the form of P, mp
and P square approach. So considering these two approaches, if we can calculate the coefficient
for example in the quadratic A and B and in backpressure C and N, we are having the IPR equation.
That is the case on record to develop the inflow curve. How to get those things, so before going
how to get those things let us understand what is 𝐴1 ?
So if you match with this you will see 𝐴1 is account certain parameter including the skin factor.
So whatever the changes is happening in skin factor and other properties of fluid will be reflected
by the 𝐴1 , while 𝐵1 is corresponding to D. It also includes some of the parameter where primarily
it is because of the D. If D is not appearing, the non-Darcy coefficient is not present in our equation
there would not be any 𝐵1 terms, similar for 𝐵2 and 𝐵3 .
It is a quadratic equation we can use the quadratic formula to calculate the root of this equation we
−𝐵+ √𝐵2 −4𝐴𝐶
can calculate like − 2𝐴 principle, we can get the value of Q at any particular flow rate if we
know what are the values of coefficient 𝐴1 , 𝐵1 and at a particular pressure bottom hole pressure
we want to calculate the flow rate we can do by solving this quadratic equation.
Similar can be done for this backpressure equation 𝐶1 represents like similar to what 𝐴1 represents
1
here and in fact it should be 𝐶 represent the similar thing and the value of 𝑛1 is corresponding to
1
the turbulence or non-Darcy coefficient. If the value is 𝑛1 = 1 it means it is fully laminar flow
condition, there is no turbulent effect if the value is towards 0.5 it means it is a fully turbulent
condition is appearing, so the value remains between 0.5 to 1.
If the value is greater than 1 there is some problem in terms of like some fluid has been removed
at a faster rate from the reservoir than the expected. If it is lesser than 0.5, there is some error in
data collection. Other than estimating this value by knowing the parameter as it appears here, we
can do it by the gas well testing. As I said while doing the gas well testing, we can establish some
type of flow pattern or pressure versus flow relationship in a flowing well. Using that relationship,
we can estimate the value of 𝐴1 , 𝐵1 and similar 𝐶1 and 𝑛1 .
Corresponding to pressure square approach and mp approach the parameters can be estimated. So
this equation particular equation is having two constant. For example, the LIT approach is having
𝐴1 and 𝐵1. So to know these two constants we have to have a data at least two conditions, that we
are having the two condition data like at a particular bottom hole pressure 𝑝𝑤𝑓1 the flow rate is 𝑄1.
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The second condition is 𝑝𝑤𝑓2 the flow rate is 𝑄2 we can put those data here we will get two
equation and we can solve those two equations to get the value of 𝐴1 and 𝐵1 similar can be done
in the log form we can do these similar condition for the backpressure approach. If we are having
the more data we can plot linear relationship and the slope and intercept can give us the value of
𝐴1 and 𝐵1.
That we will discuss in detail later on when we will be doing the gas well testing how to get the
relationship or different set of the parameter of Q versus 𝑝𝑤𝑓 . We can understand the production
rate is a non-linear function of pressure drawdown by seeing all these things. Pressure drawdown
is the difference in the pressure this reservoir pressure – the bottom hole pressure and the skin
factor non-Darcy coefficient can be estimated based on pressure transit analyser.
The skin factor and non-Darcy coefficient comes into picture near the wellbore region. So the skin
factor is something that some deposition or some damaging happens to the well we are having the
skin factor positive skin factor. Sometimes, when the fluid is travelling from a larger radius to a
wellbore, it means a smaller radius get create.
So what we can do we can conduct some pressure transient means the pressure is changing with
respect to time near the wellbore region if we can perform such kind of tests we can get value of
S and Darcy coefficient in that region. And for the other cases when the flow is happening under
Pseudo steady State condition we can perform the test and can get the value of coefficient 𝐴1 , 𝐵1.
These values can also be get with the help of when we are having transient condition.
So we will discuss all these in the next slide. But let us see what I can represent here so if I can
adjust the equation, this equation is a quadratic equation but if I can take q from this side and put
here. So what I can do pressure draw down divided by flow rate is equal to so what I will get,
𝑃̅ −𝑝𝑤𝑓
= 𝐴1 +𝐵1 𝑞. So if I can plot this y = c + mx what I will get a linear relationship and from its
𝑞
slope and its intercept I can get the value of B and C. B represent for non-Darcy and C represent
for other parameter those are responsible for this flow to happen like the permeability and other
parameter. Similar can be done in a log scale so this is on the cartesian scale this well. The quadratic
approach while the backpressure approach we can take the logarithmic of equation and by plotting
on a log-log scale pressure draw down versus log versus flow rate on the log-log scale the slope
will give us 1 / n value knowing the 1 / n value we can calculate the value of C.
When the pressure draw down and flow rate several factors include in that in that equation if the
parameters are known we can solve it analytically otherwise we have to empirically model and
with the help of running the gas well testing under different condition we can calculate the
parameter those are appearing in the empirical models like quadratic and back pressure equations
and knowing the our IPR equation we can calculate the desired thing which we want to know from
this particular gas well.
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So next why it is important as I just mentioned so if you are having the IPR equation and that IPR
has mentioned in the last slide could be in the form of analytical expression or could be in a
empirical. Empirical is having further classification in LIT or in a backpressure equation. And each
equation like this three set of equation can be written with the three approximation P, P square and
mp approach.
So now we are having a set of the equation those represent the similar thing what exactly is
happening, how to know which equation is good to be used to predict the future of the gas well.
One of the parameter that is we already discussed in the IPR class that says how to choose a
particular approximation. I just summarized in the last slide also if the pressure is less than 2000
P square approach, if the pressure is greater than 3000 psi P approach and anywhere in between
2000, 3000 and or any other condition if we can afford the computational facility to calculate the
mp we should always use the mp approach.
So if you see the pressure draw-down here, is pressure a pressure going down the flow rate
increasing? So what we can predict at a particular 𝑝𝑤𝑓 what is my flow rate? What we can say if
my 𝑝𝑤𝑓 is at a reservoir pressure that is 2000 Psi I would not be having any flow rate. My flow
rate is 0 but if the Pwf is little lower we will get the flow rate. And when the 𝑝𝑤𝑓 is 0 backpressure
is at means 14.7 Psi we are getting the AOF condition.
Absolute open Flow condition is the maximum flow rate can be achieved from a particular value.
One can see the value is different with a different method used backpressure, pseudo pressure and
pressure-squad approaches are plotted here for these set of data and we can see the AOF value is
varying with the all three cases. And that is very important to know which one is the correct value
because that decide the supply and demands scenario of the natural gas production system as well
as the facilities those are installed at the surface are being utilised effectively.
So this is one observation that need to be test which model is presenting the correct way and second
is observation if reservoir pressure after sometime is down means it has been reduced from 2000
to somewhere around 1700 what you will see the IPR curve is getting changed. It is getting changed
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not only in terms of the value but you can say the AOF value will also get changed. So knowing
in future we understand like reservoir pressure goes down over the time.
So what we are supposed to do we are supposed to calculate the coefficient of the empirical
equations just to understand what exactly changes are happening in the reservoir formation or at
least other parameter like may be the constant pay zone thickness, the permeability if you are not
doing something external. The important part how the reservoir pressure is declining and when the
reservoir pressure is declining what is the maximum production rate that can be achieved, and what
is the potential of the reservoir under that condition can be estimated.
To do so we need to recalculate 𝐴1 , 𝐵1 every time and that may be a tedious job because gas well
testing impose certain restriction. The gas well is not producing during that period or it is under
the flow condition that is not optimised to use the surface facilities so we are just flaring the gas.
So to avoid all those things we can do, if the gas well is tested under one condition we can just
correlate the coefficient to the other condition.
So for example in a back pressure equation when we are talking about the future and we say how
the coefficient will get change 𝐶2 we can simply calculate that 𝐶1 multiplied by the properties of
the gas being produced from the reservoir. So here if you can see so in my present time if the
condition is 1 and my future condition is 2 at this condition my reservoir pressure is 𝑝𝑟1, here it is
𝑝𝑟2.
What I can say here the gas is being produced is having viscosity, average viscosity you can say
𝜇1 , here it is 𝜇2 , Compressibility is 𝑧1 and here it is 𝑧2 and some other parameter those are
responsible for that. What we can say if from present to future we are going what we can do,
instead of calculating the coefficient again running the gas well testing we can just replace the
coefficient like this.
So 𝐶2 = 𝐶1 multiplied by the viscosity compressibility factor in the numerator and Condition 1,

means present condition divided by the future condition. While the Coefficient 𝐴1 will be in a
reverse way, so the 𝐴2 will be, future Coefficient 𝐴2 = 𝐴1 𝜇2 𝑧2 /(𝜇1 𝑧1 ). Similarly 𝐵2 =
𝐵1 𝜇2 𝑧2 /(𝜇1 𝑧1 ). So just knowing the properties of the natural gas that is being produced at this
condition or in future when we are talking about at what rate this will be producing, like for
example here the 1700 we can directly correlate the parameter and put the expression and again
you can see there is a deviation in the AOF value being calculated with a different methods.
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Mishra and Codel in 1956, they understood this and they said just a single data set can be used to
have the future production without knowing much about the changes those are happening for that
Pwf bottom hole pressure and the average reservoir pressure should be normal or the maximum
condition one of the conditions should be known, either the maximum reservoir pressure condition
or Pwf along with reservoir pressure condition.
So using that Mishra and Codel expression we can also predict the future performance of the IPR.
So what exactly we did exactly, let us go to understand the gas well testing will be done. So in this
domain when the reservoir is at Pe sometimes we write as Pr the flood is travelling to the wellbore
under the radial conditions we called it IPR curve. And initially when the well just start to open
we are having this kind of pressure relationship with respect to time.
Safety gas well is put under a constant flow condition like q so what happen with respect to time
initially you are having the transient then the late transient condition and then finally it reach to
semi steady state condition. We have discussed this in detail in our IPR lecture. But what is
important here so when we are testing our gas well under this time frame when the pressure is
changing we have to use the transient equation not the pseudo steady state expressions.
And when the pseudo steady state condition reach we have to use the pseudo steady state equation
those we had discussed in detail couple of slides back. So transient equation, what happen during
this time? So we are having the relationship with the PI, 𝑝𝑤𝑓 means bottom hole pressure, PI is the
reservoir pressure, different notations are written. So this is equivalent 𝑝𝑟 , or I can say 𝑝𝑒 or P bar
R minus some numerical coefficient.
Again numerical coefficient depends on the unit system has been chosen here. Other units chosen
here are the US field Units system except this T that has not been discussed so this measured in
power. So considering that we are having the transient IPR equation for infinite acting radial
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flow condition and this is happening exactly here. And the time when it will reach the pseudo
steady state condition can be estimated with the help of this.
But when we are reaching the pseudo steady state condition the time terms disappear from the
expression and after doing the adjustment for that condition we get this expression. Here you may
see the s and Dq are here, similarly there can also be s and Dq and we can write this 0.87 S prime,
S prime include for both scale + non Darcy effect. So either we are using the transient, if we are
in a transient region or we using the pseudo steady state condition when we reach the pseudo steady
state condition.
The time taken to reach the pseudo steady state can be estimated approximately using this
expression. And all these expression could be written in P square approach, mp approach as well
as P approach as written.
So let us say understand the transient condition and the pseudo steady state condition in little bit
in more detail. So in transient condition which is acting infinite, acting radial flow what exactly
happen, we can adjust the equation and say for a case of when there is no non-Darcy effect this
tends to 0. Our equation can simply be written Pw = Pe minus some numerical coefficient, some
time term is here in form of log t + some terms here and after doing the adjustment we can write
this equation in the form of y= a+m log t, a is having this expression, this multiplied whatever is
here and m is this multiplied by here. So what is this here? We are having a is a function of reservoir
pressure, k, h and several others. Similar m is also having the coefficient appearing here that is
having the k if I am correct k, h, Mu, volume formation factor and others.
So if we can run this at a different condition we can estimate the 𝑝𝑤𝑓 at a different time, we can
put a linear relationship and slope and intercept will allow to have these coefficient value and those
coefficient value will allow us to calculate the unknown which is not known to us while the other
parameter are known.
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For example with the help of a, if we got some value what we can do with the help of a that is
having like k, h, 𝜇 plus some other term and if we are knowing other parameters we can calculate
kh/𝜇 and we know the 𝜇, we can know the h, we can calculate k. So any property that is unknown
and other properties are known we can get the value of that particular property. That is why the
information of the other gas well is very important.
Maybe the, you are doing the gas well testing for a particular well, the information may not be
very important for this particular type of gas well. But this information may be very good
approximation for the nearby gas well and some value can be assumed from the nearby gas well
used in a particular gas well under testing to estimate the other parameter those are not known.
And by doing the gas well testing further we can validate those parameters estimated are correct
or not. In both the cases transient or pseudo steady state if we are not having the non-Darcy
coefficient or the turbulent flow we will get the simplified pressure relationship in a linear form
and if both are having the turbulent flow the expression will be in a quadratic form and in a
quadratic form when we are having this will end up like pressure draw down = Aq + Bq square.
In a pseudo steady state condition both A and B are the function of the different properties but not
the function of time. While in transient case what will happen if we write the similar expression
we will get At q + B q square. So only A is a function of time that will depend on time because of
this time log t is appearing in the transient condition while B will remain the constant.
So whatever the changes are happening with respect to time if we are under the transient condition
not because of the non-Darcy flow but because of this At that is a combination several parameter
is going to affect the performance of a transient condition. And knowing the transient conditions
relationships knowing this At value under different conditions we can predict the behaviour of a
reservoir near the wellbore region how the flow is happening in this region?
How the permeability is getting distributed? When we are doing the gas's stimulation well, we can
say how the skin type has been repaired and other conditions. Those are not known we can estimate
with these kind of the analysis. So I think it is clear by pseudo steady state and transient conditions
knowing this coefficient will give us lot of knowledge, will give us lot of power to understand
more and more about our reservoir.
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That is very much required to predict the future of the reservoir as well as relating this information
to the nearby gas well.
Now let us come to the main topic of this lecture that is a gas well testing. We understood we can
do transient gas well testing and pseudo steady state gas testing and knowing the coefficient of the
IPR equation we can calculate several properties. So while we do the gas well testing this is a
useful tool for analysing the performance and forecasting the productivity of the gas wells.
By knowing or the by performing the gas well testing, we can understand more and more about
our gas well and how it will behave as not only in the present time but also in the future. The gas
well testing will tell us, they will provide some of the information such as the static reservoir
pressure, what is the static reservoir pressure of the formation, what is the potential of the gas
reservoir and what is the maximum production rate we can achieve, the rate versus pressure
depletion curve that can be discussed later on the decline curve analysis.
But it will tell us at what rate and what is the relationship between rate and pressure and at what
rate the production will decline over the time. This gas well test analysis has already discussed can
be used to estimate the well formation properties including permeability, porosity, skin factor,
damage any other there, turbulence condition if there are any and the porosity is the storage
capacity of the reservoir.
These are important that I said not only to understand more about the well these are also important
to maintain the regulation imposed by the authority on production site. For example, the
information gathered during the testing is often used by regulatory bodies to set maximum gas
withdrawal rate.
So when you are having a well ready to produce there are certain rules and regulations those are
imposed to production part and says the maximum production from a particular well can be
maintained not more than a particular value and those not only but authority those also very
important because the surface facilities those are installed they are having certain capacity to
handle the gas production rate.
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If the gas is being produced more than that, the only option left to flare the gas into the
environment. So the surface facility are now getting damaged or been over loaded. For estimation
of gas reservoir projecting gas well deliveries, by doing all these analysis, we can understand the
gas reservoir and what rate the gas can be produced again. This will help us meet the supply and
demand relationship and use the surface facilities.
In the preparation field development programs so knowing the behaviour of particular gas will
may tell us what is the possibility of the development of field in that region in the design of
gathering and pipeline facility as that we already discussed the surface facilities installed to collect
the gas through the pipeline from several gas well to a gathering station knowing the behaviour of
a gas well.
The gas well testing is classified broadly into two type the pressure transient test and deliverability
test. Pressure transient test is mostly done as discussed already to know the nearby formation
region the permeability porosity the Darcy effect and the radius of the reservoir through which
fluid is being drained towards this and deliverability test easily done to establish the relationship
between q & pressure draw down. We will discuss deliverability test in detail.
Pressure transient test will allow us to calculate the properties like-skin factor and Darcy
coefficient while the deliverability test will allow us to characterize and determine the full potential
of a gas well.
Let see what exactly we do in a pressure transient test when we are having the pressure transient
test mostly we are under the transient condition and transient equation should be used. And this is
done by creating pressure disturbance in the reservoir once we create a pressure disturbance and
measure the flow rate we can see how flow rate and pressure are related with respect to time also
and knowing this thing we can establish the relationship either in a linear equation if non- Darcy
coefficient is not existing there and or in the form quadratic coefficient.
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If terminal flow is happening there we can calculate several other parameters and in deliverability
test mostly done under pseudo steady state conditions not necessarily always pseudo steady state
condition and deliverability test it measures the deliverability of gas well measure production
potential. And here we can get the construction of the IPR curve that allow us to predict the future.
Here, I would like to mention here gas prime include for both skin factor plus non-Darcy
coefficient in the picture the q also comes and makes the equation a quadratic equation quadratic
equation. Here this is written in the form of the quadratic equation but s and Dq are not present, it
will be not a quadratic equation especially when this D is not present the turbulent flow is not
present and other things if we are having this equation we can write 𝛥𝑝 = 𝐴𝑞 + 𝐵𝑞 2 and in that
case this At if we are under the transient condition. And where pseudo steady state condition At
will be A not a function of temperature. Similarly we can write for a back pressure equation also
where we can say Q 𝑄 = 𝐶𝑡 𝛥𝑝𝑛 . So this 𝐶𝑡 will be a function of time only when we are under the
transient condition otherwise it will be a constant value.
So the different test can be done under the pressure transient test we can classify those as a single
well test and a multi well test. In a single well test there are different tests draw down test, build
up test, pressure fall off test or injectivity test and in multi well test interference and pulse test.
These are done under the pressure transient test analysis. Under the deliverability test, there is the
convention deliverability test, isochronal test, and modified isochronal test. We will discuss these
three in detail while these will be just discussed without having mathematical analysis.
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In a pressure drawdown test what exactly we do so gas well which is under the test put under a
certain condition for a long period. Long period means when we are sure the pressure is static
reservoir becomes constant. It is very important and that is where we can rely on the data how
accurate those are as we are sure this condition has been achieved.
And after that period a time = 0 and what we do, start producing at a constant flow rate for a certain
time period as extended time period can be used. And what happened exactly so when the reservoir
under the certain condition the bottom hole pressure was at a reservoir static pressure and when
the flow started the pressure will declines here in a certain pattern and we can see the declination
is happening in this manner.
So what we can do, we can monitor this 𝑝𝑤𝑓 value at a different time and this gives us how to use
this expression to calculate the a and m this we can arrange in the form of the a + m log t where
there is no non-Darcy coefficient otherwise we have to go to quadratic equation and knowing this
relationship we can calculate several properties of the reservoir.
So this is conducted by producing a well at a known and constant rate that I said the flowing period
is here at a constant flow rate measure flowing bottom hole pressure as a function of time that we
did at the several points putting those data in this equation will allow us to calculate the average
reservoir permeability including the skin factor.
Outer limits of the reservoir and drainage area through which area the fluid is travel towards the
well because this will say based on the reservoir formation the permeability pressure thickness
only will say how the pressure will decline at the bottom hole pressure with respect to time and
when suddenly certain well put under the producing conditions. So other properties like pore
volume reservoir inhomogeneity can also be accessed with the help of drawdown test.
This is a idealised drawdown test while in the actual case the well bore storage also will be there.
So I think it is very clear putting the time value here we can calculate a and m for a linear system
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or other case 𝐴𝑡 and B for quadratic form and doing this we can calculate several properties like.
If we can know here what is the value of volume formation factor viscosity and pay zone thickness
we can calculate k. And several other what is the pressure draw down is happening because of this
can be calculated with the help of this because that will be equal to 0.087 ms.
So if we can know the slope and so if know the pressure draw down and I can calculate skin factor
and if know the skin factor i know the slope i can calculate the pressure draw down is happening
because of this skin. This gives lot of flexibility for us to understand our reservoir formation. In
pressure build up test, just reverse what pressure drawdown happens here in this kind of test.
In this test what happens the reservoir in the under flowing condition and when we make sure the
reservoirs are under flowing condition? The pressure is like this here. Ok and suddenly we shut
down the well and we shut done the well like this here what happens there is no production
happening because the well is under shutting conditions and because of that the bottom hole
pressure will start increasing.
Because the reservoir pressure is higher than the bottom hole pressure. So the bottom hole pressure
will start increasing and reaching almost steady static reservoir condition. So we can estimate the
static reservoir condition with this test also. And this will again tell us how the 𝑝𝑤𝑓 is changing
with respect to the when the well is not under producing condition while it is under the certain
period condition.
Same equations can be used for pressure draw down test for this we can get static reservoir
properties, effective reservoir permeability, extent of permeability, the boundaries of the reservoir
conditions can also be estimated with the help of both pressure build up test and pressure
drawdown test. Because both the test provide us how 𝑝𝑤𝑓 is changing with respective time under
the transient condition.
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Again here also the wellbore storage is not discussed what I exactly this wellbore storage is so
production rate when we say suddenly put under the flowing condition at the constant value or
suddenly put under a certain condition is controlled from the surface not from the bottom hole
and because of that there is a fluid in the pipe or in the valve or that is affect this actual flow
rate that will be achieved.
For example, when the valve is put under the constant flow rate condition, it is draw-down. So
this is the ideal case but in actual we will get this kind of curve and similar here in a pressure
build up test when we are setting down the test the ideal condition should be like this but in
actual condition it could be like this this is happen because the fluid in the wellbore fluid
expense and happen and changing liquid level.
Other test those are pressure transient test they are also classified under the similar conditions
as pressure draw down test and pressure build up test. For example pressure fall off test that is
similar to the pressure build-up test and injectivity test is similar to a pressure draw down test.
With the pressure fall off test similar to pressure build up test allowing the sterilizing at known
injection rate, the well is shut in measure 𝑝𝑤𝑓 function of time.
So the fluid is injected and just seen how the pressure is building over the time in a pressure
fall off test and injectivity test how the pressure is declining over the time in the both cases 𝑝𝑤𝑓
is measure as a function of time similar to pressure draw down and pressure build up test and
those data can be used to establish the relationships. So the only difference between the
previous test and this test these are done on the injection the well.
So instead of we are producing from particular well we inject external gas in the well bore.
Through the well bore to the reservoir we observe the behaviour of the pressure 𝑝𝑤𝑓 with the
respective time. In a multi well test we are in a reservoir field when we are choose the active
well that is under the testing and the other wells nearby of this, those are observation well. So
we either work on the active well and observe what exactly happening on the observation well
or the other we can be done or something could be done on the other wells and how the active
well is responding for those changes can be monitored.
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So this test can determine the presence or lack of communications between the two points in
the reservoirs. In reservoir formation when there are multiple wells, how they are
communicating the permeability in this in the region between these two wells can be or in this
multi wells can be established. Interference test the active well is produced at measured
constant rate thorough out the test.
Other well in the field must be shut in so that any observed pressure response can be activated
to the active well. The active well is put under conditions other well under the shut in conditions
and sees how the pressure drawdown is happening of the other wells that says how these wells
are communicating. In pulse testing the active well produces and then shutting return to
production shutting again these production shutting sequence produces a pressure response in
the observation well that can be interpreted even when in the other wells in the field continue
to produce.
In both the test, there is a communication between the active well and the observation well is
established. With these data, we can estimate both permeability and porosity in the drainage
area of the well.
So this was all about the pressure based test now let us discuss the deliverability test. So these
test designed to measure the deliverability of the gas well. Measure the well's ability to flow
against various pressure, evaluate well production potential under specific condition of the
reservoir and 𝑝𝑤𝑓 , productive indicator is absolute open flow conditions can be measured can
be estimated and generate a IPR curve.
So this is exactly what we discussed previously in IPR curve also when we are using the
spherical correlation to establish the relationship between the pressure draw down and q by
knowing this by perform the deliverability test we can establish the several relationship and
that relationship give us what is the potential of the reservoir and what is the AOF of the
particular gas well and how to predict the future performance.
Several deliverability testing methods have been developed some of them are listed here those
are mostly use flow after flow or conventional back pressure test, isochronal test and modified
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isochronal test. So I will go through one by one about all the three tested with few example and
numerical part may be skip just for an exercise. So let see what happens in flow after flow well.
So this is the back pressure test in this flow after flow means multi-point test in which the well
flow at a selected constant rate until the pressure established. Pseudo steady state condition the
stabilize rate and pressure are recorded and the rate is then changed and the well flow until the
pressure stabilize again at the new rate. The process is repeated for 3, 4 or 5 rates, which
depends on step 3, step 4 again. So let see what exactly we do here.
So a gas well was producing under a constant rate for example it was producing under constant
rate q1. So in a conventional back pressure test it is also known as flow after flow what is
important is the gas, was the gas well was under a conditions of low production. So the gas was
here for a sufficient long time and the pressure at the bottom hole was reservoir pressure, the
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static reservoir pressure. So we are at this point – 1 condition, okay or I can say 0 condition
here. And when the gas well put under conventional deliverability test what we did, in a first
step just increase the production rate at a constant rate here. What will happen when we increase
the production, leave for sometimes, the bottom hole's pressure will drop down or a constant
value of the bottom whole pressure is not achieved here.
So we are saying this is achieved at 𝑝𝑤𝑓1 and the flow rate under that condition was 𝑞1 . Then
further from this point onward what we do, we increase the production rate constant for a new
value 𝑞2 and in that case again the 𝑝𝑤𝑓 will decline and it will go through under transient
condition and stabilize at the 𝑝𝑤𝑓2 and P will be having this position here.
Further third step and fourth steps are conducted in a similar manner like this. And when we
are at q4, at the end of this production q4, what we will do we will shut in the well again. And
when we are shutting in the well, the well will return back to reservoir pressure. So the 𝑝𝑤𝑓
value will be PR again. The important of this test is it can be done either in a Normal Sequence
or in a Reverse Sequence.
May be the production rate is declining in a each step, instead of increasing as it is done in the
system, it is increasing. It may be done in a reverse way when it is declining. But in most of
the cases it is expected, it is stabilized that the normal Sequence gives us more reliable data.
The important part comes out in this kind of the conventional backpressure test is the time
required to perform this test.
So for example here even to start the test 0 it needs to be made sure the pressure has been
stabilized within the reservoir. The value is reached as a 𝑝𝑟 value. After that when we are
performing it will go through the transient case and when it reach the pseudo steady state
condition we have make sure in each step it reach the pseudo steady state condition and the
𝑝𝑤𝑓 should be monitored. Similar in each step should be done. If it is not done, the error will
be produced in the data, giving us the wrong IPR curve.
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So I think it is clear that in this test we either increase or decrease the production rate. Every
time when we are changing the production rate in a step wise manner we are monitoring the
stabilized
𝑝𝑤𝑓 . The time to stabilize can be monitored with this, It can be estimated with this stabilization
time expression, which says how much time is required to stabilize in each case, like this.
For example here what we are having, we got the data, let us see quickly sorry we got the data
how the pressure is achieved at a different flow rate. Knowing those value we can use either
this expression or this expression or just a pressure expression, it means either p square
approach or mp approach or just a p approach we can plot the data on a log-log scale and that
will give us the linear relationship and in this linear relationship it simply says the slope will
be 1/ n, knowing the value of n, we can calculate the value of c. What is the important point is
here during this curve as this curve is established for a pseudo steady state condition. Pseudo
steady state condition means when the radius of investigation is equal to the reservoir is equal
to greater than the reservoir radius and under that cases we are having the condition where this
line can be extrapolated to any condition and that any condition says when the reservoir when
the bottom hole pressure reach the reservoir pressure 0 pressure condition is here we are having
the AOF value, absolute open flow condition. When this pressure drop down is reaching the 0
pressure. Pressure drop down means reservoir pressure minus bottom hole pressure and then
when this is bottom hole pressure is zero we are having the reservoir pressure. Under that
condition the flow rate will be AOF absolute open flow condition, we can calculate the AOF
with this slope we calculate 1/n. Putting 1/n value in this expression we can calculate C for one
particular condition and knowing the C value we can establish the IPR curve.
In that IPR curve gives us any condition we can say. For example, if the reservoir is being
produced at this condition, this is the flow rate. Or the other way if we want to produce at this
particular flow rate this will be the bottom hole pressure in the reservoir.
When we say the pressure on log scale is plotted for a pressure drop down 𝛥𝑝 could be P, P
square, or mp difference. We can write in any of the forms. But when we are plotting on the
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log-log we are using the back pressure scheme. Similar can be done for a Cartesian coordinate
system when we are having this pressure difference, again this pressure difference can be p, p
square or mp for divided by flow rate versus flow rate.
We will get a straight line and that straight line simply say this slope will be B and intercept
will be A, we can get the value of A and B. And knowing this thing we can also establish the
IPR curve in the form of LIT or the quadratic approach.
So I think it is clear how to perform the conventional backpressure test. Once a well has been
tested we got the value of the co-efficient we got the value of AOF, we can construct the IPR
curve, we can future inflow performance relationship can be established and viscosity and z
factor need to be changed as the reservoir pressure is changing. This is atmost necessary either.
You are changing the value of the pressure or the coefficient are adjusted as discussed before.
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Once we know this thing, we can predict the future performance again at any reservoir pressure
condition how the flow will happen. And it is important like what is discussed here. In this case
we are having the pressure versus Q. Here we are having pressure versus pressure
divided by flow rate versus Q relationship and this will give us more accurate with compared
to the log data.
Another important thing that we already discussed, correct this either mean and the Isochronal
test the second class of the gas well testing, is Isochronal testing. This Isochronal test consist
of closing the well until a stabilized very near stabilized pressure 𝑝𝑟 is reached. The well is
flowed at a different rate for a set period of time T. The flowing bottom hole pressure at time
T being recorded. One test with extended flow rate is conducted.
What we did in a conventional backpressure test changed the flow rate, we wait until the
pressure is stabilized. So we used the stabilized IPR empirical relationship and that is used
when we say the pressure is stabilized.
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But in this case we are waiting to a condition when the reservoir pressure is established here
𝑝𝑟 and there is no production here, 00 condition is here. And the well is put under flow rate 𝑞1 .
So when we are putting the well under flow rate it will be like this. And before it is established
for a certain time the well is flowed for a constant time 𝑞1 it is shut down again.
When we are shutting it down it will go like this. It should shut down till we are reaching again
the same pressure value as 𝑝𝑟 . Once we reach that 𝑝𝑟 value the well is put again operating
condition, this condition and when we are producing the pressure will drop down again and if
the flow rate is higher more drop down will happen. In the next case again it is shut down after
certain time.
So what will happen, pressure will build up again and we will wait till the pressure again
reaching the reservoir pressure 𝑝𝑟 . And once it is happening again another flow rate is set and
we see if the flow rate is higher more drop down will happen; again wait for a longer time
because the more drop down happen to reach the 𝑝𝑟 condition more time is required. Once we
reach 𝑝𝑟 condition here situation will be like this.
Another way it can be done again when we are getting the production with higher flow rate 𝑞4 .
We are reaching here and when it is put in any extended rate for example here. So the pressure
will build up because it is time to reduce the flow rate and then when it is a extended flow rate
pressure drop down will happen at a constant rate it is flowing like this extended flow rate it is
not shut down okay 𝑝5 , 𝑝4 , 𝑝3 , 𝑝2 , 𝑝1 can be established.
So in this test, I will repeat again the well is closed until a stabilized condition is appearing
here and when it is established condition it start producing at a constant flow rate for some time
the constant time T, and then put under certain condition for a certain time when the well is
returning to 𝑝𝑟 , the bottom hole pressure is returning to 𝑝𝑟 condition put the well under a
different or second flow rate condition. Let the pressure drop down happen.
Again close the well, when we are closing the well means no production is happening. shutting
the well the pressure build up scheme will follow and the pressure will reach again the 𝑝𝑟
condition. Again similar thing is done when the gas is flowed at a 𝑞3 , we are reaching here 3
condition, 4 condition, and at the end we are getting this thing.
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So what we get from this data set, we are having the time, constant and at that particular time
when we are change in the flow rate how much pressure is achieved at a bottom hole condition
and one extended flow rate is done just to make sure how to how truly the gas well will behave
when we are having a constant flow rate. Here the flow rate is changing under 𝑞1 , 𝑞2 , 𝑞3 .
𝑞1 is then shut in for a certain time, then 𝑞2 establish then shut in again, similar for 𝑞3 shut in
again, 𝑞4 then a constant flow rate. This we are getting the 𝑞2 this 𝑞5 or 𝑝𝑤𝑓5 at a constant
condition. This we call as extended flow condition. So by knowing this data what we can do,
we can say at a particular time what exactly is happening and when the reservoir pressure is
returning back, how much time is required to returning back. This information can be used to
establish the IPR curve.
In that IPR curve let us say, when we say a particular time chosen this is the way the data will
be. For example, if I choose a particular time, 𝑇1 let us say 2 minutes. Every time after 2
minutes, when the well is put under certain conditions, I can measure the pressure and flow
rate conditions.
𝑇1 condition is here, 𝑇1 , 𝑇2 , 𝑇3 , 𝑇4 they will give me a parallel line. This is happening you know
why because we know under the gas well is under a transient condition. The pressure is not
stabilized. The well is under a transient condition. And Under transient condition our equation,
quadratic equation is like this, 𝑞 + 𝐵𝑞 2.
So in that case if you see if you fix a particular time, we are measuring the data of the pressure
versus q, the B will, the slope will remain the same if we plot like this. This slope will remain
the same while the At intersect will change and this is happening exactly if we are plotting on
a Cartesian system where this plot is on a log-log scale. Here 𝑞 = 𝐶𝑡 (𝛥𝑝)𝑛 .
So here only 𝐶𝑡 is changing, this slope is changing on the log scale. Here in this case the At
will change. Only the slope will change with this time. So we can plot this data at a particular
time to just get the slope of the equation and to get the real data that can be the extended flow
rate condition and the extended flow rate condition is here. So what we can do, we can just
draw the parallel line to it which is passing from this extended flow rate condition. So this is
the actual conditions through which the production will happen.
Or when the stabilized condition the flow rate will happen under the Isochronal condition test
and once we know this we can estimate the AOF condition that can be understood better by
seeing this here del P square versus q Isochronal test has been performed for a backpressure
method. In this thing this is the pressure draw down versus q on a log scale will give this 1/n
this slope is here and that slope will remain the same does not matter what time we are taking
the data. We can also take several time or just one set is good enough, which is the extended
flow rate condition. Under the extended flow rate condition we can establish the parallel line
here and this will be our stabilized deliverability curve. From this curve, we can say the average
reservoir pressure. What is the AOF Absolute open flow condition can be achieved?
So in a Isochronal testing the difference between the conventional Isochronal testing is in this
test we do not need to wait till the pressure is stabilizing in the formation or at the bottom hole
condition. We can use the transient curve or transient data at a particular time to stabilize the
relationship and that relationship can be extended in a parallel manner to the extended flow
condition. From that equation we can get the stabilized deliverability curve that can be used for
a IPR correlation development.
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That pressure method it is shown here in the form of p approach, similar can be done on a
Cartesian Coordinate system for pressure flow rate divided by q for the different cases of data
at a particular time T from which we can get a value for the extended condition. That extended
condition says is actual true condition that is parallel to this line and can get the actual value of
this A.
This will give us the At and At will change with the time while the extended data will give us
the value of A that has become the constant and slope will give us the value of B. So again this
can be done for P square / P / mp approach and under both LIT and backpressure conditions so
this is transient based deliverability test.
In modified Isochronal test what is this similar to Isochronal test, the length shutting period is
not required for the pressure to stabilize. So in the Isochronal test what we were doing? We are
flowing at a constant rate and then in the well pressure the built up and we are waiting till the
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pressure is reaching the reservoir pressure. But in this case, in a Modified Isochronal test we
do not need to wait that length is shutting period is not required for the pressure to stabilize
does not yield a true Isochronal test but closely approximate the true curve.
Uses approximation like Isochronal test while the modified Isochronal test are not. But it is
widely used because it saves time and money because in the case of conventional test or let us
say in the case of Isochronal test the gas well is put under the certain condition for a certain
time and under that time when it is under the observation just under the certain time we are not
producing anything we are wasting the time and money.
So in this test what we do, similar to the Isochronal test the flow rate is given like this in a q1 so PR
condition that is the 0 condition where the reservoir is not producing, it has been established put under
a production, what will happen the pressure will decline here okay. And when you shut in the well it
will go to improve it. But instead of waiting it is going to base line, the PR line we will start
producing at a different flow rate is drop down will happen.
Again shut in period the pressure will build up, q3 pressure will go down, again shut in period
pressure will go up, production pressure will go down, and this is like this curve. So in this
case the major difference is we are getting the data for a constant time T when we are asking
the gas well to produce and the shut in time is different. We can choose shut in time in a
different manner.
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But the gas well is put under a production conditions, like this is the production condition here,
not this one. This is the production condition when the well is put under a constant time and
we can get the data for that. Using this data again we can get under different flow rate what
was the relationship between pressure difference versus q on a log scale in backpressure
method, we can get this curve and this curve is again depend on the time we are choosing.
This slope will be similar to what is for the extended flow condition. But extended flow
condition like the chronicle method will give us the point and that point will allow us to
establish
the IPR curve. So other things are similar to what is for the Isochronal test. The only advantage
in this method is we are reducing the time of gas well testing.
So in summary deliverability test or flow-after-flow or conventional back pressure test or

simpler test those are operated under the stabilized conditions and the high permeability
formation reservoir reach stabilized condition in a lesser time. So these tests should be
performed when the reservoir is having the high permeability formation.
Isochronal test is low permeability formation because it needs some time to reach 𝑝𝑤𝑓 to 𝑝𝑟
condition while if the reservoir formation is very tight we cannot spend that much time when
the pressure is reaching to, 𝑝𝑤𝑓 is reaching to 𝑝𝑟 or when the pressure is stabilizing we should
go with the modified Isochronal test. Conventional pressure has limitation is tight formation it
cannot be used while the Isochronal and modified Isochronal test they reduce the time and they
save the money while performing the test. thank you, thank you very much for listening the
lecture.
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Prof. Pankaj Tiwari
Module No # 02
Lecture No # 10
Wellbore Performance Relationship (WPR)
Hello, everyone, today’s lecture is on wellbore performance relationship in this lecture we will
understand the mathematical expression for the wellbore flow profile. (Refer Slide Time: 00:46)
Let us revisit the production system, where we have established the relationship for the IPR the
bottom part. There we understood how the flow through reservoir is happening, the gas is
reaching to wellbore condition, and the bottom of the wellbore where the pressure 𝑝𝑤𝑓 this is
very much required because it tells us the potential of gas reservoir how much gas is available
underneath or in the reservoir domain how much maximum production can be achieved.
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In today’s discussion, we will extend our knowledge for wellbore section that is from 𝑝𝑤𝑓 to
surface that we say 𝑝ℎ𝑓 . So 𝑝𝑤𝑓 is bottom hole pressure at wellbore and 𝑝ℎ𝑓 is pressure at well
head. Because of the pressure difference, the flow will happen and the relationship between this
pressure gradient or pressure draw down with flow rate Q, rate with which the flow can be
achieved from this well bore and the dimension of the well bore like the diameter internal
diameter this wellbore is a part of today’s discussion.
This is very important because WPR allow us to calculate the achievable gas production rate,we
are going to understand the mathematical relationship of how the pressure 𝑝𝑤𝑓 and 𝑝ℎ𝑓 are
related to production rate Q and the other parameters of the fluid and the geometry of the
wellbore.
Let us understand some of the basic parts of WPR that comes under wellbore deliverability. It is
important for gas engineer because it allows us to design gas well equipment. If well
understanding of the WPR relationship is achieved. The designing of gas well equipment will be
much easier not only the deigning part but also optimizing it.
The well production condition, i.e., condition at which the well should be producing or what
should be the head 𝑝ℎ𝑓 , bottom 𝑝𝑤𝑓 pressure, the tube's diameter, and the rate of production that
should be accomplished. The choice should match the surface facilities the requirements in terms
of the gas's capacity and the pressure the surface facilities can handle effectively.
Knowing bottom hole pressure at a given well head pressure and flow rate so once we develop
the WPR relationship you will see at the end of this class in terms of example we will discuss
when we could establish this relationship. We can calculate the bottom hole pressure that is very
much required in IPR relationship. It can be calculated with WPR once we know the well head
pressure and what rate the well is producing or vice versa.
If two are known third one can be calculated WPR of course depends on the geometry of the
producing string. So the production is happening throw the tube, through the casing or through
the annular depend on the size of that tubing, how long the production string is the WPR depend
on that, and the properties of fluid being produced.
Most of the cases in natural gas production it is gas but similarly most of the time gas alone is
not being produced gas is always associate with some amount of it might be in a very small
amount some amount of liquid that could be the oil, water some amount of some small solid
particles those are also being produced along with the gas through this production string. That
production string could be just tubing, casing or the annulus.
The fluid in gas well are mainly gases but as I mentioned the condensate well will produce oil
and gas even the gas well which is gas well under the reservoir conditions when it is producing
the pressure draw down is happening and as we understand from our phase diagram class the
phase may get change or the fluid may enter in the envelope of two phase region where some
liquid is also getting produced.
When this is happening the liquid that is coming out of the gas phase under the local condition of
temperature and pressure that will get accumulated in some region in the wellbore and will create
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a problem because this phenomena called the liquid loadings and comes under special issues
where certain action should be taken to take out the valuable liquid from the wellbore region.
Sometimes the production is not ceasing in the wellbore WPR involves relationship between
tubular size well head bottom hole pressures gas flow rate and of course of the properties of
fluid. Our fluid is not ideal fluid it is a mixture of hydro carbon gases and non-hydro carbon
gases and because of that the conditions if condition are changing like the local temperature and
pressure the fluid properties especially viscosity, compressibility factor, density those are the
function of temperature and pressure will also change.
In today’s class, we will see not only the properties, but also when the properties are changing
the equation that represent particular phenomena becomes complex and solving those equations
need certain approximation then only we can achieve the desired result. The desired result is how
the flow rate through this wellbore is related to this big pressure drawdown that is spread over
several thousand feet depth from 𝑝𝑤𝑓 from the bottom of the wellbore to the head of the well
relationship is called as WPR.
As mentioned production can be achieved from the tubing from the annulus or from the casing
part but experience source producing through tubing is the better option because it prevent liquid
loading the superficial velocity of the gas and liquid. If liquid is present in the system the relative
superficial velocity decides the liquid accumulation is happening or not or the liquid loading
possibility in the system and experience shows if it is happening through the tubing the chances
are less.
The mathematical model is also well used for casing flow at casing tubing annular flow as
mentioned only difference will come in mathematical equation derived for the tubing flow. If the
hydraulic diameter replaces the tubing diameter in expression by the definition hydraulic
diameter is four times cross sectional area divided by wetted parameter. So if we go by definition
of hydraulic diameter we can write this HD that is 4 times cross sectional area.
𝜋𝐷 2
If the tube is slender the cross sectional area the fluid is flowing is and the wetted parameter means
4
the perimeter of this tube is 𝜋𝐷. So if we do that for a slender tube it comes out as the diameter or the
internal diameter of the tube. So in case of annular flow the HD will be like D internal diameter of casing
– outer diameter of tubing. So just replacing the diameter in the expression by the hydraulic diameter we
can use the same mathematical expression for flow through annulus.
So let us go ahead with the understanding of this basic WPR why it is important and how to do it
we can set up the mathematical equation by considering the pipe could be either the horizontal
vertical or inclined.
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So let us see this is our tubing through which the flow is happening and we are assuming the
flow is happening from this direction to this direction from one to two or I can say this is the
place where the pressure is 𝑝𝑤𝑓 bottom part of the well and this could be 𝑝ℎ𝑓 . This tube could be
horizontal vertical and inclined but in case of the wellbore production mostly it is vertical we can
adjust that thing with the help of angle 𝜃 either we can use this angle or this angel depend on the
angle we are choosing with the sin form or cos form will come into expression.
We can say the length the tubing is that is the spread over several thousand feet we can see the
length is 𝑑𝐿 or just L. And the vertical height is 𝑑𝑧 so we can establish the relationship and that
relationship says we are having 𝑑𝑧 = 𝑐𝑜𝑠(𝜃). So now flow is happening from point 1 to 2
because of the pressure difference and the pressure difference is 𝑝𝑤𝑓 is higher than the 𝑝ℎ𝑓 and
this pressure energy will push the fluid to travel from bottom part to top part of the wellbore.
The diameter of this tube is internal diameter we can say di depend on the unit system it is
mentioned either it is mentioned Di or di. In general, US field unit system if it is mentioned as di
means the unit associate with this diameter is inches and if it is Di or otherwise it is specified the
symbol along with it unit. So for this system when the flow is happening vertically from point 1
to point 2 because of the pressure difference we can set up the continuity equation or the
momentum balance equation.
Continuity equation simply says there is no accumulation of the mass is happening whatever is entering.
At this point let us say cross sectional area A1 and leaving at this cross sectional area 2 is the same as
there is no accumulation in the system. And when it is happening we can say q1 = q2 so the flow rate or
volumetric flow rate or mass flow rate we are assuming here the density is constant at one point and 2
point that may not be correct what we are saying for the assumption the flow rate is same and 𝐴1 𝑉1 =
𝐴2 𝑉2.
Otherwise it should be 𝜌𝐴1 𝑉1 = 𝜌𝐴2 𝑉2 . However, from the continuity we could understand
there is no accumulation happening in the system. We assume the density is not changing much
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the cross sectional area of the tube is also constant or almost constant throughout the tubing part
then the velocity will also be constant and that gives us the flexibility to assume the contribution
of the kinetic energy in the momentum balance equation is negligible.
So when we talk about the momentum balance equation, momentum balance means the
momentum getting in and out of the system. The difference between in and out balance is by the
forces acting on the system. These forces could be kinetic energy, gravity, friction forces, shaft
work done on the system, or other forces assuming only gas flowing.
If we assume other than gas, liquid or solid compound or water is also being produced the
expression will be more complex more difficult. So let us start with the single gas phase flow
system and the flow through the tubing is govern by the first law of thermo dynamics that is the
conservation of energy principle and that by setting up the mechanical balance equation to a
system we can get the relationship between the parameters those are responsible for this
conservation of energy for this flow that is happening to the tubing.
If we do so we can see considering there is no change in the cross sectional area the kinetic
energy changes in the system can be ignored similarly there is not external device installed
across the system so no shaft work is done on the system it means shaft work is also negligible
so the pressure energy in the system this is pressure gradient is balanced by the gravity and the
frictional losses.
Depend on the pipe roughness the frictional losses will happen in the system and the gravity will
play a major role in fact when the tube is vertical and the flow is happening because of the
pressure gradient as we see in our fluid mechanics class also we can set a very simple
mathematical equation depend on what is happening in the system we can establish the
relationship very easily in the terms of dependent and independent parameter.
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Similar we are doing here but it is little bit complex and the complexity is because our system is
not ideal system certain properties are not constant they are the function of local condition so let
us see in the mechanical balance equation what we are having the pressure energy gravity energy
and friction losses or come up in the form of mechanical energy balance equation and the
summation of all these is equal to 0.
So the pressure energy that is responsible for this flow is balanced by the gravity and friction
forces depend on the pressure gradient we are having the flow will happen in fact in a vertical
flow system the gravity contributes around 75% and the frictional loss is account
around 25%. So the gravity is a dominating mechanism of dominating force or dominating part
of the energy change that is actually governed the flow throughout the vertical tubing.
We will discuss this in the next slide how the parameters appearing in this expression can be replaced to
make this equation solvable. Because you see here the pressure term the gravity is appearing the natural
gas is real gas gravity may not be constant. Most of the cases has been considered natural gas is
compressible fluid of course density is not constant in that case and the f which is a frictional force factor
𝜏
called is the friction factor f that comes out by the definition of 𝑤 2 .
𝜌𝑉 ⁄2
We can get if we know the tau, 𝜌 and V or we can convert this expression into other form of
Reynolds number and can use some charts from our fluid mechanics class we are understand a
Moody chart is available that is relate how the friction factor or the moody friction factor should
be calculated when we know the flow through a pipe is happening and under what condition that
flow is happening it is happening under the laminar condition or in a turbulent condition or in
between like in a transient condition .
We will see that in the next slide important is this f that is also function of Reynolds number,
Reynolds number is a function of q the volumetric flow rate that we will also see in the next slide
and the q is the function of temperature and pressure. So this f is also going to create a problem it
is not easy to put some value and take it out similarly the velocity V = q / A and this q again
depend on the local condition temperature and pressure.
So we will see how we can replace the parameters those are making this equation difficult to
solve how we can replace those parameters in some other term or in some familiar term those we
know or we can understand how to calculate from the understanding of fluid properties.
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So we say the density 𝜌 = 29 𝛾𝑔 𝑃/𝑍𝑅𝑇 this we understand from our properties of natural gas class how
to establish this relationship here gamma g = molecular weight or apparent molecular weight of the fluid
or the gas divided by the molecular weight of air.
So indirectly the gamma g is accounting the type of fluid or the gas is being produced from a gas
well and in other terms what are the composition of that gas. How much percent of particular
dominating hydro carbon, non-hydro carbon compounds can be represented in the form of
gamma g accounts for the compositional variation from particular well we may be producing just
a constant composition until unless some extreme conditions are happening like pressure is
declining some liquid accumulation is happening or the phase accumulation is happening.
That is separate if the composition of the gas or known we can calculate the molecular weight
know the molecular weight we can calculate gamma g putting gamma g here we can calculate 𝜌
but again see here 𝜌 also depend on Z is compressibility factor and that compressibility factor is
also dependent term that depends on temperature that also we had seen in our properties of
natural gas is class how to use some empirical correlation or big chart to calculate the
compressibility.
We can use Brill and Beggs method to calculate the compressibility that gives us little bit
easiness in creating a excel sheet where putting the data we can get the compressibility. But
compressibility factor is required similarly here for the velocity as mentioned last slide we can
𝜋𝐷 2
write q /A A is cross sectional area 4 or we can write internal diameter of tube q is flow rate at
a particular temperature and pressure.
So we can use the relationship that says at a particular condition qP/ZRT at 1 condition for a real gas =
qP/ZRT by second condition and the second condition we can assume as a standard condition under that
standard condition we know what is the pressure value what is the temperature value we can cancel out
this R and the q value that will be denoted by now 𝑞𝑠𝑐 because this Q is estimated assuming the
estimation of flow rate or the Q value is done at standard conditions.
The z value even the gas is real gas but we considered the z value at standard temperature and pressure
condition as once the z2 will become 1. By doing this we know how to put those value and get the
expression for velocity putting area putting this relationship of real gas we got this expression here 𝑃𝑠𝑐
and 𝑇𝑠𝑐 are standard pressure and temperature we know in a field unit system the P is 14.7 psia and 𝑇𝑠𝑐 is
520 degree Rankine R value at the field unit system is 10.73.
If we put the numerical value we can get the value of velocity in some numerical term also. Now
Reynolds number the parameter that characterize the type of flow is happening or required to
𝜌𝑉𝐷
calculate the friction factor. So the Reynolds number 𝜇 . Now if we put 𝜌 value velocity value
in that expression and this di internal diameter of the pipe and the viscosity of the fluid that is
being flow from the tube. If we put everything we will see the expression here getting like this.
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Here the question comes at what condition the viscosity should be calculated because again the
viscosity is a function of temperature and pressure. So the viscosity of the fluid that is flowing
through a tube can be calculated under certain average temperature and pressure condition and
that is was the bar on the 𝜇 is appearing in the expression it means the 𝜇 is calculated at average
condition.
The average could be chosen like the well head temperature and pressure and the bottom hole
temperature pressure and the average or some other mean the average could be applied to
calculate the viscosity of the fluid. Otherwise it is very difficult because viscosity will also
change at point to point. When we put this standard condition and pressure condition and get the
expression for the Reynolds number it appears very simple pressure like the 𝜌 divided by 𝜇 it
says under the US field unit system.
The Reynolds number = 20.09𝛾𝑔 𝑔𝑞𝑠𝑐 is q estimated at standard condition divided by D diameter of the
pipe and 𝜇 the viscosity of the gas that is flowing through this tube. So now let us see our balance
equation that we had in this last slide that says the pressure term here now we know we can replace this 𝜌
we see here the f we see the next slide but know how to replace this V we know that thing and the f could
result in a numerical value again numerical value depends on the Reynolds number and the roughness of
the pipe.
If roughness of the pipe is known the Reynolds number at which the fluid is flowing through a
tube or a pipeline is known we can calculate using the moody chat we can out this values in this
expression and can derive the mathematical expression that is much familiar compared to this
one we will do in the next here important part is the f that is appearing here is it a moody friction
factor or a fanning friction factor.
There is a relationship between Moody and fanning, Moody says four times of the fanning
friction factor whenever it is not mentioned it is a moody friction until unless it is specified it is a
fanning friction factor in the expression or in the chart which we are going to use the relationship
of moody and friction factor should be adjusted to at the accurate understanding or the value of
the friction factor that is going to use in this mathematical expression.
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So let us see how to see this expression when input the value other than this f that we will see
how to calculate it the equation will appear like this so this is still the pressure term we just
replace the density and here we had replace the velocity. So the first term the pressure term not
depend on PZRT similarly second term is also depend on ZT/P and if we can establish the
relationship this equation can be solved otherwise this equation cannot be solved in the current
form we have to mix certain assumption.
Assumption in terms of how to calculate the compressibility factor how to make the assumption
may compressibility factor can be integrated when we are going to integrate this equation
similarly for the pressure and temperature we will see later on let us understand first how to
estimate the friction factor.
So this chart shows about the friction factor that says Reynolds number and this chart is for the
Moody’s friction factor I already mentioned moody’s and fanning friction factor are different
they are having the relationship of Moody’s friction factor = 4 times of the friction factor here
you will see the Moody’s friction factor similarly fanning will also be a function of Reynolds
number and epsilon /d is called effective roughness of the Pie.
This is the value epsilon this could be provided by the vendor which is supplying the pipeline or
it is not given there are several literature. Those allow us to calculate the effective roughness of
the pipe. Important is the Reynolds number if the Reynolds number is known and the roughness
of the pipe is none we can read this chart and can calculate the friction factor value depend on in
which region the flow is happening if it is happening in the laminar region the expression is
simply 64/𝑁𝑅𝑒 .
Here it is moody friction factor you will see other chart when it is fanning friction factor this will
be having 16𝑁𝑅𝑒 . But in the Moody friction factor it is 64/𝑁𝑅𝑒 so let us talk about the moody
friction factor only now so when the flow is in the laminar region it is having a relationship like
the Reynolds number the friction factor is declining and it is not a function of roughness of pipe.
The rough ness of the pipe plays a major role when the flow is in turbulent region or transient
region when the gas is flowing with a significant high velocity.
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That is the case in the case of the natural gas because of significant pressure difference the gas is
flowing under the turbulence condition and in that case epsilon by d needs to be known before
we can read this chart because you can see here there are several lines those are inclined and then
becoming flat. Flat means at certain Reynolds number the value is not depending on the
Reynolds number it is just depend on the roughness of the pipe.
In the transient region the region becomes little lesser and miss the effect of roughness of the
pipe just concentrate in this region only and we can calculate the effectiveness factor if we know
the value of Reynolds number and we know Reynolds number depends on the q or gamma g can
be estimated if we know the composition of the gas but the flow rate depends on the temperature
and pressure.
And if the temperature and pressure are changing flow rate will change and when flow rate is
changing Reynolds number will changing the f value which use using the chart and any other
correlation will also get changed. So important is putting some iteration method to estimate the
value of Reynolds number that is satisfying the condition of the flow rate. The flow rate at which
the fluid is being produced another thing is 𝑁𝑅𝑒 in the SI unit system or in the field unit system.
𝜌𝑉𝐷
If it is represented in SI unit system the kind of system will be there we can adjust the other
𝜇
terms when it is at US field unit system because of the unit chosen to represent different
parameter those are appearing in the expression those are empirical coefficient may appear in
that similar thing is appearing in there because of the adjustment of the parameter the diameter
some time it is in inch sometime it is fit we are not converting using di small that means the
diameter in inch the numerical coefficient that is appearing will get change.
So we should be careful when we are dealing with a difference unit system the expression may
end up with some numerical coefficient because of the unit chosen to express one of the
parameter that is appearing in the expression. So let us go ahead with this understanding we want
to know the Reynolds number if Reynolds is known we can calculate the friction factor.
Of course the effectiveness ahh roughness of the pipe or the effective roughness of the pipe is
also required.
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This is not only the way we can calculate the pipe roughness or this is not only the way we can
calculate the friction factor there are several correlation depends on this chart or on other
understanding reported in the literature that is how to calculate the value of f. As already
mentioned the gas mostly flowing in this wellbore is mostly follow the turbulence flow and the
fully turbulence flow several expression given in the terms of diameter of the pipe in terms of the
effective roughness of the pipe or in terms of Reynolds number or the combination of all three.
So here Katz and Lee they had given the expression for fully turbulence flow condition and the
expression is divided based on the diameter that is they said if the diameter of the tube which is
used to produce the gas is lesser than 4.277 less than or equal. The expression can be f =
0.0175/𝑑 0.224 divided by diameter to the power 0.224 and if the diameter is greater than 4.277
the expression will be different and that says that numerator part as well as in the denominator
the power of diameter will also get change.
So depend on the diameter Katz and Lee had given this expression Goa use the Nikuradse
friction factor correlation for fully developed turbulence flow in rough pipe and that they had
consider this is not depending on along the diameter of the pipe but on the effective
roughness but this is described by epsilon by di and the epsilon value is something that is
specific to pipe that is used to produce the flow.
So either it can be calculated or should we supply by the vendor but this relationship simply says
the f can be calculated just by f / di relationship we do not need the Reynolds number but there
are several correlation are reported in literature and there are develop based on the understanding
of the flow through the pipeline how pipeline roughness and diameter and the flow regime that is
laminar transient and turbulence occurring in the system the correlation can be used.
All are good enough in certain condition especially the Swamee and Jain equation is considered better
than the Colebrook equation and Chen’s equation or some other all are good but depend on which one is
chosen what is the formation is a level and what accuracy the results are required as mentioned Katz and
Lee they mentioned depends on diameter only Nikurdse relationship depends on epsilon by di only and
similarly if we write about the Swamee and Jain equation that says how the friction factor is related to the
𝜀 21.25
other parameter like 1/√𝑓= 1.14 – 2 𝑙𝑜𝑔( + 𝑁 0.9 ).
𝑑𝑖 𝑅𝑒
So swamee and Jain consider Reynolds number also in the estimation of friction factor and that
is knowing the expression for friction factor and correlation propose in the literature we can
calculate the friction factor value.
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Once we know the friction factor value now in this friction expression we know how to replace 𝜌
how to replace f how to replace velocity and when we did arrangement of this equation replacing
this terms we could get this expression. This expression simply says here this is pressure and this
is length so the entire tube length in a incline condition because the 𝑐𝑜𝑠(𝜃) is appearing here in
the incline position the expression says how pressure drop is related to length for the entire
length of the wellbore.
If we can solve this equation we can get the relationship but see here the expression is still
having the complexity it cannot be solved so easily because the Z is appearing here the
compressibility similarly the temperature similarly the pressure we know the flow through the
well bore is having because of the pressure for example we are having this vertical, tubing and
the flow is happening of course the 𝑝𝑤𝑓 is higher than 𝑝ℎ𝑓 and at intermediate position the
pressure should be different or between 𝑝𝑤𝑓 and 𝑝ℎ𝑓 .
Similar the temperature is also different here that is 𝑇𝑤𝑓 and 𝑇ℎ𝑓 temperature is also different
they cannot be taken constant and when temperature and pressure cannot be assume constant in a
actual case then how compressibility can be taken constant. So after adjusting the parameter in
the mechanical balance equation we could the establish the relationship for a single gas flow
system.
189
This is an ordinary differential equation which is governing only through the single gas flow
through the tubing it is equally applicable for the casing and annulus as already discussed we just
need to replace the diameter by the hydraulic diameter. This equation is still very complex
because our fluid is real fluid it is complex in the nature it is properties changes when we are
going to deal with fluid at different temperature and different pressure conditions.
The fluid is compressible that is the density and viscosity very along this tubing line because the
temperature and pressure also changing some assumption can be made like temperature is
changing linearly with respect to the length we are going down from the surface the length is
increasing temperature is also increasing that we can approximate it is happening linearly but
compressibility that is the function of temperature and pressure need to be calculated locally.
And that is put the condition on solving this equation and this equation cannot be solved as an
ordinary differential equation this is the difference between the ordinary differential equation we
establish when we are solving for the ideal gas but in this case we are getting a complex system.
So certain approximation are required to solve this equation there are several approximation have
been reported in the literature to solve this equation but two of them are widely use in the gas
industry one of them is the average temperate and compressibility factor method and the second
is Cullender and smith method.
We will go through one by one about both the method so the next method the average
temperature and compressibility method that is assume the calculation of temperature those are
appearing in that equation previous equation we had seen temperature was in inside pressure was
inside and the compressibility was inside. So after assuming like any mean we can calculate the
value of compressibility, temperature and f constant value we can assume the entire length
temperature we can just average out by choosing well head temperature and the bottom hole
temperature.
The average value similarly can be done or compressibility also and for a local segment in the
tubing length if there are other ways available we can calculate the average value of
compressibility and temperature. When we can do that the thing we can take those term out of
this derivative term and this equation will take this shape. In this equation if we also assume f is
constant then you see we can take this is entire term as constant.
Because as we know the constant value of compressibility R value is numerical value temperature value
will be numerical value and if we know the composition of our gas we know the gamma g. So we can
write this as a constant and this is 𝐴1 similarly this is also constant value 𝐴2 if we know the inclination if
it is horizontal particular angle we know this is going to be a constant and this is 𝐴2 and here also other
than 𝑝2 we can say everything after putting this stand up pressure. temperature, 𝜋 value, compressibility
factor value, average temperature value.
This is going to be 𝐴3 if I write this equation in a simplified form here in this equation we had
assume all these are having constant value. So if I arrange this equation this will take shape like
𝐴1 dp/p +( 𝐴2 + 𝐴3 /𝑝2 )dL = 0. Now we can apply the separation of variable concept to solve this
equation. Let us further simplify this equation and if I do so what I am going to get is 𝐴1 dp/(
p(𝐴2 + 𝐴3 /𝑝2 )) = - dL.
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Before we are going to integrate let us further simplify this we can take this A1 out here and we
𝐴
will get this equation in this form p𝐴2 /𝐴1 + 𝐴3 1/𝑝2 . On the right hand side we are having – dL
1
so we can lump the parameter again and 𝐴2 /𝐴1 we can write as a 𝐵1 and 𝐴3 /𝐴1 is 𝐵2.
𝑝𝐵1 +𝐵2
So the equation will take the form of 𝑑𝑝/( ) and on the write hand side we are still having
𝑝
the – dL. Now 𝐵1 and 𝐵2 we had lump the parameter the numerical coefficient and we can write
what will be the form of 𝐵1 and 𝐵2 so if we write this will be having some numerical coefficient
X gamma g 𝑐𝑜𝑠(𝜃) by average compressibility and average temperature.
̅ and this numerical coefficient that

Similarly the 𝐵2 will be having some numerical coefficient 𝑓𝛾𝑔 𝑞𝑠𝑐 2 𝑧̅ 𝑇
′
is X and we can write here 𝑋 depend on the unit system has been chosen. So if we take filed unit system
the 𝐵1 value will be 0.01875 in the US field unit system and the 𝐵2 value will be 5.057 10 to the power -
17 again in US field unit system and if we convert that entire expression to SI unit system the value will
be 0.031475 and for 𝐵2 in SI unit system it will be 4.628 10 to the power -14.
Depend again on the unit system chosen even for individual parameter if we are changing the
value of measurement for example the diameter is changing from feet to inch the numerical
coefficient will get change we understand in US field unit system the standard value for pressure
is 14.7 psia we can put that value temperature is 520 degree Rankine the diameter again 14 feet
again 𝑞𝑠𝑐 in scf per day.
While in SI unit system pressure value will be measured in kilopascal and that is equal to 101.4
for the standard condition and temperature is 289 Kelvin diameter is measured in meter and
standard cubic standard flow rate measured in standard meter cube per day. So depend again the
unit system we are choosing the constant value 𝐵1, 𝐵2 will get change. We do not need to worry
about those parameter at this moment when we are adjusting the equation finally we can care
about it.
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Now our equation is here that should care and how to integrate this equation from 𝑃1 point 1 to
𝑃2 or from length L to 0 we can integrate this equation. For further simplification what we can do
𝑃
we can take this term out like 𝐵1. So we left with 𝑃1 𝑑𝑝 upon so we take 𝐵1 out we will be having
2
𝐵 𝐵2 𝐵
pdp/( 𝑝2 + 𝐵2 ) and we can consider further this is like a another parameter just to lump 𝐵2 .
1 𝐵1 1
And on the right hand side by integrating this we got the value L so on the left hand side we are
having 1/𝐵1 integrating it from 𝑃1 to 𝑃2 we got pdp/(a + 𝑝2 ) right hand side we are having L.
Now to further solve this equation we can assume a + 𝑝2 = some parameter some local parameter
we can say x and if we differentiate this we get 2pdp = dx.
Using this we can convert this equation in the form of x and when we are doing that we will get
𝑥2
1 𝑑𝑥 1 𝑥
∫ = 𝐿. The integration will give us 2𝐵 𝑙𝑛 (𝑥2) = 𝐿 by adjusting this equation we can get
2𝐵1 𝑥 1 1
𝑥1
𝑥2 𝑥2 a + 𝑝22
𝑙𝑛 (𝑥 ) = 2𝐵1𝐿, further 𝑥 = a + 𝑝2, now integrated L from L to 0 it means the pressure range
1 1 1
should be at L pressure is 𝑝𝑤𝑓 and here it is 𝑝ℎ𝑓 . So the 𝑝1 will become 𝑝𝑤𝑓 and 𝑝2 will become
𝑝ℎ𝑓 after adjusting this equation what we are going to get is equation like this.
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You can do the adjustments getting 𝐵1, 𝐵2 value and everything if you adjust we will get this
equation this is how Q flow rate is related to 𝑝𝑤𝑓 , 𝑝ℎ𝑓 diameter of the pipe and the fluid
properties like the compressibility as well as viscosity. Viscosity is related in the form of because
to calculate the Reynolds number the viscosity and Reynolds number is required to calculate f.
So the f which is appearing here is in the form the implicitly accounting for viscosity.
And the S here which is appearing here this is similar to what we got in terms of 𝐵1 , 𝐵2
parameter this is equivalent to 2𝐵1 𝐿 and after putting the value of 𝐵2 we are going to get the
same expression here. We can understand how this equation is going to help us to establish the
relationship. Now we could solve the equation, the equation which was not solvable with the
assumption of constant temperature and constant compressibility the equation could be solved.
The equation had given us the relationship between the flow rate and the other parameter those
are responsible for this flow like 𝑝ℎ𝑓 , 𝑝𝑤𝑓 diameter compressibility and viscosity again the
numerical part or the numerical coefficient appear in this equation depends on the unit system
chosen to represent to given parameter I am emphasizing again the di it is some time given in
inch forms sometime it is consider in the fit unit and the adjustment should to be made
accordingly.
The SI unit system this should be SI unit system where pressure temperature and value can put
here and in field unit system we are having different value like pressure is measured in psia
temperature in degree Rankine and R is having fit Q psia per LB Mole degree Rankine in field
unit. If we put this in this equation we will get the final numerical coefficient that is appearing in
this equation.
And this is again in the US field unit system were D is considered in inch the average
compressibility factor is function of pressure itself to the problem is not solved so simply we
could solve the equation. The equation which was are looking like a ordinary differential
equation but not having any analytical solution we could solve and equation considering the
constant temperature and constant compressibility apply the separation of variable concept and
got the solution.
But here the problem with respect to compressibility is still there that is compressibility is the
function of pressure that is numerical technique like a Newton Raphson method or other
technique is required that can help us to perform the iteration and to find out should the value of
𝑝𝑤𝑓 or any parameter that is missing here should be. We will understand this with the help of an
example.
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So the example for this problem (refer time: 52:40) is chosen from the both that is says that develop the
pressure profile along the tubing length and some values related to this problem are given to us. So let us
say this is the well bore which is spread over the length from 0 to L and the length is given like it is
deeper up to 8000 feet from where this is producing the fluid and the fluid which is produced is having
the specific gravity as 0.7 and the production rate 𝑞𝑠𝑐 is 2mmscf.
2mmscf is 2 million standard cubic feet and the temperature at the top is given that is 150F and
at the bottom is 200F the pressure is also given at well head condition and the well head
condition says pressure is set at 600 psia to have this production 𝑞𝑠𝑐 at 2mmscf per day other
things are given the diameter is given as 2 inch and the roughness of the pipe is also given
epsilon by d is 0.0006.
If the value is not given epsilon this is the value is that should be assume as an standard value.
Now we were ask pressure profile along the tubing lens as we are going from top to bottom what
is the pressure at each section which we are going to consider or ultimately what will be the
pressure of this wellbore 𝑝𝑤𝑓 is not given to us this is 𝑝ℎ𝑓 is given 𝑇ℎ𝑓 is given Twf is given. So
if we look our problem or our mathematical expression where we say we have the expression
with the help of average temperature and average compressibility method where 𝑝𝑤𝑓 is related to
𝑝ℎ𝑓 and other parameter.
Important point comes we need to need to know the value of f we can put in any form formulate given in
the literature but what we can do we can use one of the accepted and simplest form that does not need any
value of Reynolds number even if it is required because we know the Q value in this problem. So let us
𝜀
use the value of f from the expression given by Nikuradse and that is f = 1/(1.74 – 2 𝑙𝑜𝑔 )2 .
𝑑
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See in this expression there is no Reynolds number appearing just only the roughness of the pipe
and the internal diameter of the pipe or other way effectiveness of the pipe is considered. We
know this value we can calculate various state value of f that will come as 0.017397 we can
perform this calculation and we will see the value is coming like this. Now we know the f value
we know temperature at the top and bottom we can calculate the average temperature now how
to solve this problem.
How to know how the pressure is changing as we are going downside from surface to wellbore
bottom for that we can look at the expression we can say at any particular length from the surface
any particular length 𝑝𝑤𝑓 can be calculated we need to know the compressibility other things are
known and that is where we can play the trial and error or iteration processor because
compressibility depends on pressure itself at a particular location what is the pressure then only
we can calculate the average pressure and that average pressure is at the compressibility can be
calculated.
So for that purpose what we can do we can design a spread sheet and that spread sheet says your
length this is length or this length data from 0 to L that is 8000 divided in N number of equal
parts and we can choose 10 or may go up to 100 or any number 10 is something that will allow
us to fast calculation we can write a mathematical program to solve this kind of the problem
because every time we need to do iteration and for that purpose there should be either in excel or
in Mat lab or somewhere the program that perform the Newton Raphson method or trial and
error iteration procedure.
So let us say first thing we divided this entire length from 0 to 8000 in 10 segment and we
assume the temperature changes linearly with length. So the temperature data can be obtained
very easily this temperature is degree Rankine at the surface the temperature is 610 under the
water it is 660. The next is pressure here I had shown the entire result but we know only this
value 600 Psi as a 𝑝ℎ𝑓 at the surface or at the well head the pressure is 600.
195
Now at this pressure at this temperature we can consider these are the average value we can
calculate this compressibility factor. Now how to calculate the compressibility factor we have to
go back in our natural gas properties class where we understood the methods how to calculate the
compressibility factor one of the method is Brill and Becks we can use that method considering
the critical temperature and critical pressure of the system that can be calculated because we
know the gamma g of the system and based on that we can calculate the z.
Now this Z should be calculated at average condition so what we will do at the next level we will
some value of P2 and calculate the compressibility factor. And we will see the compressibility
factor calculated by perform the iteration for this psi should satisfy the function value and if it is
satisfying we will get 𝑝𝑤𝑓 at that length. Similarly we can go down and at the end we are going
to get the value of 𝑝𝑤𝑓 at the bottom of the well.
So now once we could do this calculation we got the length we go temperature we go pressure
we can plot pressure profile as we are going down from this 0 length to L. We know at 0 surface
we are having some pressure. So let us say this is depth and this is pressure range in psia and this
is in feet. So we know the total length is 8000 at surface when the length is 0
we are having the pressure that is 600 and after performing the calculation we came to know at
the bottom pressure is 922.
And intermediate length we can put the value of pressure and we can get the profile that is saying
how the pressure is changing from 𝑝ℎ𝑓 to 𝑝𝑤𝑓 and that is the way we can solve the problem for
any length if the 𝑝ℎ𝑓 and Q and other parameters are given to us. Let us see another example
where we will understand in another way how we can choose this particular equation to calculate
the unknown parameter or the missing parameter that is not available.
This will also help us in designing the system for example in the second case when the diameter
is chosen to a system when q is known 𝑝𝑤𝑓 is known. And in the first case when 𝑝𝑤𝑓 was ask
what should be the 𝑝𝑤𝑓 when q is given we can do the same thing we can divide this length in a
196
N number of parts perform the same iteration process as we did in the last slide and we can
calculate the 𝑝𝑤𝑓 .
What in the other case when it is 𝑝𝑤𝑓 is given q is given diameter needs to be calculated again
this same set of the equation can be used where 𝑝𝑤𝑓 is known not the diameter we can perform
the iteration and the iteration is recorded it cannot be solid state iteration is required if we are
going to use how to calculate the f. If f value is constant the friction value is constant we do not
need to perform the iteration that is not the case we are having f that depends on the diameter or
internal diameter of the tube.
So when we are going to calculate the internal diameter of the tube we have to perform the
iteration with respect to f to get the optimum solution or the size of the diameter internal
diameter of the cube that is going to satisfy at that 𝑝𝑤𝑓 at that 𝑝ℎ𝑓 is at that flow rate can be
achieved and this 𝑝𝑤𝑓 case is in first case we need to perform the iteration because we need to
calculate the compressibility f we need to perform the iteration because we need to calculate f.
In case of third when 𝑝ℎ𝑓 and 𝑝𝑤𝑓 are given and we are supposed to calculate q we can use the
same equation we can perform the iteration again and the iteration are record because we know
the Reynolds number value or the f value if we are going to use the complex formula where we
want the f is a function of Reynolds number and to calculate the Reynolds number value we need
the q value that is with respect to q we need to perform the iteration.
If not then we can solve it in a much easier way and we are doing this exercise by using this
equation we know several parameter those are known to us like in the first case we are having
𝑝𝑤𝑓 should be calculated others are given to us like average compressibility can be calculated by
iteration processors otherwise T average diameter of Tube 𝑝ℎ𝑓 given to us. And in that case we
can be perform this is left hand exercise this we will get the 𝑝𝑤𝑓 value as 1440 while in other
case when we are doing with respect to diameter and answer will be around 4 inch tube is
required to achieve this flow rate when 𝑝𝑤𝑓 whatever the 𝑝𝑤𝑓 is given we had chosen that.
So this 𝑝𝑤𝑓 is used here and in case of when q is supposed to be calculated when the flow is
happening between this pressure gradient we are going to get the value of as 15.8 mmscf per say
we can perform the iteration and you can solve this equation considering the parameter given in
the previous case. Only the missing parameter or the parameter can be asked to put for this
solution purpose and the answer I had given this is 4 inches diameter flow rate will be 15.8 and
for the first case the 𝑝𝑤𝑓 will be around 1440 psia.
That is where the average temperature and compressibility method can help us solving that
equation even though it is an approximation is still it works and widely use in this gas industry.
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This second method that is also use in industry very frequently for such kind of calculation is
Cullender and smith method. So the wellbore performance relationship as we know is an
ordinary differential equation cannot solved just by doing the simple ODE processor because
compressibility and other factor depends on local condition and pressure that is changing.
Similar procedure as we understand for the previous it could not be solved but making certain
approximation we can solve it Cullender and smith also made an approximation and that
approximation says why we cannot arrange this equation in the form of this where we are
integrating from 𝑝ℎ𝑓 to 𝑝𝑤𝑓 and the equation is going to take this shape. This is just adjusting
average related to pressure on one side and length related to another side.
We can do that arrangement and we do so the numerical coefficient appearing here depends on
the unit system that has been chosen this is where the US field unit system where 𝑞𝑠𝑐 is taken in
mmscf per day and the numerical coefficient appearing because we have put the value for the
standard temperature, standard pressure and other parameter.
Now in this equation we will see pzT they are the function of local condition the compressibility
at local condition temperature and pressure will also change and similarly f if f is the function of
not only the roughness but also the Reynolds number it cannot be considered as constant. But
altogether by arranging this way we could get integral form of equation that
says if you consider this entire as I integral and we put 𝑝ℎ𝑓 to 𝑝𝑤𝑓 that will be equal to right hand
side.
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After applying the trapezoidal rule we can approximate this entire tubing length in two parts and
at the midpoint let us say this is midpoint this is head point this is bottom point here the pressure
is 𝑝ℎ𝑓 or any property is 𝑝ℎ𝑓 here it is 𝑝𝑚𝑓 and here it is 𝑝𝑤𝑓 . So this is if you integrate this
previous integrant at this 𝑝ℎ𝑓 we will get IHF. If we integrate and midpoint we will get IMF and
similarly at the bottom it will be IWF.
And this can be done with the help of the trapezoidal rule that is simply says if you integrating
any function from a to b dx that will be b – a the difference in the range function value of a
function value at b divided by 2. So similar thing has been done if you see here the entire section
is divided into two parts and it is assumed to upper part and lower part are having the same value
we will see next.
Let us see first after applying the trapezoidal rule we got this is the difference in the limit a
minus b kind of the things this is the function value at Midpoint and top point divided by 2
similar for the bottom part it can be done. So we can divide into two perform the integration and
that is equal to right hand side is going same. Here it is assume like the first part and second part
they are equal in terms of the value we are obtaining after performing the numerical integration.
And that is assumption says this is like this and this is half of the right hand side similarly the
other term here that is half of the other hand side. If the sum both of them we are going to get the
same thing. So assuming this first and second term in right hand side of equation each represent
half of the integration that is give us the flexibility to have two algebraic equations those allow
us to perform calculation to get the value of 𝑝𝑚𝑓 .
The pressure value at the middle point we already know pressure value at head and similarly we can
calculate the value at bottom point but how to get this is still there is a problem because when we
adjusting those previous equation in the form of 𝑝𝑚𝑓 we are getting 𝑝ℎ𝑓 + 18.75𝛾𝑔 L/ (𝐼𝑤𝑓 + 𝐼ℎ𝑓 ).
199
We know the pressure here 𝑝𝑚𝑓 then only we can perform the integration at that time that is why
again the newton Raphson or any integration process is required that allow us to calculate the
pressure at that condition which satisfy the interaction condition and once we know 𝑝𝑚𝑓 we can
put in this equation and we can get 𝑝𝑤𝑓 this 𝐼𝑤𝑓 is appearing here 𝐼𝑤𝑓 is a function of 𝑝𝑤𝑓 we
have to perform iteration again for this condition also.
But performing the Cullender and Smith method we can divided the section in two part and get
this solution.
Let us understand the similar problem what we solved in the case of the average temperature
and pressure method we can say the same thing where the length is spread from 0 to 8000 we
know the pressure here 𝑝ℎ𝑓 that is 600 the temperature we know here is 150R or other way 610
Rankine THF and here the pressure is supposed to be calculated while the temperature is given
as here is 660 R.
Now the problem is same we can divide this in two parts so this is 0 to 4000 and here it is 4000
to 8000 now what we know let us say we know the length we can divide this length 0, 4000,
8000 we understand the linear approximation with respect to temperature and when we assume
the linear approximation we know here it is 610 here it is 660 we can write the value of
temperature at the midpoint also that will be the average of this thing.
So if I take the average this will be around 635 now it comes to pressure how the pressure is
changing we know to know the pressure we have to know the integration or the integration or the
integration or integral function and that integral function depend on p/zT and now we have to
calculate P because to calculate this function we have to know the value of P similarly to
calculate this function we need to know the Z.
And we can do this similar what we do the iteration processor for the average temperature and
average pressure to know that what will be the value of pressure and temperature at the
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initial condition we know the pressure is 600 we can write that value here and next considering
this and this value for pressure and temperature we can calculate compressibility at that point
then will come out a 0.9297 we can calculate p/zT at that point 1.05803 and integration at that
point is with 312 point something.
Now for next at this length we do not know what should be the value of that we can perform the
iteration with respect to Z we get the value of pressure here that will come out as 764 and the
value of compressibility at that will be 0.9332 at accordingly we can calculate the p/zT and
integral. And further at the length of this we can calculate this value 923 will come after
performing the iteration under that condition we will be having 0.9213 we can get pzT and this
and we solve those algebraic equation because now we know this values IMF and IWF we will
see the value of 𝑝𝑤𝑓 923 and 𝑝𝑚𝑓 is appearing the same.
So now both the method have been discussed there are not only this two method there are several
other methods those also allow us to calculate the pressure profile when the flow is happening in
the wellbore. Several methods are just like Cullender smith method this suggest how to divide
this entire length and N number of parts not necessary those equal interval is needed for those
small segment we can calculate performing the trial and error or iteration process is there the
pressure that each segment as we did or the temperate and compressibility method.
And as we did for the Cullender and Smith method those we are not going to discuss in detail but
there are some methods available I think cullender and smith and the average temperature and
the average compressibility methods are good enough to solve our purpose.
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If we go further we can get with the cullender smith also the same temperature same pressure
profile we can obtain with respect to L we know at this point what is the pressure 600 and when
we reach up to 8000 feet we are having almost like the same here we got 923 value and at the
midpoint we got the value at 764 we can draw the profile. Once we could establish this
relationship we know this balance equation is functioning well it is representing what is
happening in the wellbore condition.
Another advantage of this is drawing the WPR curve so now we know at different 𝑝ℎ𝑓 or
different 𝑝𝑤𝑓 how Q is changing and knowing this curve relationship will help us to
understand or the designing of WPR system we will discuss this WPR curve later on when we
will be discussing about the nodal curve analysis.
202
So with this what we did so far we understood how to setup the mathematical equation for WPR
just considering it is happening under steady state condition there is only one single phase gas is
flowing through this well but that is not the situation if we even dry gas well also produces small
amount of liquid that could be water or could be oil or the condensate.
In the surface we are not seeing any liquid but during the production there might be some zones
where the liquid is coming out the gas phase and getting accumulated. So when we are having
the two phase system like the gas liquid flow system we may have a very complex system it is
not two phase flow system that we can understand how the flow will be happening it depends on
the superficial velocity of gas phase and liquid phase what is the critical velocity is the gas is
having enough energy or velocity to carry the liquid accumulating in the tube to the surface or it
is just getting accumulated in the system.
And depend on the relative superficial velocity or the flow regime in the system we can get
different type of the two phase system and each phenomena that is happening or shown here is
have been it is unique characteristics to define the system. So for example in the case where the
two phase is adjusting in the system we can have a bubble flow it miss continuous liquid phase
with disburse bubble of gas this kind of flow is happening in the system.
If we go further large gas bubbles are formed and we are going to get the slug flow there might
be possibility of churn flow where the bubbles start to collage where up and down portion of the
liquid is happening and the annular flow where gas becomes the continuous phase and droplet in
the gas have are called and we have seen the place is happening in this manner. That again
depend on the relative velocity of the gas and liquid in case of the gas reservoir the gas should
have enough energy to get flow otherwise the production may get seized.
This is not only the possibility there might be possibility even within a single wellbore we are
getting a different zone where the bubbly flow, slug flow, Churn flow or just vapor on the top
and the liquid at the bottom is happening and for that there are complex with we are not going to
discuss those in detail of course depend on the implication of the tubing most of the well
reservoir of the problems the well is always vertical with 𝜃 = 0
In problem we discuss consider just the vertical well if we flow is happening in the inclined flow
the situation will be different the flow resume those are happening will also be different.
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And when we are having he horizontal flow the flow regime will be completely different or
the characteristic by which the flow regimes are defined will be different some of this part we
will be discussing when we will be dealing with transportation natural gas through
horizontal pipe line or through inclination pipeline. But important point here is the flow
happening in the tube depend on relative superficial velocity of gas and liquid.
The flow regime or the slippage happening between the gas and liquid characterize the
system but we are keeping this separate not considering in the subject of natural gas
engineering.
There are more complex situation may happen in the system where not only the gas and
liquid but here might be a possibility that all four phases are present in the system even there
might be in a small quantity but if they are present they are going to affect the system is
simple equipment which we discussed is not going to help us even when we are going to two
phase and the question comes when we are going to four phases how to define this system by
the mathematical expression.
So Guo, Sun and Ghalambor in 2004 they had develop the expression considering all four
phases are present in the system those four phases are oil, gas, water and some solid particle
those may be cold particles there might be just sand particles and they had arrived at very
complex expression considering all four phases and in this case the situation becomes more
complex. So we also not going to discuss but yes there are models available in the literature
those allow us to understand what is happening in the tow phase system in three phase system
are in four phase system.
Certain assumption has been taken to arrive those equation for example this four phase model
assume the gas phase as a ideal gas and when we are considering this four phase model
reducing it to just a single phase model considering only the gas flowing under that condition
we see there is a difference in the result that we can get from the other and this method and
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the primary region is the assumption made to generate this kind of the expression for
multiphase system where it is assume gas phase reserve ideal gas phase.
With this I would like to end WPR part let us summarize what we did so far in terms of the
petroleum production system we could establish the IPR relationship and in gas reservoir
deliberately concept we could see how Q the flow rate in the porous media can be related to
some other parameter now we had developed in today’s lecture the TPR or WPR relationship
and in the next lecture we are going to understand the this part where a device called choke is
installed and will be having the understanding of choke performance and its mathematical
expression.
Choke is a device that is installed at well head or down hole to cause a restriction to flow a
fluid thus control gas production rate. So restriction device is installed that allow us to make
the restriction on the production and that is installed most of the time on the well head and
some of the time in a different form like SSV sub surface safety valve in the well bore or at
the bottom of the well bore with this I would like to end my today’s lecture thank you very
much we will meet in the next lecture thank you.
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Prof. Pankaj Tiwari
Module No # 03
Lecture No # 11
Choke Performance Relationship(CPR)
Hello everyone and, welcome back again to the class of natural gas engineering. Today’s topic
is choke performance relationship. Choke is a device which is used to restrict the flow this also
called as restriction.
So whenever we are having a well ready to flow on the top part of the well if we look our
production system we can say on the top part of this well production system there is a Christmas
tree and in that Christmas tree several devices are installed one of them is a choke. Choke is
installed there to control the production rate other than choke there are some other devices also
there to monitor like temperature, pressure, safety valve and other.
The production form of particular well can be controlled not only with the help of choke at the
top but also by installing self-surface safety valve somewhere in the line of the wellbore. Mostly
at the bottom part of the wellbore if self-service safety valve (SSSV)is installed that also work
as a choke. The safety valve can also installed on the top the Christmas tree part where it also
used as the safety device.
So let us see what learnt so far we had developed the relationship for our production system
and we could establish the relationship for IPR how the flow is happening from reservoir to
wellbore we could establish the relationship between pressure draw down and Q in terms of
properties of fluid and reservoir. Further moving up we could establish the relationship between
this 𝑝𝑤𝑓 and 𝑝ℎ𝑓 .
𝑝ℎ𝑓 is a pressure at the well head so the relationship called the WPR and we could establish the
relationship again between this pressure difference 𝑝𝑤𝑓 and 𝑝ℎ𝑓 how they are related with
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respect to Q and the properties of the fluid and the dimension or geometry of the pipe system.
In today’s lecture, we will understand CPR choke performance relation that is installed on the
well head and controlled the gas production rate.
Before we understand the mathematical expression of choke device test work, let us understand
the need for choke and restriction choke control production rate meeting limitation of rate or
pressure imposed by production facilities. So the choke is installed on the well head to control
the production rate because the surface facilities are installed like this separator and other units
designed to accommodate the particular quantity of the fluid and at what pressure those can be
operated.
Thus choke provides the facilities for controlling the pressure as well as production rate. The
production limit may be by the regulatory authority they also impose certain restriction on the
production side so from a particular gas well reservoir if we are operating you have to install a
choke that can meet the limitation impose by the regulatory as well as on the surface facility
side. Preventing water coning and sand production this can also be achieved with the help of
installing choke at the well head or in the Christmas tree.
Control gas production rate can be as I discussed can be achieved with the choke that installed
on the well head or a sub-surface safety valve that goes down hole and where we installed this
as a SSSV or the objective of both the devices is controlling the gas production rate. There are
other ways, other units also there, but they under the choke like the Orifice, valve and other all
those come under the choke because choke is generic name for providing a restriction in the
flow.
So this device provide the restricted flow and the phenomena called restriction flow
phenomena. Chokes are classified as fixed diameter or varying diameter so the fixed diameter
like a nozzle type or Orifice type but now modern chokes are coming they are having the
flexibility to adjust the diameter and adjusting the diameter we can adjust the flow that.
A flow regime so when the flow is happening through this choke it happens under the isentropic
process because of the area is getting reduced the velocity will get increased and the flow can
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be sonic flow or subsonic flow. Sonic flows happen when we have the Mach number = 1
subsonic when Mach number is lesser than 1.
When Mach number is greater than 1 it is a supersonic flow but that generally does not happen
but by saying this Mach number it means flow through a restriction can be characterized with
the help of understanding the Mach number or other way the velocity of Mach in that media.
If we go further, we can see how this process happens, so here I have design one small pipeline
with cross-sectional area 𝐴1 and restriction within this pipe has cross-sectional area 𝐴2 flow
from this side to this side. So from left side to right side, I can name it upstream, which is my
downstream. The pressure here is p up here is p down and the flow is happening in this direction
so now if we see the restriction is imposing or the choke is imposing the restriction on the flow
and by the condition of 𝐴2 is much lesser than lesser than 𝐴1 if this is the case happening our
velocity 𝑉2 will be greater than greater than 𝑉1.
So 𝑉1 the velocity on at this point 1 and this my point 2 upstream is point 1 downstream is point
2. So we understand this restriction, impose by reducing the area in the pipe line. We can
understand the pressure drop is happening across this restriction and because of that either the
sonic flow or subsonic flow is occurring this can be characterize by developing the
mathematical expression which type of the flow is happening however there is no universal
equation that can predict the pressure drop. In other terms to understand the flow that is
happening for all types of fluid through the restriction, we have to go to literature. However we
can understand the basic mechanism that happens when the flow through restriction occurs.
So let’s say, this is happening under isentropic pressure condition. It means Adiabatic condition
and friction less and those are from the class of fluid mechanics or especially from thermo
dynamics class they understand how to covert polytrophic process to different process level
like isothermal process isobaric process and similar for isentropic process. So in isentropic
process the phenomena happens like p is pressure this V is specific volume.
So let us say p is the pressure times V is the specific volume to the power k is constant. Here k
characterize what type of flow it is, if it is polytropic process k becomes N. In some of the
books k is also characterize by 𝛾 and this 𝛾 or k is a specific heat ratio that is property of the
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fluid that determine how the isentropic process is going to behave when it is flowing through
the restriction.
And if we go further we can convert this from one parameter to other parameter for example
we know pressure, temperature, specific volume and density they can be interchange with the
help of this kind of relationship we can establish how this parameter are related at one condition
to second condition. For example, we can say 𝑃𝑉 𝑘 is constant and we can write this in another
form also that is 𝑝/𝜌 to the power K. Because we know specific volume V = 1/𝜌 and similarly
𝑇 𝑘 𝑝𝑘−1 and this is at one condition we can write similar at the second condition 𝑇2 𝑉2𝑘−1 . So
with such kind of relationship, for example if we know the upstream pressure, downstream
pressure up stream temperature we can calculate this downstream temperature 𝑇2 with the help
of expression or just converting parameter in the other form this will be 𝑇2 = 𝑃2 /𝑃1 to the power
k -1 divided by k multiply by 𝑇1.
And so having this kind of the relationship we can establish how 1 particular parameter can be
estimated we will see this when we will understand how the temperature is going down when
the flow through restriction is happening and what we are going to discuss is for the ideal gas
the process is very complex our fluid is not a ideal fluid it is a real fluid where the
compressibility should be included and that can be done whenever we need to understand the
accuracy of the parameters to be measured otherwise the process is very complex and if we
start dealing with the real gas then very complex phenomena need to be understood and need
to be solved mathematically.
For example, when we understand the temperature at down side 𝑇2 that is (𝑃2 /𝑃1 )(𝑘−1)/𝑘 𝑇1
and that can be corrected for the real gas just multiplying the compressibility factor 𝑧2 upon 𝑧1
upon 𝑧2. So the z up , and z down by correcting for the compressibility factor we can convert
the ideal gas law to real gas law at the specific condition or a specific terminology whenever
we need to correct it.
And let us discuss about the specific heat ratio that is exactly characterize what way the
isentropic process is occurring and the specific heat ratio is the ratio of 𝐶𝑝 /𝐶𝑣. 𝐶𝑝 and 𝐶𝑣 both
are the properties of fluid and if we see they are related like 𝐶𝑝 /(𝐶𝑝 − 𝑅/𝑀) we can convert
from one form to other form and that is equal to K. I already mentioned in some of the books
we will find this is 𝛾.
We can play with variable and can understand if I want to know this Cp in terms of k this is Cp
is k upon k – 1 multiply by M / R. So we can convert from one form to other form if the
situation when the specific heat ratio like Cp and CV are not known we can still calculate the
value of k to characterize the isentropic process and that can be done using empirical formula.
That empirical formula simply says the specific heat ratio 𝑘 = (2.738 − 𝛾𝑔 )/2.328 where 𝛾𝑔
is specific gravity of the gas and we know how calculate the specific gravity of the gas that is
equal to molecular weight of gas we called it apparent molecular weight of the gas divided by
the molecular weight of air that we can write either 29 or 28.97. Now knowing the 𝛾𝑔 we need
to know the k we can put in this expression and can get the value of K.
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But how to know 𝛾𝑔 we understand from our properties of natural gas from our class to
calculate the 𝛾𝑔 we need to know the composition of the gases compositions. So we can
calculate the composition by performing the gas chromatography analysis of the gas sample.
We can calculate the apparent molecular weight, and that can be used here to calculate the 𝛾𝑔 .
Once 𝛾𝑔 is known to me I can calculate k and once I calculate the k value I understand how my
this behaviour is going to be this k value now I know the numerical k value I can understand
the behaviour of the fluid under the isentropic condition of how temperature pressure is
changing how to calculate the unknown parameter in the process. Understanding this
relationship of k with 𝛾𝑔 we can calculate the value of k for here that is 1.4 and for typical
natural gas the value of k can be 1.28.
So let us understand the velocity of sound when the fluid is flowing through this restriction.
We have to understand the Mach number to understand the happening process under the critical
flow or sub critical flow or other way it is under the sonic flow or sub sonic flow. Therefore,
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we need to understand how to calculate the velocity of sound and that to under the isentropic
process. It is adiabatic and frictionless process, we can use the acoustic engineering definition
of velocity of a sound in a particular media under the incentive condition means temperature
ⅆ𝑝
and pressure condition where we are going to calculate the Mach number A = √ⅆ𝜌 under
isentropic condition.
If we are having such kind of behaviour what we can do we can use again the isentropic process
principle that is how the pressure temperate and volume are going to be changed under the
isentropic conditions and again we are doing all this assuming the gas is ideal gas and if we do
𝜌
so what we can do we can say for the ideal gas 𝑝 = it means for a compressible flow my
𝑀𝑅𝑇
rho is a function of temperature and pressure.
This is for the real gas when the gas is assumed compressible, which is for the ideal gas. So let
us go back to our isentropic process. In isentropic process we say p is specific volume to power
ⅆ𝑝 ⅆ𝑉
k = constant and we can convert that take the derivative we can say 𝑝 + 𝑉 = 0. If we adjust
ⅆ𝑝
it again using the relationship of specific volume and density we can convert this into =
ⅆ𝜌
𝑘𝑝/𝜌 and if we put this here what we are going to get A = √𝑘𝑝/𝜌
We can convert this again in another form 𝑘𝑝𝑉 or √𝑘𝑇𝑅/𝑀 . In this case the velocity of sound
is just a function of temperature and if we see when the here is being considered as a gas the
velocity of sound in here comes out as 343 meter per second. So this is the value for here and
again we have to specify at what temperature and pressure condition it is so this value is at 20
degree Celsius temperature and 1 atmosphere.
Now we understand how to calculate the velocity of sound by using this expression now if we
go further and see how Mach number is related to this sound velocity. So by the definition of
Mach number is defined as speed of fluid divided by speed of sound in the same media under
the same condition incentive condition same temperature and pressure should be maintained to
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calculate the speed of sound in that media and if we denote speed of fluid by U and speed of
sound by A we can get the Mach number relation.
Now next comes, how to relate this Mach number in some parameter those are easy to correlate
for example the speed of sound can be from the previous slide can be replaced by √𝑘𝑇𝑅/𝑀 if
𝑈2 𝑀 𝑈2
we do so we get Mach number square = 𝑘𝑅𝑇 or in other form 𝜌 𝑘 . So if we know value of U
when the speed of fluid we can calculate the Mach number and once we know the Mach number
we can characterize it is going to be sonic flow sub sonic or supersonic flow.
Depending on if Mach number = 1 we are having sonic flow supersonic flow generally does
not come when we are having flow through the restriction. So let us see when Mach number is
1 we are having sonic flow condition. The flow through restriction other than Mach number it
can also be characterized considering the pressure ratio that is going to be in our case we are
going to characterize with the help of pressure ratio but remember the pressure ratio under
critical condition or sonic condition is the condition when Mach number = 1.
So when we establish the relationship mathematically or develop a model for choke flow
performance relationship we can replace some terms in terms of Mach number. When we
consider Mach number = 1 we will get the critical pressure condition where the flow is
happening under sonic flow condition that we will discuss next.
So same process when we are going to develop the relationship for critical press ure ratio
isentropic process is happening it means under the adiabatic and friction less condition there is
no time for heat to go out there is no heat transfer is happening from the surrounding there is
not gravity because we are considering the choke is mostly small device in a horizontal
direction only and there is no friction losses is happening.
So simply the mechanical energy balance equation for the isentropic flow that is happening
flow through the restriction comes out very simple form that says pressure energy + kinetic
energy = 0. So the change in pressure energy and kinetic energy are compensating each other
to have this flow that is why it happens when we are having the upstream is 1 condition to
downstream condition. The pressure at downstream is lesser than upstream condition that is
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why the flow is happening and when this pressure reduction is happening velocity will go up
or other way because the area is getting reduce the flow rate will also get affected.
We will see that later on let us see when we are having this pressure energy and kinetic energy
we can solve this equation under certain condition applying the boundary condition and we can
get the expression for how the velocity is changing from upstream to downstream we can
calculate the velocity at the downstream how the pressure ratio can be calculated with this
expression and similarly how we can get the mass flow rate as well as volumetric flow rate.
For all this equation we have to start with this mechanical balance equation and that is simple
under isentropic condition the flow is happening and the energy balance equation is just a
summation of pressure energy + kinetic energy and that summation = 0. Instead of doing the
calculation here we will see later on how all these expression can be established just for solving
this equation but for simplicity here when we are considering about critical pressure ratio to be
calculated what we can do we can just see if assuming under condition or under real condition
again we are solving for the real gas reconsidering gas is real.
So if we solve this equation mechanical balance equation what we can get? We can get the
expression for velocity and if we solve for example by converting this by one form to other
form again using this concept we can get the expression for U that is comes out as 𝑈2 =
𝑘𝑝
2 𝜌 0 . The suffix zero is some base condition that could be upstream condition into 1 – p/𝑝0 to
0
1/1 / k.
This the expression we got once we integrate the equation and we can put this in the Mach
square for where 𝑀𝑎2 = 𝑈2 /𝐴2. A is the velocity of sound under the intuitive condition if we
2
put there we are going to get the expression 𝑘−1 (𝑝0 /𝑝)( 𝜌/𝜌0 ) and the same expression this is
what we have here we can get the same expression here we can just adjust this 𝑈2 to 𝑀𝑎2 and
under the condition of sonic flow we will be having Mach number = 1.
We can say 𝑝0 is by upstream condition and p is my downstream condition if we adjust this so

𝑝𝑑𝑜𝑤𝑛 2 𝑘
what we are going to get is 𝑝𝑢𝑝
= (𝑘+1 )𝑘−1. This is the condition we got Mach number is 1.
So we can denote this as a critical pressure condition. It is also denoted as RC critical pressure
ratio the pressure ratio at which the fluid is travelling through the restriction with the same
balance the same velocity as the sound will travel under the same fluid under the similar
condition.
This critical pressure ratio will help us to understand the flow regime that is happening when
the fluid is travelling through this restriction.
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So if we go further what we say like 𝑝𝑜𝑢𝑡𝑙𝑒𝑡 /𝑝𝑢𝑝 here instead of 𝑝ⅆ𝑜𝑤𝑛 I had written 𝑝𝑜𝑢𝑡𝑙𝑒𝑡
because under sonic condition it is not possible to calculate the 𝑝ⅆ𝑜𝑤𝑛 temperature so it is
𝑝𝑜𝑢𝑡𝑙𝑒𝑡 divided by 𝑝𝑢𝑝 means inlet pressure through this restriction under the critical condition
2 𝑘
it comes out as ( 𝑘+1) 𝑘−1.
So, suppose we know the value of k for any particular fluid. In that case, that can be known
with the help of 𝛾𝑔 i.e., by knowing the molecular weight of the gas that can be known by
knowing the composition we can calculate k and putting this k value in this expression of
critical pressure ratio we can calculate the condition where the flow will be sonic or the flow
will be critical if we are on one side of it. We will be having the sonic flow if we are on the
other side. It will be sub sonic flow condition.
We see form here this is 𝑝2 /𝑝1 if I draw the diagram again and can say this is the condition
where we are having this is up stream this is downstream we say this is condition one this is
condition 2 and the restriction is placed somewhere here where there is area is 𝐴2 and this area
is 𝐴1. So when we are having the flow from left to right through this restriction and plot 𝑝2 /𝑝1,
this is p down upon p up versus the flow rate Y axis is the flow rate that can be achieved.
This graph says whenever we are having the 𝑝2 = 𝑝1 means the ratio is 1 we are not having
any flow, the flow is not possible when the upstream and downstream pressure are equal and
the flow will happen only and only when downstream pressure is lower than the upstream
pressure and that can be seen from here also this ratio will be lesser than 1.
Similar here the k value is also will always be greater than 1 because the 𝛾𝑔 if we put in form
of the 𝛾𝑔 if we remember the previous expression if we put the value here we can see the k will
always be greater than 1. Similarly the pressure ratio will always be lower than 1 whenever the
flow is happening if upstream pressure is lower than the downstream pressure flow will not
happen.
Now let us understand how this flow is happening. So we are at this condition by knowing k
value we can calculate the critical pressure ratio. When we got this critical pressure ratio at this
point what we can say the condition when the flow is under sonic condition this is the sonic
condition and if either upstream pressure or downstream pressure is change the flow will get
change.
Let us see how it is happening? So for example upstream pressure is being changed. In contrast,
the downstream pressure is kept constant if we are doing so what will happen the pressure ratio
that was at this condition if we are increasing the upstream pressure this ratio will go down.
When this ratio is going down we are on this side. While other side is possible when the
downstream pressure is increased keeping the upstream pressure constant.
So when we are in this situation the flow will happen and we called it sub critical flow. Flow
will happen here. This is called the sonic flow condition, so we have this critical pressure ratio
here. Beyond this critical pressure ratio we are having sub sonic flow. Below this, we are having
the sonic flow condition, but when we consider this critical pressure condition, the only option
to increase the flow rate is increase in the upstream pressure. When we increase the upstream
pressure flow, it will remain constant a higher value.
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We can increase this flow rate with increase in the pressure of upstream side under the sonic
flow condition. While on the other side on subsonic flow condition what we can do we can say
either change the upstream or downstream pressure we can change the flow rate and we see
during the sonic flow condition flow rate is constant while under the subsonic flow condition
this is having the non-linear relationship.
And as we are changing this pressure ratio coming down, downstream to upstream ratio is
getting reduced our flow rate is increasing and finally it is reaching the condition where the
sonic flow will happen and further change in ratio to lower side will not affect the production
rate. It happens because under the sonic condition when the fluid is travelling under the same
velocity as the sound will travel and in that situation whatever is happening on the downstream
side if we are changing the downstream pressure it will not be felt by the upstream side.
So the upstream is not feeling what exactly happening on the downstream side. Similarly
whatever is happening on the upstream side will not be felt by the downstream side. This is the
situation when the waves of fluid or mechanical energy is traveling with the speed of sound.
That is why the only option left to increase the production rate or the production of process rate
is increasing the upstream pressure.
Pressure drop across the restriction will determine the low regime and sonic flow and subsonic
flow can be achieved as discussed before also when we should have a sonic flow condition
when we should have sub sonic flow condition is a matter of a decision because sonic flow
relate only upstream pressure. So under the sonic flow condition the flow or the discharge rate
or the process rate is a function of upstream pressure as I mentioned that whatever happening
on the downstream side is not included in understanding sonic flow.
It does not depend on the downstream pressure so whenever we are having a situation when
we want a constant flow rate when we want downstream pressure or other condition or not
affecting my flow it should always go with sonic condition and that we had seen when we were
understanding the gas well testing under certain cases we want a constant flow rate that is not
getting disturbed because of the surface facilities like fluctuation like this separator is there, if
any pressure on downstream side is getting fluctuated it is not affecting the upstream pressure
or the flow rate through the restriction we want to maintain the constant flow rate and under
that condition the well should be tested under the sonic flow condition or sub sonic flow
condition because subsonic flow condition depends on the pressure drop across choke.
If anything is happening on the downstream side or on the separator side or some other places
it will disturb the flow rate and we want to able to achieve the constant flow rate. But if the
objective is to control the flow rate to regulatory flow rate we should operator t he well under
the subsonic flow condition because that is allow us to control the production rate as well as it
allow us to minimize the hydrate blockage.
What exactly happens when the flow through restriction is happening because of Joule
Thomson effect the temperature also get reduced significantly and there are chances of hydrate
blockage or hydrate formation we will discuss that later on.
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So the flow through choke if we want to calculate the flow through choke we are having this
relationship Q is = area multiply by velocity. So if you want the discharge rate through the
restriction we know the area of the restriction is 𝐴2 and we are having the velocity 𝑢2 . A
complex relationship will be developed even for the velocity calculation a complex relationship
developed what we assume?We assume the area of 2 is very lesser than the area of pipe line or
ⅆ
other way 2 is lesser than 1 and we get a simplified expression again that expression depends
ⅆ1
on the velocity expression we had developed that expression for the ideal gas consideration or
for the real consideration we can get the expression in for Q. That Q can again with the help of
𝑝𝑞 𝑝𝑞
the real gas law that says 𝑧𝑅𝑇 | at one condition can be substitute to 𝑧𝑅𝑇 | at second condition
1 2
we always assume one of the condition is standard condition.So we can get 𝑄𝑆𝐶 at a standard
condition it means the gas flow rate is measured considering the standard condition and for that
we have to substitute standard condition or the pressure and temperature in expression.
(Refer Side Time: 36:24)
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If we do so or do start from mechanical energy balance equation to solve for 𝑢2 ultimately we
will get the expression for the gas flow rate that is happening through this choke. And we
consider the dry gas that is being flowed through the choke we can establish the relationship
for the subsonic flow and sonic flow condition.
So subsonic flow condition as discussed already you can see the flow rate is a function of both
p down and p up while in the sonic flow condition only p up is appearing in the expression
other terms are here is C and that C in both the cases sonic flow and sub sonic flow the C is
discharge coefficient because under the isentropic process condition when the flow through
restriction is happening it is assume there is no friction losses but in actual there are friction
losses happen.
We have to correct this equation for those losses in the form of discharge coefficient. So this
C is called choke flow coefficient or discharge coefficient A is the area cross sectional area
𝐶
𝑝𝑢𝑝 , 𝑝ⅆ𝑜𝑤𝑛 are the pressure on the upstream side downstream side k is specific heat ratio 𝐶𝑝 , 𝑔
𝑣
is acceleration due to gravity and all are given in the US field unit system. And when we adjust
this considering like area in inch square, temperature in ranking we got this numerical
coefficient here 1248.
This numerical coefficient will change when we change the presentation of any of the
parameter in this expression. Another important thing we can see is the discharge rate in both
the cases of sonic and sub sonic cases depends directly to area, area of the restriction if the area
of restriction is more, more passage rate can be achieved and upstream pressure, if upstream
pressure is higher the flow rate or gas passage rate can be higher. And this sonic flow expression
𝑝
from supersonic flow condition can be established just putting this condition of 𝑑𝑜𝑤𝑛 is actually
𝑝 𝑢𝑝
𝑘
2
under the critical condition. That critical condition and that critical condition says( )𝑘−1 . So
𝑘+1
we substitute this expression or the condition of sonic flow in this subsonic flow equation we
are going to get this expression again the numerical coefficient will depend on the unit system
has been chosen to represent the other parameter and this can be change if we are using the SI
unit system.
In SI unit system we say let us compare in US field unit system and SI unit system the Q is
here in mscf per day here it is standard meter cube per day. Area here it is in inches square
while here it is in meter square. p here is in psia and here it is in kilopascal and other temperature
degree Rankine and here it is degree Kelvin. So if we are using the degree in US field unit
system it comes around 1248 or 1240 and in US field unit system it comes out as 5.885 so and
again the unit system this can be changed here.
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Important point comes here the discharge coefficient how to calculate the discharge coefficient
and that discharge coefficient it depends on the type of choke is used it is either Orifice type
or Nozzle type or different type whenever we are purchasing the choke it is a responsibility of
the supplier or who design this choke to provide the value of discharge coefficient.
If it is not available or rough value can be estimated like 0.7 for the Orifice type and around
the same value for the Nozzle type. Or other way we can calculate the accurate value of the
discharge coefficient from one of this chart this chart simply says it is a relationship between
the discharge coefficient C that we are supposed to calculate with respect to Reynolds number
ⅆ
and the relationship is in terms of ratio of diameter of choke to diameter of pipe 𝐷
So we are have a choke which is installed in a particular pipe. We know the diameter of both
choke and pipe. We can calculate that ratio if we are on the higher side of this Reynolds number.
We can assume the value is almost constant. We can see for all t he diameter the value is
becoming flat it is not a function of d by D yes but the value will get change. For example if
we are having here the diameter is here we can get the value of C discharge coefficient but it
becomes flat.
We can assume a constant value also or for a higher Reynolds number like between 104 − 106 ,
ⅆ
we can use some correlation given, and that relates C to a function of 𝐷 and Reynolds number.
Several correlations are given in the literature but different types of the choke and different
Reynolds number can be applied. For example here it is applicable for very high Reynolds
number.
Under sonic flow condition the gas passage rates reaches it is maximum value the choke flow
coefficient is C is not sensitive to the Reynolds number for an Reynolds number value greater
than 106 . So if the value of Reynolds number is 106 or more we can assume like c is not
dependent we can choose a constant value.
The gas velocity as we did for gas passage rate as did the calculation for the critical pressure
ratio similar we can do for the gas velocity in fact to calculate the discharge rate we have to
have the velocity and the velocity can be calculated again or can be estimated again by solving
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the mechanical energy equation that simply says change in pressure energy change in kinetic
energy = 0 for isentropic process if we solve this under the integral sign we can get the 𝑈2 value
this the velocity of the fluid and on the stream side considering the process isentropic and
parameters involved.
If we do so what we are going to get instead of solving that I will just write the expression that
says the sub sonic flow the gas velocity is less than the sound velocity we know about the sub
sonic flow condition and the velocity can be obtained from this expression and here you can
see this has been corrected for the real gas for the ideal gas there is no compressibility factor
but the velocity expression obtained considering the ideal gas but later on it has been corrected
for the real gas including the compressibility factor.
Similar for this sonic flow condition again the condition is same we can put the critical pressure
ratio condition. We can get the expression for the velocity which is happening under the sonic
flow condition it means the fluid is travelling with the sound velocity and the expression can
be obtained like this. That expression has been corrected again for the real gas through the
Here you can see V 𝑧ⅆ𝑜𝑤𝑛 here it 𝑧𝑜𝑢𝑡𝑙𝑒𝑡 we know under the sonic flow condition downstream
condition either the pressure condition or the compressibility condition or consider is the out
let condition. If we simplified this expression we simply get the velocity under the sonic flow
condition is a function of temperature only and using this correlation and knowing the
temperature of upstream side we can calculate the velocity of the fluid through the restriction.
In this expression, another term appears 𝐶𝑝 that is 𝐶𝑝 is specific heat of gas at constant pressure
𝑘 𝑀
is specific heat of gas can be related to 𝐶𝑝 = ( 𝑘−1)( 𝑅 ), we can get this 𝐶𝑝 value. So specific
heat of gas at constant pressure has been included in the expression of velocity. So we know
the expression for the velocity we know the expression for the gas passage rate we know how
to calculate the critical pressure ratio.
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Now we can calculate the temperature on the downstream side and that can be done with the
establishing the relationship considering isotropic process is happening and the temperature on
downstream side is important because sudden pressure drop happens and because of the sudden
pressure drops changes Joule Thomson cooling effect occurs that says because of sudden gas
expansion significant temperature drop occurs and this significant temperature drop may reach
to a situation where the ice plugging or hydrate formation are occurring and to prevent this
phenomena heating may be record at the choke.
So you see sometimes the choke device or Christmas tree which is having the choke device is
also equipped with the hearing element with heated to prevent this phenomena happening
phenomena like either the ice plugging or the hydrate formation are happening. For an
isentropic process the temperature at choke downstream can be predicted simply by
considering this 𝑃𝑉 𝑘 = 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑡, and we did already considering one condition to other
condition we can get how 𝑇ⅆ𝑜𝑤𝑛 side temperature relate to 𝑇𝑢𝑝 temperature.
Considering this for a real gas we can correct it this with the help of compressibility factor
evaluated of upstream temperature pressure condition and downstream is under the sonic flow
condition it is z outlet condition we can combine both upstream and downstream condition in
this expression to correct it for real gas law. The outlet pressure = the downstream pressure in
subsonic flow condition that is why it is appearing here.
Now the application whatever the relationship we could have understand how to calculate the
temperature how this sonic flow and subsonic flow condition can allow us to have the
relationship between the pressure of downstream upstream the type of fluid that depends on
the k value we can calculate the velocity and passage rate now the CPR relationship can be
used for a estimating downstream temperature and if other two parameter are given we can
calculate the third parameter.
So for example we are having the relationship between the gas passage p up and p down
through this chart we can say the Q is related to 𝑝ⅆ𝑜𝑤𝑛 /𝑝𝑢𝑝 and if one of them is missing we
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can calculate the question comes for example we are having the 𝑝𝑢𝑝 /𝑝ⅆ𝑜𝑤𝑛 you want to
calculate the Q the passage rate which expression we should use.
Do we know our flow is happening under the sonic condition or subsonic condition if it is
happening under the sonic condition we can use the expression for sonic flow if it is happening
in the sub sonic condition we can use the expression for subsonic flow. But important which
one should be used that can be established by understanding of the how the flow happens
through the choke.
Similar for the third application when 𝑝𝑢𝑝 was supposed to ask and Q and 𝑝ⅆ𝑜𝑤𝑛 where given
or under the fourth application where 𝑝ⅆ𝑜𝑤𝑛 is supposed to be calculated when Q and p up are
given to us we can go through one by one to understand the application CPR to estimate the
unknown parameter that is appearing in this application.
So like for example the downstream temperature it is very straight forward we just discussed
how to calculate the downstream temperature knowing the other things.
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We can go to second application if I know 𝑝𝑢𝑝 and 𝑝ⅆ𝑜𝑤𝑛 and want to calculate the Q what we
can do we can calculate the actual pressure ratio 𝑝ⅆ𝑜𝑤𝑛 by p up and whatever the value we are
getting compare this value with critical pressure condition that says that says 𝑝𝑢𝑝 by
𝑝ⅆ𝑜𝑤𝑛 under critical condition and we know this can be calculated by knowing the k how we
can calculate this.
𝑘
2
This is equal to ( )𝑘−1 say if I know k I can calculate this and if the critical pressure ratio is
𝑘+1
here if the actual pressure ratio is greater than critical pressure ratio we are in the subsonic
reason and if it is lesser than we are in the sonic condition. We can choose sonic condition or
sub sonic condition knowing the critical pressure ratio and comparing that critical pressure
ratio to actual pressure ratio.
Third application upstream pressure at given downstream pressure and gas passage. So for
example we are having again the similar situation where we can calculate the critical pressure
ratio RC knowing the critical pressure ratio we can decide which side we should go but we do
not 𝑝𝑢𝑝 to calculate the actual pressure ratio. Actual pressure ratio means 𝑝ⅆ𝑜𝑤𝑛 /𝑝𝑢𝑝 we do
not know the 𝑝𝑢𝑝 condition.
For that what we can do we can calculate this condition when the sonic condition is just at the
worse is minimum upstream pressure record to have the sonic flow condition and if we
calculate this of upstream pressure in this manner what we can do we can decide we are going
to this sonic condition or sub sonic condition calculate the gas passage rate considering this
𝑝𝑢𝑝 condition and if the given process is less than the calculated gas flow rate at the minimum
sonic condition use sub sonic flow condition other wise use the sonic flow condition.
So considering the minimum where the sonic flow will be at the worse we can decide which
one should be used. But again remember in this case we have to calculate the discharge
coefficient that discharge coefficient C that depends on Reynolds number and that Reynolds
number depends on Q again, And we are calculating Q and that parameter depend on Q itself
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so we have to do certain iteration we have assume some value of Reynolds number calculate
the discharge coefficient.
Calculating the discharge coefficient calculate the value of Q and then knowing the value of Q
and then calculate the value of Reynolds number and see if it is with in the limit must deviation
is there we can assume it in the assumption was correct otherwise we have to do the iteration
to make sure the solution is correct.
Similar for this case also when we are supposed to calculate the downstream pressure while
𝑝𝑢𝑝 or Q are given to us what we can do we can calculate critical pressure ratio by knowing
the gas composition by knowing the value of k and maximum downstream pressure or
minimum sonic flow condition can be maintained like again we can calculate at this point the
maximum downstream pressure that is possible for having the sonic flow condition.
If we are having more than that will go to sub sonic condition, we can calculate the sonic flow
and have that sonic flow the pressure condition is downstream condition pressure at that sonic
flow condition we can calculate the flow rate at the minimum sonic flow condition. If the given
gas passage is less than calculated gas flow rate at the minimum sonic flow condition use sub
sonic flow equation to solve the downstream pressure otherwise downstream pressure cannot
be calculated.
The maximum possible downstream pressure for sonic flow can be estimated by multiplying
the upstream pressure by critical pressure ratio. So we calculate the critical pressure ratio RC
multiply this with p up we can get the p down under the sonic flow condition our sub sonic
flow condition once we establish the relationship that is Q given is matching Q calculated
through Reynolds number calculation we can use this subsonic equation that subsonic equation
can give us the p down.
CPR for real gas this as the expressions shown before they are for considering the gas is ideal
gas or when we consider real gas we have to include this compressibility factor at upstream
side in both the expression to account for the real gas expression and there is paper published
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in HP society of petroleum engineering that says like there is a more complex phenomena that
exactly happens when the flow through restriction happening.
If for the real gas the compressibility factor is a function of both temperature and pressure we
did not consider that even to calculate the critical pressure ratio that phenomena should be
considered and more complex set of the equations should be solved but considering the
accuracy recalled to understand how the flow through choking is happening and to have the
estimation of the flow rate.
Ideal gas assumption with some correction for the ideal gas may be good enough to go ahead.
Here I have some summarizes what we did so far we had established the relationship for the
aquatics velocity considering aquatics engineering principle. We could understand the Mach
number related to the fluid velocity and the other parameters.
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Similar the derivation has been done for the choke model isentropic process we can see here
how the isentropic process can be modelled to get the temperature, pressure density and the
specific volume relationship how to convert one parameter from other parameter. The real gas
can be modified considering the compressibility factor on the numerator and denominator for
both upstream and downstream side.
Critical pressure ratio by solving the mechanical balance equation we can establish the critical
pressure ratio condition when Mach number is 1 we can get the expression for critical pressure
ratio.
We can get by solving this equation again all the step again I have summarize summarizes here
we can get the expression for sonic flow condition and sub sonic flow condition the expression
for the velocity can be established and that is again as been corrected by the compressibility
factor to account for the real gases.
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Similarly for gas passage rate as it is mentioned it is discharged coefficient is here and the X is
the numerical coefficient that will appear the numerical value will appear depend on the
numerical system has been chosen the step by process has been explained here how to use the
velocity expression how to convert from one form or the parameter to other form of the
parameter or the set of the parameter to other set of the parameters and get the expression
already that is already shown in the previous slides.
Similar for the temperature we can do and remember for this mass flow rate this is 𝑀𝑢𝐴 here
area is changing so we have to account for that also 𝜌𝑢𝐴 and this process is happening under
isentropic process. Even the density needs to be converted into pressure form so the isentropic
process the velocity at one point was related to velocity at another point in terms of area but in
terms of other properties like either the pressure or density or specific volume that need to be
corrected.
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So in the next class, I would like to go through with a dedicated example where certain
information given to us like the properties of gas like the choke and pipe condition. Also the
temperature pressure condition and we will calculate the missing parameter and understand
how critical pressure ratio can help us establish the relationship how to know unknown
parameter.
In a summary, say we established so far relationship for IPR, WPR and now for the CPR this
our production system is completed where all three segments IPR, WPR and CPR the flow rate
and pressure draw down relationship has been established with this in the next class we will
discuss once example of the CPR and the nodal analysis.
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This nodal analysis actually a concept which says how to evaluate the properties depend on the
temperature and pressure cannot be the entire system of production system breakdown in some
nodes and at particular nodes the properties are calculated locally and use in the expression this
is a patent by Schlumberger and widely used in petroleum engineering to understand the system
or to related one equation with the other equation and getting some of the parameter those are
difficult to measure thank you thank you very much for watching the video we will meet in the
next class thank you.
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Prof. Pankaj Tiwari
Module No # 03
Lecture No # 12
Nodal Analysis
Hello in today’s lecture we are going to understand a technique to solve the performance
relationship that we had developed in last few classes for the IPR, WPR and CPR how to club
them to get the operating condition at a particular node that we will done with the help of the nodal
analysis. It is Schlumberger patent very simple and you will see that when we going through in
today’s class.
Before going further, let us recap what we did so far. Even before understanding overall picture of
the production system I would like to solve a problem on CPR. So the choke performance, we
discussed in the last class the flow through the choke. We can estimate the unknown parameter
and that is where the concept of critical pressure ratio was introduced, it decides how to choose a
particular flow regime that is happening in the choke, and the respective mathematical expression
to be used to estimate the unknown parameter. So in this example as it is mentioned here we have
a restriction in the pipe line and that restriction is actually let us consider it is a choke with lesser
diameter. So the diameter of this choke is very less than the diameter of the pipeline and that is
where the isentropic process is happening. So let us see what is given to us to solve a particular
problem so the gas information is given to us that is say that specific gravity of the gas is 0.6 and
that depends on the composition of the gas is and the specific heat ratio and that is k in sometimes
it is referred as 𝛾is given as 1.3.
So the information of the gas composition, the diameter of the upstream choke, and the type of
choke device - Orifice type choke are specified. Further if we see what other information is
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required and given to us it is upstream pressure, upstream temperature given to us so in this
upstream is here upstream and this is downstream flow is happening in this direction.
So upstream temperature, upstream pressure given to us, and also downstream pressure is given to
us. So we can calculate the gas passage rate the production rate of the gas per unit time that time
could be day, month or whatever standard condition is per unit days.
We can say daily passage rate is asked to solve and the downstream temperature as we understand
under the isentropic process condition because of the joule Thomson effect the pressure may go
up or down and the temperature should be recorded, and should be monitored just to make sure we
do need to imply the heating or not to prevent the ice plugging or hydrate formation.
So let us solve this problem, first we calculate the critical pressure ratio because the flow through
the choke is determined by the critical pressure ratio or by the Mach number in other terms. But in
terms of pressure it is a critical pressure ratio that depends on the specific heat ratio value of gas
that is being passed through this restriction so as given to us the gas specific heat ratio as 1.3 we
can calculate the pressure critical pressure ratio and we put the numerical value we will get 0.5459.
What is the pressure ratio given to us in the upstream, downstream value given to us? We can
calculate the actual pressure ratio, 200 is the downstream pressure and 800 psi is the upstream
pressure, so the ratio comes out to be 0.25.So let us see what this ratio tells us when we compare
it with the critical pressure ratio. The flow could be sub sonic flow, and we have the mathematical
equation for that and the flow can be sonic flow. We are also have the mathematical equation for
that but which one should be used to determine, can be knowing by comparing the pressure ratio
with the critical pressure ratio. So let us see what we do we say this is my pressure ratio defined
downstream to upstream or we can write it P down by P up. So if we say this is Q versus either
capital Q or small Q. Q versus pressure ratio what type of the flow regime we can get.
So if I compare this when I say my upstream pressure is much higher than downstream pressure it
means I am have almost the ratio close to or tends to 0 I am have the maximum production of the
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gas that is happening here and when the pressure ratio downstream to upstream are same. For
𝑝
example the 𝑝2 is 1 we have no flow from this and everything is happening in between. There is a
1
point that we called the critical pressure ratio that is the value we got for this particular case is
0.5459 the value depends on gas composition.
At this particular point what we understand from understanding of the isentropic process. We say
at this point if we draw the relationship between the process ratio and Q we see the curve is like
this, it means when the pressure ratio is lesser than critical pressure ratio we have a constant flow
rate that is a sonic condition or the critical condition we say and on the other side we have this
draw down with respect to the pressure ratio and we called it subsonic condition.
So in our case in a numerical problem given to us we see our 0.25, the pressure ratio is lesser than
the critical pressure ratio it means we are in the sonic region our restriction is being operated in
sonic region. We should choose sonic flow equation to characterize the flow through the
restriction.
So this is the equation that is going to be used and in this equation we can see what exactly we
have we can calculate the flow rate Q at standard condition the numerical value again depends on
the parameter or defined in a particular unit let us say understand what is the numerical value going
to be here. The important part is C and A is the area C is the discharge coefficient that should be
known and that needs to be calculated if it is not given to us that depends on the type of the orifice
and then rest other things.
We understand we know the 𝛾𝑔 is the specific gravity of gas k specific heat ratio 𝑇𝑢𝑝 is the
upstream temperature. Next we can calculate the value of C, discharge coefficient calculated
with the help of the information given to us and that is simply says the discharge coefficient
depends on the Reynolds number and if Reynolds number is not known we cannot calculate this
C value.
So for that purpose we can assume the Reynolds number value, why we need to assume it? Because
Reynolds number depends on the flow rate and we are supposed to calculate flow rate. We will
assume some Reynolds number. Let us say the Reynolds number is very high where the value of
the discharge coefficient almost becomes constant. So we take the Reynolds number value is
greater than or equal to 106 .
We will do we can go to the chart or particular equation to calculate the discharge coefficient as
discussed in the CPR class we will get the value of discharge coefficient 0.62. After putting all this
information given to us we can get the value of Q but that value of Q is correct or not for that what
we need to do we need to recalculate the Reynolds number using this flow rate and if the Reynolds
number is in the range or in the tolerance range we can say the assumption made was correct
otherwise we have to assume.
We have to the recalculate the Reynolds number, then we have to calculate the discharge
coefficient based on that we have to calculate the Q again and that is the way we can calculate the
discharge rate. Next one is the downstream temperature, we understand how to relate the upstream
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and downstream temperature for an isentropic process. It is a very simple case when we have the
real gas, we have to calculate the compressibility factor on both upstream condition and
downstream condition.
If we put all those known-information in this, we will get the value of downstream temperature.
As downstream temperature is very low, we need to apply the heat for this case. We are getting
the value of downstream temperature is 5o 𝐹 that is lesser than 32o 𝐹 yes we need to apply the heat
across the restriction. Similar here the Q what we are going to get is as a numerical value I can
provide you 12743 mscf per day.
So I think that is clear the picture how to choose particular model equation to represent the flow
through the restrictions.
Now if we move further, let us see what we understand so far about the production system. The
production of the natural gas happens in this manner when we have the radial flow under certain
assumptions. Under the radial flow we have fluid or the gas is being flowed from this porous
media by the pressure gradient and the pressure at the sand phase 𝑝𝑤𝑓 we also called it is a
bottom hole pressure and that is 𝑝𝑤𝑓 the flow is happening from 𝑝𝑒 to 𝑝𝑤𝑓 that is also depend on
several factor we discussed in detail in the IPR relation.
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From here it is going to this part, where we have the WPR value wellbore performance
relationship. Again because the gravity will play a major role, it is a several thousand feet the
pipe line and because of the mechanical energy balance equation we could set up the WPR
relationship for this case. WPR this is we called as IPR and this is top part where we just solve
an example and we call it has CPR.
So the mathematically speaking, we can say how several parameters are going to affect the Q.
Similar is the case for the WPR and choke flow performance. So now we understand each
segment or the three segment of the our production system and how they are going to relate
what the common factor they have, and how to use one type of relationship to assist the other
relationship or find out the parameter those are not known will be discussed in today’s lecture.
So in today’s lecture, we will discuss the gas well deliverability using nodal analysis. So the
well deliverability means what potential the gas well or the reservoir have, what rate the gas
can be produced from a gas well can also be estimated with the help of gas well deliverability
analysis. But in this case as if you see the overall picture our gas is being flowed from several
pressure zone.
From a porous media, the high reservoir pressure to well bore pressure from well bore to 𝑝ℎ𝑓
well head pressure and at the head we have the choke device that is again reducing the pressure
means again pressure change is happening there though the temperature also changes. Because
of that, as our gas is the compressible gas its properties also changes and the properties like
compressibility factor z and the gas viscosity 𝜇 depend on pressure and temperature and they
need to be calculated at a particular temperature pressure condition that particular temperature
pressure condition could be the average or could be other mean. To simulate the fluid flow in
this system, we can divide this system as we did to understand the mathematically what is
happening in a different nodes we can breakdown the system and the fluid properties are
calculated at that node by either taking the average of the pressure or temperature or just
specifying that particular temperature and pressure known at that condition we can calculate
the fluid properties.
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The system analysis for determination of fluid production rate and pressure, because over all it
is pressure versus Q flow rate relationship. So we can establish that relationship at a particular
node with the help of the nodal analysis and this is Schlumberger patent and widely used in
petroleum engineering just to have the understanding of the reservoir or the well at a particular
operating condition. If the value is being produced what will be the flow rate or if we want to
achieve that particular flow rate what will be the pressure at that condition.
This analysis can be used to forecast the production in terms of the pressure declination what
will be the rate the fluid can be produced or the gas can be produced at the same time what will
be cumulative production from the system all this will be discussed later on may be in a separate
lecture when we can discuss the system performance. In this lecture we are going to understand
the nodal analysis.
The nodal analysis works on the principle of pressure continuity, for example if we choose any
particular point and we come to that point from the right to left or left to right if the information
is continuous. In our case the information is pressure, so at a particular point the information
or the pressure will be the same does not matter we come from left side or the right side. This
is the concept or core concept of the nodal analysis that is called the continuity of the pressure
or pressure continuity.
In this case, if we have one way of the information say left to right or in our system we have
the IPR to WPR to CPR. So at a particular point when the information is coming we call it
inflow relation and when it is moving out of that node we call it outlet or outflow information.
In our case we will be using two locations that is the bottom point and the well head point so
bottom hole point and well head point where we will be establish the nodal analysis.
So the nodal analysis can be done with the bottom hole or the well head point considering the
nodal point. So the achievable gas production rate from gas reservoir which is specified as
string characteristics means other information those may affect the flow regime production are
considered like constant for example the string conditions or the production string condition,
the diameter, or the parameter. We consider a parameter that is constant, under a particular
condition when the flow is happening what will be the operating point at this bottom point or
well head point will be estimated with the help of the nodal analysis.
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So when I said the inflow curve when information is coming and when the information is going
out because of the continuity of the information in our pressure community. The intersection
of these two points will give us operating condition at that point of our operating conditions
are the pressure at that node as well as the flow rate.
So if we consider the bottom hole node let us say that is where we have 𝑝𝑤𝑓 , at this node the
inflow relation is the IPR, that is relate the reservoir conditions and the flow through this porous
media to well bore so here the inflow performance relation is IPR and we understand IPR could
be in different form it could be in quadratic form let we talk about the empirical expression or
could be in a back pressure form.
Here what is written is in the form of back pressure. We also understand from our IPR
correlation class, the Q and pressure relationship can be explained with the several
approximations like p, p square or mp approach. For simplicity we had taken, we consider p
square approach but the similar analysis can be implemented for the p approach and mp
approach, and for this case, our node is bottom hole. The outlook performance relationship is
WPR. The information going out in the form of WPR, the information coming to this point in
the form of IPR and the intersection point as per the nodal analysis tell us what are the operating
condition at this node, that is bottom node. So let us see when we have this IPR curve for inflow
and when we have the WPR relationship for outflow, we see the common point between this
and this is 𝑝𝑤𝑓 and we can substitute 𝑝𝑤𝑓 from one equation to other equation.
Let us see what we can do so from IPR equation what we can do we can adjust this equation in
the form of 𝑝𝑤𝑓 2 = 𝑝̅ 2 . This 𝑝̅ is reservoir average pressure, and sometime it is written as 𝑝𝑟
also or 𝑝𝑒 also so this (𝑝̅𝑟 − (𝑞𝑠𝑐 /𝑐)1/𝑛 , so now from this expression we can substitute this
𝑝𝑤𝑓 . Here 𝑝𝑤𝑓 can be replaced with the help of this expression and what we will get is 𝑝̅ 2 −
𝑞𝑠𝑐 1/𝑛 on the left hand side and the remaining we can also adjust this equation keeping 0 on
the right hand side.
So we got the mathematical equation that is relate IPR to WPR and we are not have 𝑝𝑤𝑓 in this
expression means we could eliminate 𝑝𝑤𝑓 assuming that was not known to us with the help of
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two equation we could eliminate the 𝑝𝑤𝑓 . Now if we can solve this equation we can get the
relationship between how my Q is going to be related with a different 𝑝𝑤𝑓 condition this
equation can be solved with a numerical technique such as Newton Raphson iteration for gas
flow rate 𝑞𝑠𝑐 .
So now if I understand if I know what is my reservoir pressure I know what is my 𝑝ℎ𝑓 at the
well head conditions other information given this can be estimated with the help of some
iteration processors by the iteration processors is recalled you can see the 𝑞𝑠𝑐 is here also in
both the terms as well as some other properties like for example compressibility is calculated
at average pressure that should be known other than that S that represent some term in the WPR
equation also account for flow rate as well as 𝛾𝑔 .
This f the friction factor that depends on the Reynolds number or Reynolds number depends
on the flow rate. So it is a equation that needs some numerical iteration that can be done with
the help of the Newton Raphson method but if we can do that thing yes we can calculate the
flow rate and once the flow rate is known either the IPR, WPR can be used to calculate the
what is the 𝑝𝑤𝑓 at that particular mode.
Another way could be, we can plot this inflow equation on a curve and the outflow equation
on occur and when this two curves are intersecting each other we can get the operating
condition at that point. So let us see how it can be done with the help of the example.
So the example simply identified some of the information that is required to construct this IPR
and WPR curve. So for example, the gas composition or the properties are related to gas are
given to us. The tubing through which the fluid is being flown in WPR, well head condition,
bottom hole temperature, reservoir pressure, C and N Constant in backpressure equation C and
exponent in back pressure equation are given to us.
Thus, with this information we can use the IPR relation to characterize the flow is in the form
of the back pressure C and N. We can choose either the p, p square or mp approach but as we
can see here the reservoir pressure is 2000 psi and we understand if the reservoir pressure is
around 2000 and below 2000 psi which should go to the p square approach.
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So we can choose the IPR in the form of p square, so the inflow curve IPR is in the form of
the pressure square approach in a back pressure form. The out flow equation is WPR for this
case because the information given to us with the help of that we can construct the WPR curve.
But in WPR curve you see that s is given in that, 𝛾𝑔 𝐿 𝑐𝑜𝑠(𝜃) 𝑇̅ 𝑧̅, the bar represents the average
condition so we need to calculate the average temperate, average pressure and that average
pressure we can calculate the compressibility.
Another important point is this f, and this f can be calculated with the help of either the chart
or with knowing the Reynolds number we can use some mathematical expression. They are
given in the literature to calculate value of f, and that f can be either a fanning friction factor
or Moody friction factor in our case it is a Moody friction factor. So the Reynolds it depends
on several parameters here the simplified form of Reynolds number from this equation where
𝛾𝑔 𝑞𝐷
we got 20.09 𝜇 , Viscosity is given to us diameter is none but we do not know 𝑞𝑠𝑐 that we
are tryin to calculate.
So what we can do we can assume some value of the 𝑞𝑠𝑐 calculate the Reynolds number and
Reynolds number to put there to calculate this f value here and every time we have to correct
the value is correct or not. So with this help assuming we can calculate S we can calculate f we
know everything. So what we can do we can construct the inflow curve here and the outflow
curve with the help of second equation.
And when we are going to do what we are going to get let see so from this equation what we
have for the IPR we can simply say the 𝑞𝑠𝑐 is related to pressure in this form and there will be
a situation when my 𝑝𝑤𝑓 is so this is my 𝑝𝑤𝑓 so this is my flow rate Q. So when my 𝑝𝑤𝑓 is 0
here what I am have the maximum flow rate so 𝑝𝑤𝑓 is 0, I am have the maximum flow rate. So
let us say this is 0 this could be the maximum flow rate and we called this AOF. As 𝑝𝑤𝑓 is
reservoir pressure that will be the situation assume here, ̅̅̅,
𝑝𝑟 and this is equivalent to 𝑝̅ or
sometime it is denoted as ̅̅̅
𝑝𝑒 we have this point and we can see here depend on the value of the
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C and n the curve can take a particular shape and most of the cases this is like this and similarly
we can construct the curve with the for the outflow also when we know all these parameter we
can say how my 𝑝𝑤𝑓 is related to Q.
The iteration to be done for that case also and in that case if we see this is a reservoir pressure
given to us 2000 psi this is the maximum flow rate that I can give you some quantity value that
will come out as 1912 unit is mscf per day. So we know when there is no flow is happening
when absolute open flow condition is there and the 𝑝𝑤𝑓 is represented by this. So how to
calculate this curve when we have this relationship so in IPR curve, we can either divide this
flow rate from 0 to AOF in 10 equal parts and calculate 𝑝𝑤𝑓 with this from this equation and
construct from the curve or we can calculate different assume different value of 𝑝𝑤𝑓 from
reservoir pressure to 0 and accordingly we can calculate the different value of Q. By either
mean we can construct this curve in the outflow curve similar we can do when we have different
flow rate between 0 to AOF we can put it here do the iteration and can calculate. So it come
out says when this is no flow is happening your pressure is here is somewhere here and the
value that coming out at condition is around 1050 or something.
But if we are increasing this very slightly the pressure 𝑝𝑤𝑓 is increasing when we have the
different flow rate. So this is our IPR or inflow curve at that particular node and this is WPR
or the outflow we also called in outflow curve. And the point when this two are intersecting
can be used to find out what is going to be 𝑝𝑤𝑓 the operating condition what is the flow rate at
that condition.
So we can construct the curve to estimate the gas production rate if you want to control the gas
production rate we can control with the help of 𝑝𝑤𝑓 or other way if you want to control the 𝑝𝑤𝑓
we can control with the help of Q. But important point came out from 0 to AOF this information
give us when there is no production is happening if such situation is happening we have the B
curve we can get this and when there is a absolute open flow condition maximum production
is happening the curve nature is like this and other curve is like this.
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And as I said how to draw this I will just repeat it again so for example Q we can calculate the
IPR parameter and WPR. The IPR parameter both are pressure we want to calculate PWR from
both the equations the Q which we know will be 0 when there is no production is happening
and the maximum AOF situation between this we can calculate the different value we can
assume equally divided and accordingly we can calculate the 𝑝𝑤𝑓 by the IPR, 𝑝𝑤𝑓 by the WPR.
And the value those are going to obtain here and here will be used to construct this thing and
with the help of this we can get the operating condition under that situation when we have
another parameter or constant both the IPR and WPR equations this is going to be this situation.
For 𝑝𝑤𝑓 and Q for the numerical case that we discuss the Q is around 1478 or 1470 depend we
are using the graphical procedure or we are using the mathematical there is a slight difference
depend on the how good optimization we could apply or iteration we could apply for this
mathematical equation and the pressure is around 1050 psi so I think with this I could explain
how to use IPR and WPR to have the bottom hole operating condition.
The another is as discuss the node could be chosen as well head and what is the inflow relation
for this well head whatever is coming from this side and what is coming from this side is WPR
and that WPR can be clubbed with the IPR to get the combined information that is coming to
this node and that a well head node the information in our case is pressure and we are saying
𝑝ℎ𝑓 well head pressure and the information going out of this is characterize by the CPR.
So now we understand the inflow relation is IPR + WPR and in the last problem last example
we had understood if we club both the equation we are going to get this kind of relationship
whenever p reservoir pressure p bar is related to 𝑝ℎ𝑓 . Similar the outflow curve that is here
outflow information is CPR and we could have this expression where Q is related to 𝑝ℎ𝑓 the
pressure at the well head.
This expression depends again what type of the flow we have in the choke device that may be
sonic and subsonic we are assuming this is a sonic flow. The equation can be replaced with the
subsonic flow is adjusting at this particular node. Important is now we understand the inflow
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relation and outflow relation at this particular node and using this these two equations we can
calculate the operating condition those are going to be at this particular node.
We understand now we can do it either by the mathematical expression when we are clubbing
both the equations making one equation doing certain iteration to calculate the flow rate and
then after knowing the flow rate we can out in either of the equation and flow are of equation
to calculate the 𝑝ℎ𝑓 the well head or the pressure at that node or another base against simply
we can plot the inflow and outflow equation and the internal section point may be the operating
condition at that node.
So let us see if we adjust this equation outflow equation take out the 𝑝ℎ𝑓 this can be arrange in
this way this 𝑝ℎ𝑓 is back here remaining has been transferred to the left hand slide we are going
to get this expression 𝑝ℎ𝑓 . Now this 𝑝ℎ𝑓 can be substituted from here to this equation the inflow
equation what we are going to get a very big expression and this expression simply says yes I
can be solved numerically we just have to do the iteration that can be done
again with the help of Newton Raphson method or some other way to get the 𝑞𝑠𝑐 value okay.
And you see here the 𝑞𝑠𝑐 depends on several this C, N those are the IPR parameters, reservoir
pressure average temperature average compressibility whatever the parameter those
characterize flow throw reservoir to well head are included this equation.
So we can solve it but other procedure is again same we can go with the help of graphical
processor where the inflow and outflow are plotted. So let us understand this again with the
help of example. The example simple says the gas is specific gravity and other information
related to gas composition are given to us means what type of gas is being produced tubing
diameter means the wellbore condition are given to us the addition information that is given is
choke device diameter.
The size of the choke device and other information that simply says we can use this information
at the well head node calculate the operating condition at that particular point. So let us see
what we can do similarly we can do the inflow performance relationship that inflow
performance relationship is like this we know now how to plot this how to solve it.
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We know how to solve it mathematically now we can plot this also and this plot is simply says
we have almost similar relationship as we have for the IPR because this term will
dominate p square reservoir pressure that will dominate the situation and the 𝑝ℎ𝑓 condition will
start when this is around 1600 that will be situation when no flow is happening and this is Q
versus 𝑝ℎ𝑓 .
For example so around 1600 the value will come out when there is no flow is happening 𝑝ℎ𝑓
will come out as a 1600 that can be done simply by saying this Q is 0. No flow is happening
we can calculate this parameter S and with the help of that we can calculate what is going to
be the 𝑝ℎ𝑓 value and this will come out as 1600 again we can get the AOF and this AOF is
what will be the flow rate at AOF is same what we got in the last example is1913 mscf per day.
Now the IPR curve will take almost the same curvature while the equation this is IPR inflow
equation and I can say this is WPR in our case what about the outflow equation from this
expression we can say the Q is related to 𝑝ℎ𝑓 in a direct relationship we have Y = mX kind of
relationship where the intercept ahh is passing through the origin and we will get this kind of
expression.
So this is CPR or the outflow equation and when we have this we will get the same flow rate
here Q around 1470 or 1478 as we got in the previous example while 𝑝ℎ𝑓 can be calculated
from the Y axis what will be the value of 𝑝ℎ𝑓 that will come out around 797 or something okay.
So now we know with the help of plotting this and this 𝑝ℎ𝑓 versus Q relationship we can
calculate the 𝑝ℎ𝑓 and Q.
Now the complexity comes when we are solving this equation when we are trying this curve it
is not easy because at every point we are going to draw this means we are making this the
construction of this outflow and inflow curve we need to calculate the value of 𝑝ℎ𝑓 at particular
Q or Q at a particular 𝑝ℎ𝑓 . Now we understand this is 0 this is AOF we can again divide this in
ten equal parts and we can calculate the 𝑝ℎ𝑓 from inflow equation similar 𝑝ℎ𝑓 from outflow
equation.
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But in both the cases if we see this we already discuss the complexity involved in terms of f
that depends on Reynolds number. Reynolds number depends on from the 𝑞𝑠𝑐 similar here in
this case this C is the discharge coefficient that discharge coefficient depends on the type of
the orifice we are using and on the Reynolds number as well as the diameter ratio on the orifice
to the pipe. So with the help of this kind of calculation we can calculate the C value.
Now Reynolds number again as I already mentioned Reynolds number is defined like this
0.09 𝛾𝑔 𝑞𝐷/𝜇 and to have this or Reynolds number we need to have the Q value. So the
iteration is required is still in the graphical procedure also iteration is required optimization
required at each more points we are going to have and we will construct the this.
When the obvious question comes if we summarize this when we have this mathematical
equation to be need to go with the graphical procedure or mathematical procedure. Because
graphical process also need to optimization process so for example we should go through with
both the processor and check are the equally good or not. In the analytical we are just solving
one equation when we clubbed to equation solving it mathematically while in other case we
have two equations those are going to intersect at one point.
So if any conditions are getting change either in the wellbore or in the reservoir or at the choke
point the shift should appear and that shift in the curve will tell us the conditions are getting
shifted. So is periodically graphical procedure should also be implemented to have the
understanding of how this situation is changing if at all in the production system. So this is the
summary of the nodal analysis and we can see here either we have the bottom procedure or the
well head we have the bottom as a node or the well head as a node in both the cases Q will be
the same while pressure can be estimated.
So the 𝑝𝑤𝑓 and the 𝑝ℎ𝑓 can be estimated with the help of this. After understanding this nodal
analysis this type of the analysis can be used to forecast the production, could be the cumulative
production as well as the production rate. Not only that, when the operating condition are
getting shifted how they are getting shifted what parameters are going to affect them can also
be known using this.
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For example if the reservoir pressure is declining over the time the shift in the operating
condition will be observed and if we are taking the data every month two months making the
construct of this nodal analysis at any particular node and the shift will say if any changes
happens in the reservoir formation for example the skin factor and non-Darcy effect or any
other parameter that is going to effect that will help us.
Another concept decline curve analysis so this curve analysis also tells us at what rate the
production is declining not only the rate of the production declination but the rate of production
rate how it is going to change that can be understood with the help of these equations. This is
very standard equation where b and d characterize the nature of this equation and depend on
the b and d value specifically value because b is just a proportionality constant the nature of
the curve will depend on this d value.
It can be exponential decline it could be harmonic decline model or hyperbolic decline model
so we may discuss all these things in detail later on if time permits thank you very much.
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Prof. Pankaj Tiwari
Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati
Lecture - 13
Separation of Natural Gas
Hello everyone. Today’s lecture is on Separation of Natural Gas. So, the production system
is one where we produce the natural gas, and when natural gas reaches to the surface, the
first equipment it encounters is separator. In, today’s lecture, we will be dedicated to
understand, how separator do job, how to select appropriate separator, and the other
accessories those are related to separator will be discussed.
In this lecture, we will also understand how to choose appropriate separator. So, this
separator shown here is for separating three-phases, water, gas and oil. As we know the
fluid produced from reservoir even it is a gas reservoir, oil reservoir, it produces almost all
three-phases along with some solid particles. In that case what happens, in some cases,
you will see another device before the separator that is called scrubber that is just to
separate out solid particles, and the fluid is entering into separator. The separator is
designed based on the composition of the fluid being produced. For example, if it is just a
two-phase oil and gas separator or a three-phase separator, oil, gas and water. The separator
should be vertical, horizontal or other type will be discuss later on.
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Important point is when the fluid reaches the separator, it gets separated, the separator job
is very critical; because the separator will decide how the other units are going to work.
As shown in the slide, on the downstream side after the separator, when the fluid is going
to be treated for recovering the water, that is free water or the moisture present in the
natural gas or recovering the valuable hydrocarbons means higher carbon number
hydrocarbons those are more valuable, we can separate them out and we can sell them
separately.
The undesirable compounds for example, 𝐻2 𝑆, 𝐶𝑂2 , and other compounds those need to
be separated, and the job of other units is how effectively they are going to work primarily
depends on separator. Thus, choosing appropriate separator and designing appropriate
separator is very important.
We will see separator at other places also, other than immediately after the production is
happening. The separators are also record at other units. For example, dehydration,
sweetening, recovery of hydrocarbons, even before the compressor, we need separators
where we can separate the phases. So, the separator job is separating the phases, primarily
separating gas from the liquid in the case of natural gas production system.
At other place this separator is appearing, it is also named as knockout drum, scrubber or
mist eliminator. Why do we need all these steps? Because there is a condition from the
pipeline design or transporting natural gas through the pipeline, that has certain conditions
and separator, and other unit should meet those guidelines before the natural gas can be
transferred through the pipeline, for example, Btu content. Mostly it is methane gas that
goes to pipeline but depending on the Btu requirement significant percentage or even small
percentage of higher hydrocarbon compounds are also present; because we know when
higher hydrocarbon compounds are present the energy content of the natural gas goes up.
So, depending on the pipeline design, what is the requirement at the other end the
composition of the natural gas should also be maintained. Dew point temperature should
be maintained, so the phase separation is not happening within the pipeline.
Foreign compounds, like 𝐻2 𝑆, 𝐶𝑂2, they are not present, solid particles are not present
when the natural gas is transporting through a long distance pipelines. No particulate
matter is present sufficiently dehydrated. So, if water and acid gases are there, corrosion
may happens, it may damage the pipeline.
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So, meeting all the pipeline requirements start from the separator, and the separator
separate phases based on several principles. Those separator can be gravitational wave
separators, centrifugal separators, cyclone separator, mist separator, there are various kinds
of separators, they work and separate the phases.
The optimum pressure and temperature at the separator is very important. For example,
the fluid is reaching to separator, how it is going to separate gas and liquid depends on the
composition of the stream, that is reaching to separator and the separator is being operated
at particular temperature and pressure. From our phase diagram class, we understand even
the gas composition, those are in the gaseous phase under the reservoir, when they are
being produced they reach the separator, and significant pressure drop happens.
So, from the phase diagram we say, A is the point in the reservoir temperature and pressure
condition where we have only the gases. If it is isothermally coming, we have only gaseous
compounds at the reservoir condition as well as separator conditions. But if temperature is
changing, pressure is changing, and when we reach or enter the envelope of two-phase
region or multiphase mixture system, we are going to get some of the condensate or liquid
compounds, those are releasing out from the gaseous substance.
Thus, the separator decides exactly under what condition it should be operated, so we have
recovery of the higher hydrocarbon compounds there itself. When natural gas is being
produced it may contain oil, water, solid particles along with the gaseous composition.
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Before the separator, a kind of a scrubber or heater combination can be used because after
the choke pressure drop will happens, hydrate may get form, that is why it can be heated.
We cannot heat entire separator, if the pressure drop is happening directly at the separator.
Before that we have kind of a device, called scrubber, where the solid particles are getting
removed as well as whatever the temperature drop is happening because of sudden
pressure change or because of Joule Thomson effect, it is being the section heated to
maintain the temperature.
So, when the gas is reaching separator again, pressure drop will happens and under that
condition the separation of gas and liquid, as well as some of the compounds of the gas
those may go to liquid or some of the compounds of the liquid because of re-evaporation
may go to gas phase, this will happen at the separator. We understand when our reservoir
is kind of a condensate reservoir. We are in the region of critical point and cricondentherm
temperature pressure of reservoir. Under this condition what we are going to get? The fluid
when it is reaches the separator at a particular temperature and pressure the phase
separation will depend at what pressure the separator is being operated.
The operator has the flexibility to operate the separator using the back pressure regulator.
He can maintain the pressure at the separator. But, at what condition that should be
maintained is the point to be decided because significant amount of the hydrocarbon liquid
can be recovered at separator itself, but again depending on the Btu need in the pipelines,
at what conditions we should operate it should be decided.
Another point, if the fluid composition are changing, we understand when the fluid
composition are changing, the phase envelope diagram will also get changed. hen
temperature and pressure condition are changing from the phase diagram, we understand
the composition of the phases in the liquid phase and the gas phase or the amount that is
going to be in the liquid phase and in the gas phase will also get change. That is why it
becomes very important to understand how to choose separator and how to decide the
operating conditions of the separator.
Optimum pressure and temperature, if we are operating under optimum condition the
temperature and pressure condition are set in such a way we are getting the maximum
liquid recovery that is called the NGL, natural gas liquid compound. Now, we are able to
separate, we are generating the revenue, we can sell out those liquid compound to earn
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money or those have separate market at a higher value. But it is not easy to operate that
under optimum condition.
Sometimes the storage facilities or the other surface facilities available should also be
adequate enough to store those compounds. They are not going through again re-
vaporization and losing the valuable hydrocarbon compounds in the form of vapor out of
this production and processing system. Thus, it becomes important to know what is the
composition of natural gas that is being produced.
We understand the natural gas composition mostly dominated by methane, if these are dry
gas reservoirs then we have several hydrocarbon gases, some non-hydrocarbon gases as
well as liquid like 𝐻2 𝑂 may be in the liquid or in the vapor phase, and some traces amount
of the very valuable rare gases. We are going to deal with the system, with the help of a
separator to separate them into different phases.
So, if we see separator works on the gravity separation or in a centrifugal segregation there
are some other ways also, but mostly it is designed based on the gravity or centrifugal
forces.
Separator function as mentioned already, separating the phases is the job of separator. But
when we are choosing particular separator it should have four primary functions within it.
First one, when the fluid enters, primary phase separation happens, means the liquid
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hydrocarbons those are already in the liquid phase or those are heavier hydrocarbon
compounds are getting separated from the gas at the inlet condition itself, in the primary
separation itself. When the further refining is happening, the separator is able to remove
entrained liquid mist from the gas, that should be whatever the liquid compound those are
entrained in the gas phase should also be removed, that should be the job of the separator.
Further, in the next step the entrained gas within liquid or liquid is also carrying some
amount of the gas either in the solubility form or in the condition of just free gas that is
associated with the liquid. The separator designed as well as operating conditions should
be in such a manner that the entrained gas is also getting recovered from the liquid.
The last one it is not only separating the phases, we are able to separate the gas from the
liquid or liquid from the gas within the separator, but there should be sufficient room or
design criteria should be chosen in such a manner that the liquid and gas phases are not
going to re-entrain. Again, they are getting separated in the separator and they are also
leaving the separator separately means gas is going from one place, liquid is going from
other place, there is no chance where they are going through re-entrainment process.
Considering the function of separator, separating the phases considering these 4 primary
parts, the separator component could be divided in 3 parts. First one, the inlet, at the inlet
itself primary separation should happens, the liquid and gas should get primarily mist the
heavier hydrocarbon or the liquid phase hydrocarbon compound are getting separated at
inlet itself because of the gravity.
Larger settling section, this also known as disengagement section. So, the separator either
it is horizontal, vertical or spherical or any other type of the separator, it has sufficient area
or room where the disengagement between the gas and liquid phase happens. It means, we
are allowing liquid droplet to settle the gas stream, when the gas is travelling up carrying
some of the liquid. The liquid compounds are getting separated because of the gravity,
there should be sufficient length in case of the horizontal, sufficient height in case of a
vertical.
Adequate surge room for slugs of liquid, means liquid is not going to interact with the gas
again. Mist extractor or eliminator near the gas outlet. So, if the inlet and disengagement
section could not separate out some of the small droplets of liquid, those are going forward
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or upward in case of the vertical separator or further in case of horizontal separator, these
small droplets are just being carried forward with the gas.
They need to be separated, and they can be separated with the help of a mist eliminator or
something put at the end of disengagement section, where the small droplets are going to
call as forming amalgamation and creating large size drop and because of the gravity they
are falling down again and getting separated from the gas.
So, the job of a separator should be, it is purely mostly gas that is getting out from one
point and purely liquid from the other point. Because of the thermodynamics condition
there might be some amount of the gas that is dissolved in the liquid that should be counted.
We will discuss that later.
Other than this 3, section of separator, inlet disengagement section, and mist eliminator,
the separator is equipped with some other devices that is for monitoring the performance
of a separator. Like, temperature, pressure, back pressure valve to maintain the pressure,
safety relief valve for safety purposes, as well as some other devices like gauge, glasses,
and instrument gas regulator. So, several other devices are also associated with the
separator to monitor and operate the separator effectively and safely.
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If we go further what we see is the design criteria for a separator? If we have a choice to
choose a particular type and size of a separator what should be the specification of that
separator should be estimated first.
Mostly natural gas engineers do not design the separator, but they understand the need of
the separator. They can go to a particular vendor or supplier and ask for a separator that
can meet the need how much area is available, what is the quantity of the natural gas that
is to be treated, what is the composition of the natural gas those are going to be treated and
of course, what is the cost of the instrument that one can afford.
Considering all these criteria, natural gas engineer can request vendor to provide the
catalogue, there are several catalogue, there are several standard separators available with
several internal features other than the inlet condition, disengagement section, and mist
eliminator, other internal features like the baffles, plates, safety features, drain area are
also the part of a separator design.
But in terms of specification we need to provide specification to vendor then only we can
choose. We can choose what type and size of the separator may be appropriate for our
needs, and that could be done by the measurement of gas capacity and liquid capacity. As
already mentioned, the function of gas separator depends on the fluid stream composition
that is reaching temperature and pressure.
So, we know the separator design depends on the fluid composition, temperature and
pressure at which the separator is being operated. So, if we are change any of them like
fluid stream composition or the temperature and pressure we know the output of the
separator will get change. From the phase diagram, we understand changing the
composition will change the envelope, changing the temperature and pressure will result
different percentage of liquid and gas, those can be separated from the same separator.
To understand that, we have to calculate how much gas capacity, our separator should have
and how much liquid capacity it should have when we are dealing with a particular gas
well or fluid well where we are going to install the separator.
Souders-Brown, they had given some empirical correlations. Based on that we can
calculate the gas capacity of oil and gas separator. Actually, they had given for the gas
capacity where it says, the velocity of the vapor or gas within a separator can be calculated
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considering the density of liquid phase and density of gas phase. K comes out as an
empirical coefficient, that depends on several factors, size of the separator and other
internal arrangements that is within the separator. We will discuss this in the next slide.
Once we know the velocity of the gaseous phase, we can calculate the flow rate by
𝜋𝐷 2
knowing the area or the cross sectional area that could be if it is a cylindrical pipe,
4
and this condition, we can transfer to standard condition considering the real gas law that
𝑝𝑞 𝑝𝑞
we know 𝑧𝑅𝑇 at one condition is equal to 𝑧𝑅𝑇 at second condition. If we have one of the
condition it is like a standard condition, let’s say this is a standard condition, so now we
know the gas capacity under standard condition we have, when we have a particular gas
stream of density, 𝜌𝑔 for the gas and density 𝜌𝑙 that is getting separated from the
separator.
So, if we know gas capacity we can go to vendor. Vendor will ask what is the liquid
capacity you need, because in the function of separator we understand there should be a
sufficient surge room for the liquid also and there is no re-entrainment between the gas
and liquid is happening. Thus, this becomes important to know what is the liquid capacity
or separator should have, and that can be calculated just knowing the volume of the liquid
that is going to be produced when we are feeding stream to a separator, and this numerical
coefficient is just arrangement converting from days to minutes.
This 𝑉𝑙 is liquid settling volume. So, for example, here we have some area where the liquid
is getting settled, and this is the area for example, we want, which is occupied by the gas.
So, now, if you know the gas capacity and liquid capacity, we can go to vendor and he will
tell us different size of the separator in a different types he is having we can choose one of
them. We will see in the next slide.
Important is the temperature and pressure, at which we are operating our separator. If it is
changed, the calculation will get changed and again we have to perform the calculation to
calculate the gas capacity and liquid capacity to go to vendor.
So, I think it is clear from here the parameters, gas capacity, and liquid capacity becomes
important. When it is a high pressure gas stream, we understand from the literature that it
is a gas capacity which dominates the selection. Means the volume of the gas that is going
to be separated out from a separator or using a separator decide the type and size of the
separator should be used.
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This is the theory behind the empirical expression that mentioned in the last slide. Like the
Souders and Brown, they had given this expression which can also be formulized
considering the forces acting on a droplet of a bowl.
So, the bowl is travelling along with the gas or the vapor, the vapor velocity is like this,
the diameter of droplet is 𝑑𝑝 , it is going to phase or it is going to move considering the
forces acting on it. Those forces are drag force and it is balanced by net gravity force means
gravity minus buoyancy forces. When both the forces are balanced, we get the terminal
condition and the separation will happen only and only when the vapor velocity is less
than the terminal velocity and when this situation is happening liquid will come down.
We are showing this just to say the empirical correlation given is having some
fundamentals behind it, but this is for a very simple case, that is when we consider it is the
bowl or droplet a liquid droplet is moving upward in a vertical column. It is considered as
spherical, and some other accessories those are inside the column like the plates and
columns are not considered. We will see this force balance and its aspects when we are
going to design two-phase and three-phase separators in the next class. We will discuss in
little more detail.
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Now, type of the separator available, there is a vertical separator. The vertical separators
are mostly used when the intermediate gas to oil ratio is there. So, the gas to oil ratio is in
the intermediate region we should choose the vertical separator and when we have the high
GOR we should go with the horizontal separator.
But ultimately, the selection of separator depends on the production stream characteristic,
the quantity of the fluid stream is going to be treated, the composition of that fluid stream
as well as floor space available. So, for example, the vertical needs very less space. For
example, we have the offshore platform where we need one separator the best option is a
vertical separator and of course, the cost.
So, the vertical separator could be for the two-phase, could be for the three-phase. As
shown, for the horizontal separator this is for two-phase considering double tube. Double
tube means we have this region where the separation is happening in the upper region and
the liquid is just getting down and we have some surge volume in a separate tube that is
where the possibility of re-entrainment of the gas and liquid is completely overruled.
For the three-phase separator we have two separate outlets for both oil and water,
considering the three-phase separation of oil, gas, and water systems, and you will see
several other accessories like safety valve, safety head, and other accessories pressure gas
are also present in this diagram and they are the integral part of the separator. They are for
the safety purpose. They are for the monitoring purpose.
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When we have a spherical separator, the area gets reduced and we can install that also in
a very compact manner, but it has its own advantages and disadvantages. In fact, all the
separator those are available in the market or those can be designed or having certain
advantage and disadvantage. Based on the need, based on the requirement, considering the
other specifications or other aspects associate with the separator selection should be
considered before making the final decision.
If we go in little bit more detail, we will see in a vertical separator as mentioned, it is for
the intermediate gas to oil ratio, it can handle large surge of the liquid. So, here is the inlet
we have the inlet and we can create a large surge volume below that for slugs of liquid.
From the bottom part we can have a discharge work for the liquid and finally, we are
getting the liquid outlet from the bottom part and from the top part we are getting the gas
outlet.
So, the gas comes out from the top, and liquid from the bottom. There are no chances
where gas and liquid are going to contact again, and this is in disengagement section where
because of disengagement the small particle or the mediate size of the liquid droplet are
getting separated because of the gravity action. But this vertical separator has the feature
of it occupies less area, but the same time fabricating vertical separator is a costly affair.
As mentioned already if you know the liquid capacity or the gas capacity you are going to
handle with a particular gas valve and you want to install a separator. There are several
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options. I have just shown some of the size specifications of already available for the
standard vertical separator, those are classified on high pressure and low pressure region.
If you have the high pressure region you know how much liquid capacity you are going to
deal, you can choose appropriate size of that separator for the two-phase as well as for the
three-phase.
So, all together what you are going to get, vertical separator for two-phase as well as three-
phase. Depend on the volume of the liquid going to be handled there are different diameter
and height separator already designed and available.
The internal arrangement like what you have inside the obstacle, the baffles, the mist
eliminator will be the additional feature. But just considering the height and diameter of
the vertical separator we can choose. But this is not as simple as it is appearing because
this is not only the liquid amount, this is not only the liquid amount that is consider here
we also have to consider the gas capacity that we are going to face.
And considering both gas capacity and liquid capacity our separator should be designed in
such a manner, it is not over designed. Means it is having more area available than the
required or more volume to be occupied then we are dealing or it should also not be under
designed when it is getting overflowed or it is not able to handle the amount of the fluid
being produced.
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Similarly, a set of data is available for horizontal separator also. Horizontal separators have
the features, they are widely used for high gas oil ratio valve stream. So, when we have
the higher amount of the gas to oil ratio, we should go with the horizontal separator, and
horizontal separator having this kind of the feature where we have one end the gas or the
fluid is entering.
Immediately, when it enters it is going to hit some baffles region and when the gas or the
fluid, means gas plus liquid is going to hit the baffles because of that the liquid will drop
down because of the gravity and gas will pass, and when reaches this region after the
baffles region you will see the gas and liquid got separated. We are getting the liquid from
one part and gas from the other part.
There are chances where they may get mist here, depending on the temperature and
pressure condition, gas may go to liquid phase, liquid may go to gas phase that is why this
two double barrel separator is designed. The first part is similar to what it is here, how the
gas and liquid is getting separated here. The inlet is here, gas and liquid are getting
separated here. Gases going only in this region and we are getting the gas out from here,
while the liquid wherever it is getting fall it is going down to a bottom section of the
separator and it can be separated from the bottom part.
This three-phase is having the similar features where we can get two-phases liquid here
and because of their gravity difference, oil and water can be separated and for that purpose
we need to install some liquid level devices level of a particular liquid is up to this height
and beyond that then it will come out it should go out, otherwise both the heavy liquid and
light liquid will get mixed. We will discuss these in the next class, while discussing the
design aspects of some of the procedure of how to design two-phase and three-phase
separator.
As mentioned already, this kind of the data are also available for the horizontal separator.
Vendor can provide different option in terms of the diameter and length of the horizontal
separator. Horizontal separator have some more features also, like they can be stacked very
easily once after one we can we can have a stage separation also.
Horizontal double tube separator are low in cost and can handle higher liquid capacity
because here in this double tube separator we can see we have a separate region where the
liquid is being stored, the gas liquid capacity of this double tube separator is high.
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So, based on the need, based on the features these can be chosen. For example, if we are
just going to deal with the two-phase why we need to go for a three-phase separator. We
have three-phases, two-phase separator is not going to effectively, separate the phases. We
should go with the three-phase separator, and three-phase separator is also available in the
vertical as well as in a spherical domain also.
Spherical separator like is compact in design and all the things are happening together like,
when the fluid is entering inside it is separating, primary phase separation is happening,
then disengagement section is there, mist extractor is also installed in that compact region
and altogether we are going to get the gas outlet from the top and oil outlet from the bottom.
These are inexpensive, and compact separation arrangement is provided by these spherical
separator, but very limited surge space is there and because of that there is a possibility
gas and liquid reentering further.
Liquid level control in this type of the separate is also very difficult. As mentioned
previously when there is a possibility of two different fluid can go in contact again. We
can put some liquid level controller and the liquid level is not going beyond that
accordingly the flow rate is adjusted. So, it is coming out of the separator.
But in this kind of the separator where the surge volume or the settling volume for the
liquid is very limited, installing those kind of the control level measurement devices will
be difficult. Again, the same thing for high pressure as well as low pressure, the spherical
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separators are available those can be based on just the diameter, those can be chosen based
on the diameter if we know what is the amount of the liquid we are going to deal with this
separator. Again, this amount of the liquid can tell us about the size of the separator, but
that is need to be verify with the amount of gas that is also going to be handle or in other
terms gas capacity because all together both gas capacity and liquid capacity will
determine the optimal size of the separator. Already mentioned it should not be over
defined, it should not be under defined.
These tables are one type of the guidelines there are some charts by Sivalls in 1977 and
again further Ikoku in 1948, they have prepared some charts for the separator. They
provide more logistic value for the gas capacity. Here with this chart or with this tables we
are supposed to calculate the amount of the liquid we are going to deal and then calculate
how much amount of the gas capacity we need while discharge provide in terms of the gas
capacity.
So, considering for example, in the horizontal separator how much amount of the area or
volume available in the separator is going to occupied by the liquid because the remaining
will be for the gas. If we consider the half, one-third or one-fourth, accordingly we have
to choose the size. We have to choose the diameter and length considering the total volume
is occupied by the liquid and what is that amount of the liquid that is we are going to deal.
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So, with this what I would like to say in three-phase separator as we already discussed for
the horizontal, vertically it is also having the similar thing where we have two different
zone to take out the two liquid separately. For example, the light liquid from here, heavy
liquid from here, as we were having in case of the horizontal separator where the oil was
coming here and the water out was installed here.
Other than this the three-phase separator can be accomplished in any type of the things, as
mentioned they can be horizontal, they can be vertical, they can be spherical or they can
be any design. The features about the three-phase separator is it is very difficult to install
in a spherical mode because of their limited available internal space.
So, we are talking about three-phase separator in a spherical geometry we have the
difficulty, otherwise oil, gas and water separator are commonly available for two-phase as
well as three-phase. This is not be any difficulty when we are dealing with the three-phase
system. In fact, three-phase system are important when we are performing some specific
kind of the test with the well. When we are sure there will be a three-phase present like the
water will also get produced along with the gas and oil in that case we should go with
three-phase separator only.
We will discuss these thing are little bit more detail in the next lecture, but let us focus on
the factor those affect the separation. Already discussed operating temperature, operating
pressure as well as the composition. So, for example, a particular well is producing the
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fluid or the gas with certain composition. Those are not going to change that much, but the
temperature and pressure that is in the hand of the operator. He can change to collect more
liquid or he can operate at higher pressure where the separation is happening and the gas
is also carrying some of the higher hydrocarbon.
Ultimately, it is in the hand of operator to separate this phases with the help of setting the
pressure and temperature of this separator. But how to choose that how to decide that thing,
in general, operating pressure is increased we are going to get more liquid recovered. If
you remember, from our phase diagram we know when the gas is enter in the two-phase
envelope and at a higher pressure the tie line says we are at a higher percent of liquid.
Similarly, operating temperature if we reduce the temperature the higher hydrocarbon will
phase out from the gas phase and reach in the liquid phase. And that is where in both the
cases when we are increasing the pressure and reducing the temperature liquid recovered
at the separator will go on.
Question comes how to choose those temperature and pressure condition, because in
previous calculation when we were dealing about these gas capacity and liquid capacity,
those are empirical formula given by Souder and Brown. And those empirical formula
need K and that is not known. Is there any procedure through which we can understand
the amount of the liquid and the amount of the gas those are going to be treated with the
help of a particular separator? And if yes, how to perform that calculation and for that there
is a procedure called flash vaporization calculation and that procedure will allow us to
perform certain calculation and find out optimum pressure and temperature to achieve
maximum liquid recovery.
If we perform that calculation at different temperature and pressure condition we can see
how much liquid is going to be recovered. Or other way the flash vaporization calculation
is going to give us the strength how to perform calculation at a particular temperature and
particular pressure for a particular fluid stream to know how much liquid and how much
gas volume is going to be treated by a particular separator. And that is what we need if you
want to go to a vendor to ask what size of the separator I should use he needs the capacity
of liquid and the capacity of gas those are going to be handled by a particular separator.
Sometime, it is not practical to operate at optimum condition. Already mentioned like

storage system vapor losses may becomes too great and we are losing the vapor that is why
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it is not important to run an under the optimum condition, but at least flash vaporization
calculation will provide us the guidelines how to calculate the amount of the liquid and
gas that is going to be produce when a stream of fixed composition is entering to a
separator. Let us understand how this flash vaporizing calculation can be performed and
on what principle it does work.
In flash calculation, first thing is assume phase equilibrium are reached in the separator.
So, the gases of some composition, the gases those are producing from a particular well
are entering in the separator. This is my separator, this is inlet, this is let say gas out and
this is liquid out liquid.
So, we know at the inlet condition the fluid is entering into the separator. We can measure
the composition by performing the gas chromatography. Assuming we know the
composition here, the fluid is entered in the separator that is set at temperature T and
pressure P. Another assumption we are going to make the phase equilibrium is achieved
for each component present in the inlet stream and at that condition what is going to be the
product from separation can be predicted.
How they can be predicted? With the help of the concept of equilibrium ratio that says 𝑘𝑖
is equal to 𝑦𝑖 /𝑥𝑖 . 𝑘𝑖 is liquid vapor equilibrium ratio for a particular component i, while 𝑦𝑖
represent that components mole fraction in the vapor phase and 𝑥𝑖 represents the mole
fraction of that particular component in the liquid phase. So, if we know 𝑘𝑖 of a component
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we know how many moles of that component are in the vapor phase and how many moles
are in the liquid phase. That k i will depend on temperature and pressure condition because
the partition happening in a liquid phase and vapor phase will depend on the temperature
and pressure condition as well as the mixture presents what are the composition of that
mixture. So, let us say 𝑘𝑖 is defined as 𝑦𝑖 /𝑥𝑖 , I want to know 𝑘𝑖 . How to know 𝑘𝑖 ? That is
another question, that can be estimated with the help of equation of states for hydrocarbon
mixture. Those are developed by Ahmed in 1989.
Another way is presented by standing in 1979, and that method says you can predict 𝑘𝑖
equilibrium ratio value for a particular component i using this expression. And that
expression is having pressure in the denominator and some coefficient a, c, 𝐹𝑖 . a and c are
the function of pressure again in the quadratic form. We can calculate a and c, if we know
at what pressure that particular component is exposed. 𝐹𝑖 is related to temperature and
boiling temperature of that component because we are going to calculate 𝑘𝑖 for a specific
component that is present.
So, this is a situation like we have the stream which is having n component and that is
stream is just exposed to a separator and suddenly exposed to a particular temperature and
pressure, how the separation is going to be, how many moles are going to vapor phase,
how many moles are going to liquid phase, and for that the component properties are also
important and the 𝐹𝑖 related boiling point of that component while 𝑏𝑖 that is appearing on
𝐹𝑖 is relating the critical pressure and boiling point of that component in the system as well
as critical temperature.
So, the component, individual component we know it is very not difficult to find out the
critical properties or the boiling point of that particular component, several references
books are there. So, the fluid that is entering to a separator if we know the composition we
can go to literature, we can find out its properties, those are required to estimate the value
of 𝑘𝑖 . The properties are boiling point, critical point, critical pressure, critical temperature
and if we know using this empirical formula we can calculate the value of 𝑘𝑖 equilibrium
ratio.
Once we know the equilibrium ratio for a particular component i we can calculate the ratio
of 𝑦𝑖 /𝑥𝑖 . Still we do not know how many moles are in the vapor phase, how many moles
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are in the liquid phase, but we know the ratio of moles in vapor phase to mole in liquid
phase and that is going to help us if we can set up the material balance across this separator.
So, these are the 𝑧𝑖 , it is the fluid is having mole of that mole fraction of that component,
and that is going to be exposed to temperature T and P. We have total component n, those
are entering here. Considering one mole of fluid is entering it means we can classify how
many moles of that total one fluid mole is going to be in a vapor phase and how many are
going to be in a liquid phase and if we sum both of them that will be equal to the mole fed
into separator.
In that case 𝑛𝐿 + 𝑛𝑉 = 1 , and that is at the operating condition means within the separator
and those value of 𝑛𝐿 and 𝑛𝑉 will depend on temperature and pressure. For compound i,
we can write number of moles in liquid phase multiply by the mole fraction of that
component 𝑥𝑖 will give us the total mole of that component in the liquid phase, similar can
be done for the vapor phase, and summation of that component in the liquid phase and
vapor phase will be equal to the moles of that component getting into separator. We can
𝑦
replace either 𝑥𝑖 or 𝑦𝑖 using the equilibrium ratio 𝑘𝑖 = 𝑥𝑖 , if we do so, we are going to get
𝑖
this relationship. From here we could eliminate 𝑦𝑖 we just got the relationship in the form
of 𝑥𝑖 and now 𝑘𝑖 appears here. If we rearrange this we are going to get in the form of 𝑥𝑖 .
How 𝑥𝑖 ? The mole fraction of component i in liquid phase at that temperature, pressure
𝑧𝑖
conditions going to be 𝑛 is going to give us the value of 𝑥𝑖 .
𝐿 +𝑘𝑖 𝑛𝑉
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We know summation of mole fraction for all the component from 1 to 𝑁𝑐 , 𝑁𝑐 means total
number of component. We can say summation of 𝑥𝑖 is going to 1, we can do the summation
on both left hand side and right hand side, then we are going to get the last expression.
𝑦𝑖
Similar, we can do for the vapor phase. We can replace this 𝑥𝑖 as , adjusting it in the
𝑘𝑖
form of moles of component i in vapor phase, summing it for all the component we are
going to get the last expression.
So, now we got the expression for 𝑥𝑖 , summation of 𝑥𝑖 and summation of 𝑦𝑖 in form of 𝑧𝑖
means the fluid composition, and 𝑘𝑖 the equilibrium ratio that depends on operating
condition. If we subtract both we are going to get this equation, very simple equation, and
if we rearrange that equation we are going to get.
Now, what we did here we were have 𝑛𝐿 and 𝑛𝑉 , total moles in the liquid phase and total
moles in the vapor phase. Now, by doing the rearrangement what we could do? Because
we know 𝑛𝐿 + 𝑛𝑉 = 1, one of them we can replace and we get in the form of 𝑛𝑉 means
number of moles in the vapor phase, total number of moles in the vapor phase.
Now, we can set up mathematical equation because we know 𝑧𝑖 , 𝑘𝑖 for individual

component, whatever the fluid is entering during the temperature and pressure we know
𝑘𝑖 for individual component, and if we can find out the value of 𝑛𝑉 total number of moles
in the vapor phase that is going to satisfy this condition, we are in a well good condition
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to calculate the other parameter associate. That can be done by using some iteration method
that we discuss in our first week lectures. We can optimize this with the help of goal seek
or Newton Raphson method and we can find out the L u of 𝑛𝑉 that is going to satisfy this
condition, and once we know the moles in the vapor phase we know the moles in liquid
phase also because 𝑛𝐿 + 𝑛𝑉 = 1.
If the value of 𝑘𝑖 are known we can calculate the 𝑛𝑉 and 𝑛𝐿 , and once they are known to
us we can calculate 𝑥𝑖 and 𝑦𝑖 . Once we know 𝑥𝑖 and 𝑦𝑖 for individual component what we
can calculate? The apparent molecular weight of the liquid phase, apparent molecular
weight of the vapor phase by using the summation or the chain rule or the mixing rule.
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Once we know the apparent molecular weight of the vapor phase we know how to calculate
the specific gravity that is using this expression we can calculate that thing. For the liquid
phase we are provided one expression by standing and that says you have to account the
oil or the liquid that is separated out, what is the specific gravity of that, what is the specific
gravity of the solution gas. Some of the compound remains in the liquid phase, what is the
specific gravity of those compound as well as gas solubility of the oil, means how much
gas is still present in the oil phase or in the liquid phase if this parameter are known we
can calculate the 𝜌𝐿 .
So, by performing the flash calculation we can calculate the density of vapor phase as well
as density of liquid phase. Once we know these things, we can calculate the volume of
𝑝𝑉
vapor phase under standard condition we use this 𝑧𝑅𝑇
𝑝𝑉
at 1 condition to at 2 condition, we can convert that into standard condition. Some
𝑧𝑅𝑇
coefficient may appear here. Important is , 𝑛𝑉 is required. Now, with the help of flash
calculation we understand how to calculate 𝑛𝑉 .
Similarly, one more parameter is appearing here that is z, compressibility factor. From our
natural gas properties class we understand how to calculate the compressibility factor for
a given composition at a particular temperature and pressure. And Brill and Beggs method
can be used to calculate or estimate the value of compressibility factor. If we know we
know the volume of the gas or the vapor that is going to be treated by a separator. And
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similarly, we can get for the liquid also once we know the total number of moles multiplied
by the molecular weight will give us the mass, mass divided by the density of that liquid
phase will tell us the volume of liquid phase.
Once we know the volume of the liquid phase, volume of the gas phase that is going to be
release out from a separator, we know we can calculate the gas oil ratio and that gas oil
ratio is very important parameter because that says what type of the well it is, it is gas well,
it is condensate well or it is oil well.
I think now the procedure is clear how to setup the flash calculation, we are going to
understand this with the help of one example.
So, in that example what is given a fluid of this composition is entering into a separator
and the compositions with the help of chromatography or other devices we could estimate
what are the composition of that fluid. And that is come out as it is mostly dominated by
methane with some other compound present it is also having some inorganic gases. So, the
separator is set at pressure 600 psi and temperature 630 ranking. This is temperature this
is pressure.
The fluid of this composition is entering to a separator. We know the composition, 𝑧𝑖 .

What next we are supposed to do knowing the composition of non-compounds we can go
to literature, use the properties of those compound, like critical pressure, critical
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temperature, we can calculate the factor those are appearing in our equilibrium ratio
calculation 𝑘𝑖 . This is the equilibrium ratio, ratio. So, for each component i, we can get the
value of 𝑘𝑖 .
Now, if we go further we could calculate the 𝑘𝑖 value, we know the 𝑧𝑖 value. If you
remember the expression that allow us to choose particular value of 𝑛𝑉 , that can satisfy
that expression we can set up in the excel or in a mathematical program, and that simply
𝑧 (1−𝑘 )
says summation of individual compounds expression of this like 𝑛 𝑖 (𝑘 −1)
𝑖
, all together this
𝑉 𝑖
express if calculated for individual compounds and perform the summation. And when the
summation is 0 for a particular value of for a particular value of 𝑛𝑉 that is the solution for
𝑛𝑉 and we know how to do that.
We can set this cell by changing this cell, 𝑛𝑉 to set this cell should reach value 0 with the
help of goal seek. So, what we can do? We can put summation of this that is here. We want
this cell to be 0 while changing this cell 𝑛𝑉 . And when we perform this goal seek we got
the answer the n v value is 0.9443.
So, most of the compounds those are present in the fluid are going to be in the gaseous
phase and that should be because the composition of the fluid are mostly dominated by
methane. The temperature and pressure condition are also favoring like the other lighter
compounds are going more towards the vapor phase and (1 − 𝑛𝑉 ) will give us the value
of 𝑛𝐿 .
Once we know 𝑛𝑉 and 𝑛𝑉 knowing the 𝑧𝑖 we can calculate 𝑥𝑖 and 𝑦𝑖 , we get 𝑥𝑖 value and
𝑦𝑖 value. We know the molecular weight of each compound present in the fluid. They are
going to be either in the gas phase or in the vapor phase we can calculate apparent
molecular weight of the liquid mixture, apparent molecular weight of the vapor mixture.
Knowing apparent molecular weight of liquid phase and vapor phase we can calculate
density of the vapor phase as well as volume of the vapor phase. Using the cases shown in
the previous slide, we can calculate the density and volume for both the phases liquid and
vapor. And if we do so, we are able to calculate GOR, gas to oil ratio. So, the flash
calculation will tell us how we can calculate GOR along with other things.
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Since summary, flash calculation is based on equilibrium that says 𝑘𝑖 equilibrium ratio is
𝑦𝑖
the ratio of , standing had given us a set of the expression that allow us to calculate the
𝑥𝑖
value of 𝑘𝑖 at a particular temperature and pressure. Once we calculate the 𝑘𝑖 we can use
this expression performing the iteration towards 𝑛𝑉 to get the value of 𝑛𝑉 . Once we know
𝑛𝑉 we can know 𝑛𝐿 knowing 𝑛𝐿 , 𝑛𝑉 , 𝑧𝑖 , 𝑘𝑖 for a particular composition we can get the mole
fraction in the liquid phase, similar we can get for the vapor phase. Knowing all these we
can get the density of liquid phase and density of vapor phase.
Important point is here, it depends on the compositions. If 𝑧𝑖 compositions are changed

inter calculation will get change because it depends on 𝑧𝑖 . If temperature or pressure is
change because the calculation of 𝑘𝑖 depends on temperature and pressure as well as
composition.
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With this, I would like to end the lecture on separation of natural gas-1. In the second
lecture, on the same topic separation of natural gas we will further increase our knowledge
or discussion on separation side like stage separation procedure, and the scheme of low-
temperature separation. Further, we will discuss some of the aspects of or the procedure
of designing two-phase and three-phase separator both for horizontal and for vertical
separator.
Thank you.
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Prof. Pankaj Tiwari
Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati
Lecture - 14
Separation of Natural Gas - II
Hello, today’s lecture is a continuation of previous lecture, Separation of Natural Gas. So,
this lecture is Separation of Natural Gas II. We will continue our discussion about the
separator, and the separation of natural gas.
From the previous lecture, we understood that the separator function is separating gas and
liquid phases and this can be done by designing appropriate separator. The separator
should have the facilities to provide the primary phase separation, where the liquid
hydrocarbon from the gases are being separated as the fluid enters the separator. There
should be enough room in the separator, where the entrained liquid mist from the gas is
also getting removed, as well as the entrained gas from the liquid.
So, the entrained part which is gas in the liquid and liquid in the gas are getting separated,
and that is done in the disengagement section, where there is enough room to allow settling
of two phases because of the gravity or because of the force balance applied on one phase
by the other phase. There should be a provision in the separator, where the separated phases
are not getting mixed again, no re-entrainment is happening.
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For example, in a vertical separator, it looks very simple because gases are removing from
the top part, while the liquid is removed from the bottom. Whereas in the horizontal
separator, they travel all the way, at the same time throughout the cross sectional area. So,
the design of vertical separator and horizontal separator are different. We will discuss those
as we go ahead in this class. To achieve the function of separator, the separator should
have three components.
As already discussed in the last class, there should be a primary separation facilities that
can be achieved by centrifugal inlet device, such that the fluid enters with significant
velocity either because of gravity applied or centrifugal forces also applied on the phases,
the heavy or the larger size droplet of the liquid phase are getting separated immediately
as the fluid enters this section. In the disengagement section, liquid droplet settles out of
the gas stream, so adequate surge room should be available in the separator.
So, no remixing is happening. Sometimes it happens, a small droplet present in the system
are not getting separated neither at the inlet position nor in the disengagement section. For
that reason, there is a mist eliminator, installed on the top part which is a kind of a device,
where the small particles are get collide or amalgamate and form a larger particle and those
larger particle get settled down because of the gravity.
So, when we say the operation of separator or the design of a separator, we need to
understand how much quantity of the gas phase as well as liquid phase, this separator is
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going to deal with. For example, a known flow rate with a fixed composition is fed to a
separator depending on the separator temperature and pressure, the separation in the gas
phase and liquid phase will happen, and this calculation can be done just by balancing the
forces.
We can calculate the terminal settling velocity, if the vapor velocity or the gas phase
velocity which is carrying this liquid is lesser than the terminal velocity, the liquid will get
significant time to get settle out during the disengagement section. We can calculate the
gas capacity knowing the area of the vessel and the vapor velocity, we can calculate the
flow rate q that can be converted to 𝑞𝑠𝑡 (𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑑 𝑞).
Similarly, we can get the volume of the liquid that is getting separated from the feed that
is entering to the separator, we can calculate the liquid capacity. So, when we go to market
there are several separators available in a different dimensions. The first thing, we need to
provide a vendor, the quantity of liquid and vapor, we are going to deal with a particular
𝐿
separator, accordingly we can choose an appropriate size. This is just about 𝐷, means
length and diameter ratio for the horizontal separator as well as height to diameter ratio for
the vertical separator.
But other arrangements like, internal arrangement of the separator depends on several
factors like the mist eliminator is required or not required. The baffle within the chamber
or within the separator is required or not required. Similarly, it is a two-phase system or a
three-phase system; but performing the flash calculation, at least we can estimate how
much quantity of the vapor and liquid are going to be dealt with particular separator.
So, we understood in the last class, how to use the equilibrium ratio concept given by
Standing 1979, we can calculate the volume of liquid, and gas that will be produced when
a particular composition feed is sent to a separator. That depends on the composition of
course and knowing the equilibrium ratio of individual component that can be done
because for the individual component, their critical point, boiling points are available and
those information is required to process the equilibrium ratio or the flash calculation.
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If we understand more details about exactly what is happening in the separator, and how
the separator is functioning, we need to know more information, it is not just the volume
of particular phase, it is in a particular section of the separator, how the process is
happening, how much volume or area or the height in a vertical separator or length in a
horizontal separator is required to perform individual operation. When it is considered, the
liquid is travelling upward in a vertical separator, let us assume it is a vertical separator.
In vertical separator, from the feed, the liquid enter the separator, now because of the
forces, the feed which is entered into the separator is facing will decide which direction
the fluid will move. For example, here it is on a liquid droplet. Just consider a spherical
liquid droplet that is being carried forward or upward by a vapor gas. It depends on how
much is the vapor velocity, what is the terminal velocity of this liquid droplet will decide
whether the liquid will go up or down. That can be done by the force balance on the liquid
droplet, that is drag force. Vapor velocity is going up, the drag force will also go in the
same direction, the gas will try to lift this droplet upside and that will be balanced by the
net gravity forces that is gravity minus buoyancy forces.
The expression is given in the slide. So, the net gravity force depends on the mass of the
droplet that can be calculated considering the droplet as spherical blob. Knowing the
density of the liquid we can calculate the mass. Applying the gravity minus buoyancy
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forces, we can get the net gravity force. Drag force, it is opposite that the direction of the
droplet velocity that is given by 𝐹𝐷 . This is the force exerted by gas on the liquid droplet.
When these two forces are balanced, and the velocity is taken out that is the terminal
velocity and the velocity of the vapor, if it is less than the terminal velocity, then, only the
liquid will settle out, otherwise it will go with the vapor to top. If mist eliminator is there,
it may get separated there; otherwise, it will be carry to outside of the separator with the
gas.
Souders-Brown had given the same empirical formula. Terminal velocity can be related to
the density of both the phases with some empirical coefficient K that is called the terminal
velocity constant or empirical constant. But when we compare with the force balance, we
see that K can be represented in terms of droplet size and drag force coefficient applied by
the gas on the liquid.
Still it is empirical formula, because it did not count the height of the vertical separator
and the length for the horizontal separator, as well as it is assumed that the liquid is
spherical, and the movement is happening in a vertical direction. The things may be
different, when there is a different design. For example, in horizontal separator, the drag
force is in the direction of the flow, while, the gravity will always be perpendicular to that.
So, the force balance will be different and the K value will also be different. The K value
is reported in literature, and we can get that value depends on the other parameters like at
what pressure, the separation is happening, the K value will also depend on the
composition. 𝑑𝑝 is the diameter of liquid droplet, 𝐶𝐷 is drag coefficient, 𝑣𝑣 vapor velocity,
𝑣𝑡 is terminal velocity.
If we can calculate the terminal velocity means, there is no separation is happening and
we can design a separator considering the vapor velocity lesser than this velocity, we can
make sure the separation of significant size of the droplet is happening during this
disengagement path movement.
So, let us understand some more terminology or some more techniques, that can be used
in a gravity separation process like a stage separation and low temperature separation
processes.
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We will continue our discussion with the design procedure for three-phase and two-phase
horizontal and vertical separator. Vertical and horizontal gravity separator are very widely
used. We are not considering other types of the separator; those are available and those are
also used for different applications.
The equation of motion like, I had shown in the last slide. The trajectory of droplet will
decide type of the forces applying on it and in which direction the droplet will move.
Separation criteria for horizontal and vertical vessels are not identical. As already
mentioned, the trajectory of the droplet is different. If we go by the force balance, the
horizontal will behave differently than the vertical separator.
Decide the one based on the physical requirement, also depends on stream specification
and economic attractiveness. So, designing a separator is not only it is able to deal the
amount of the liquid and vapor, we are going to process with this separator; but depends
on the economic attractiveness also. Several methods have been developed over the time
to design separator to meet the need and we can choose from the literature, but let us
understand how certain section of a separator are designed and considered in this class.
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So, in a stage separation hydrocarbon mixture, when it is fed to a separator, we are doing
the separation of vapor phase from the liquid phase or liquid phase from the vapor phase
that can also be performed in a stage wise manner. So, in stage separation, often more than
one stage is chosen and we have separator at one pressure and the next separator at a lower
pressure than the first pressure and we can accomplish more liquid recovery by doing such
arrangement.
In each separator, the flash calculation or the equilibrium ratio concept can be applied to
get what is getting into a separator and what is getting out of the separator and the output
from one separator is the feed to the next separator. A two-stage separation process
requires just one separator and one storage tank. So, in a stage separation, always there is
a storage tank, where the separation after the separation, the liquid part is getting
accumulated and three-phase separation or three-stages separation requires two separator
and a storage tank.
Usually, the number of stages required are limited to three to four, the separation can be
achieved within three to four stages. In case of high pressure gas condensate separation, a
stepwise reduction of pressure on the liquid condensate can significantly increase the
recovery of the liquid. So, the stage wise separation provides several advantages. First
thing is the separator designed just for one process, just one stage separator, where the
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entire pressure that is released from the choke is going to be handled by a separator and
that separator design will be more complex.
Stepwise reduction in the pressure will help us to design or recover more liquid without
having the more complexity involved in the designing part. Second, of course, the cost
will go up, when we have the more separators in series or in a stage separation
performance; but recovering the higher valued compound will help us to offset the price
associate with the separation.
How to perform that separation in a stage wise? We can see in the slide, prediction of the
performance of the barrier separator in a multi stage separation process depends on feed
composition that is entering to a separator, temperature and pressure at various stages. So,
for example, here the feed is entering and after this, this is going to the second separator
and then finally, it is going to storage.
So, at each separator, what is going in and at what temperature, pressure, they are being
operated will decide how much recovery can be achieved, and that can be done developing
the computational model. That can be based on the flash calculation or some other
procedures like the equation of state that can tell us from separator 1, how much liquid and
gas is separated and the liquid which is going here, the gas will go out which is going to
second, how much liquid and gas separated at this second one and finally, here we are
getting the liquid accumulated. So, here gas will also get separated out.
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The first stage separator of course operate at the well inlet condition. So, the flow line from
the well, the first separator is installed and that is operating characteristic of the well. So,
at a particular pressure, the value is producing that is phased by for separator and further,
the pressure is getting reduced in the next stage.
Pressure at low stage separation based on equal pressure ratio between the stages. So, it is
reported in the literature, if equal pressure ratio is considered like the outlet pressure from
a separator to inlet pressure, if it is designed in such manner the ratio should be kept equal
in each stage to have a optimum recovery as well as optimum design.
Campbell in 1976 given a formula that says the way to calculate the pressure ratio and that
𝑝1
is . 𝑝1 is the feed pressure or the pressure of the separator 1 and 𝑝𝑠 is the separator of a
𝑝𝑠
storage tank like this, and 𝑁𝑠𝑡 is number of stages. So, if this is used, we can calculate the
pressure ratio and based on the equal pressure ratio, we can calculate the intermediate
pressure like here 𝑝2 , we can calculate knowing the previous separator pressure divided
by the pressure ratio.
So, stage by stage separation is going to help us in recovering more liquid as well as
handling the high pressure system, because the pressure that is coming from the well or
the fluid coming from the well at a very high pressure, we need to reduce it; because the
other units, those are installed for processing the gas needs low pressure or the equipment,
those are handling these gas are not designed to handle very high pressure system. So, the
separator job is not only separating the things, but also reducing the pressure.
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Another scheme could be low temperature separation, where reducing the operating
temperature of a separator increases the liquid recovery, means separate water and
hydrocarbon liquid from the inlet well stream and recover more liquid from the gas. So, in
this type of separator assembly or separator choice, low temperature separator design, the
low temperature can be achieved in a different manner; one of the way is to install a choke
or pressure reducing device or a restrictor.
Due to the Joule Thomson effect, the pressure at the outlet means the pressure to a
separator will be less as well as the temperature will go down, because of the Joule
Thomson effect and low temperature separation will provide more recovery of liquid
compared to normal separator.
This is an efficient means of handling high pressure gas, and condensate at the well. So, if
the condensate is present, it is better to operate in a low temperature separation zone or
with a separator operated at low temperature condition to recover more condensate and
liquid compound.
A low temperature separator always equipped with high pressure separator; means you are
supposed to reduce pressure significantly. So, separator should be designed to handle the
inlet high pressure stream. Pressure reducing device like already mentioned choke kind of
the device or restriction which reduce the pressure, reduce the temperature and various
pieces of heat exchange equipment. So, because of the temperature drop, the water
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molecules and the lighter component of the hydrocarbon, non hydrocarbon gases, they
may form gas hydrate kind of the structure and to avoid that heat exchanger devices are
installed.
So, they are not allowing to form the hydrate at that temperature condition. When the
pressure is reduced by using a choke, fluid temperature decreases due to Joule Thomson
effect, already discussed in detail in a CPR system, under isentropic reversible process,
when the fluid pass through a restriction and because of the Joule Thomson effect the
temperature reduces. We can calculate the temperature reduction by performing the ideal
gas law, under isentropic condition.
Pressure reducing choke at the inlet is installed at a high pressure system, that makes
hydrate fall to the bottom settling section of the separator. So, in this case, when the
pressure reducing device is just installed at the separator, not before that, so, immediately
when the fluid is entering through this restriction leaving on the other side, the hydrate
kind of the structure or the heavier compound will fall down at the bottom of the section.
Those hydrates can be heated and melted by liquid heating coil, located in the bottom of
the separator to get them in a liquid form.
So, the low temperature separation process is very good scheme. It can be applied in a
stage separation also and that can provide significant amount of the higher value
hydrocarbon compounds, otherwise those need to be separated in the further processing
units. With this, let us go to understand the design and selection of a separator.
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We are going to understand some of the components of separator design, we are not going
to understand in detail, the designing part of the separator means we are not going to
consider the material of construction, the pressure the separator is going to handle, the wall
thickness is required, the corrosion alloys means all the mechanical aspects of the separator
are not going to be discussed in today’s class. In this class, we are going to understand
some of the important aspects of separator design, those should be known before we are
going to use or order or purchase a separator.
For example, if it is a three-phase separator, the gas liquid separation can be done as we
already discussed by the force balance on a liquid droplet that is travelling vertically, we
can get this terminal velocity. As long as K is empirical, this equation holds equally for
horizontal as well as vertical separator. The K will take care about the type of the fluid as
well as the design means it is a vertical or horizontal separator. So, if we go to literature,
we can find there are plenty of literature available that says how to choose this empirical
constant for gas liquid separation.
In the table, it is shown that it depends on the pressure being considered in a particular
separator, we can choose the K value using this empirical correlation. Gas processing
supplier association had given an empirical formula that says for the pressure range of 0
to 1500 psi, K can be calculated in terms of the pressure and that pressure appears in the
relation.
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We can find several literature, and those provide the data for different conditions.
Similarly, when three-phases are present, we can consider in a gas liquid separation
section, we can consider gas is one phase and liquid is another phase. That another phase
of liquid is considering both heavy liquids as well as light liquid.
So, in the three-phase separation, we consider gas, light liquid, and heavy liquid. So, the
light liquid could be oil and heavy liquid could be water or there might be a possibility that
the oil itself is having the two phases; one type is the light, higher api gravity fluid that is
light fluid, another fluid is low api gravity fluid that is heavy liquid.
We consider gas and liquid, while within the liquid, we can use a Stokes law of buoyancy
that is again the force balance. So, the force of viscosity on a small sphere moving through
a viscous fluid can result us another relationship that says how to calculate the terminal
velocity, when the two liquids are getting separated and that depends on the density of
heavy liquid, density of light liquid and the viscosity of a continuous phase.
So, for example, if a light liquid droplet is getting separated from a continuous phase of
heavy liquid, then this should have the viscosity of heavy phase or other way, if large size
droplet of heavy phase are getting separated from the light phase, this should be the
viscosity of light phase.
So, the viscosity depends on which phase is getting separated from the other phase.
Knowing this, the numerical coefficient appear in the relation. It just because of the unit
balance, unit may be different, viscosity, one is centipoise. This entire thing can be clubbed
together in the form of a constant 𝑘𝑠 that depends on the droplet size. We can get the
expressions similar to what we got for the gas liquid system. This expression will tell us
how lighter phase from the heavy phase or heavy phase from the liquid phase, can get
settle out if the force balance are done under the Stokes law of buoyancy.
The value of 𝑘𝑠 are reported again for different droplet sizes. Here, we can see, when the
hydrocarbons specific gravity is given, and it is less than 0.85 at a particular temperature,
we can see it depends on the phases. Here it is on heavy phase, water or caustic, the droplet
if it is size of 127 or 89, the 𝑘𝑠 value will change and you can see it is significantly changing
0.333 to 0.168, that is almost half.
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If system is separating like light phase is water and heavy phase is Furfural, droplet size
will be around 89, and you will get 0.163. If the system is different light phase and heavy
phase, the 𝑘𝑠 will be different, and those values are available in literature for significant
combination of light phase and heavy phase under different conditions. We can get that
value from the literature.
Once we know 𝑘𝑠 , we know the density of the heavy phase, and the light phase, viscosity
of the heavy phase, the light phase, we can calculate certain information about what is the
settling time, what is the residence time of the system, where three-phase system is being
considered.
So, for example, if we go ahead on a design part; here, I am showing two-phase vertical
separator, and that shows how it is important and why it is important to consider the
internal arrangement of different sections. So, for example, this is the feed condition and
according to the primary criteria of designing a separator, we just need to know about the
amount or the volume of liquid and vapor, the separator is going to deal. But here we will
see how different sections are important.
So, the feed is entering from here through a nozzle of diameter 𝑑𝑛 and when the feed is
entering here, it will get separated. Let us assume it is following the gas liquid separation
type of the things, where the liquid droplet will travel upside because of the vapor velocity
and this is the disengagement height 𝐻𝐷 . During that height this further separation will
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happen and if something could not be separated out, the small droplet could not be
separated out, they will go and hit this mist eliminator, where further separation will occur.
So, we have internal assembly like mist eliminator is optional, the height will be different.
Height of the vertical separator will be different, and there are other sections like you see
in the slide.
In two-phase separator, we just worry about two phases. So, vapor is going up and liquid
is going down. We want the liquid that is going down to have significant surge volume,
where it is getting accumulated because this separator is connected to another device and
the input to another device or another unit operation, I should say will be getting feed from
this separator.
So, this separator should have significant amount of both the phases at a particular time
that can be fed to the next unit operation. So, for example, here in the liquid section we
can classify this in a three section LLL.
So, this is a lower liquid level, minimum this much liquid level should always be present
when we are considering the vertical separator. And then, NLL; this is the normal
conditions when the separator is getting operated under the normal condition, the liquid
level should be up to this point and then, HLL; the higher liquid level more than this liquid
level is there, then it is considered, there is a possibility of surging means the gas and liquid
may get mix together. So, the separation is not that much effective.
Important point comes how to know what is the height of disengagement should be chosen;
what is the height of this each section, we will discuss later on this, what is 𝐻𝑠 and 𝐻𝑅 . We
can see that, 𝐻𝑠 is surge height and how to calculate the surge height; how to calculate the
hold up height, we will discuss in the next slide and why they are important. Here, I would
like to mention all these small heights make up the total height of the vertical separator
and depends on the design criteria, the height to diameter ratio within a certain range
should be there to accept the design.
So, it is not just based on the quantity of liquid and vapor phase, not only just choosing
𝐿/𝐷 ratio or in vertical separator 𝐻/𝐷 ratio, it is also important that the minimum or
maximum individuals section height is also considered in the design. We will see, as we
see for vertical separator and horizontal separator how the things are different as well as
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in a particular type of the separator, if it is a two-phase, or a three-phase how the things
are different.
Here also, I would like to mention like mist eliminator, we have to include certain height
for that mist eliminator and above that mist eliminator, again you see here one feed room
should be there.
So, in designing a vertical separator or in horizontal separator or I should generalize it in

several type of the unit operations, certain things are fixed, they are based on the
experience, based on the experiment perform, some section of a design are fixed or certain
restrictions are there. Minimum this much should be there. So, for example, mist
eliminator minimum height is 6 inches and for above the mist eliminator, there should be
a room of 1 feet. Those things are fixed.
Similar, you will see as we go further with the example, you will see certain cases, the
things are fixed. For example, the depend on the nozzle diameter, this height HLL to Inlet
nozzle centreline. So, the height is called 𝐻𝐿𝐼𝑁 that is fixed depends on the nozzle diameter,
it does not depends on other parameter or minimum height should be there. All together,
when we sum up all these height to diameter ratio is maintained or not or the height to
diameter ratio is in the acceptable range or not.
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In a three-phase vertical separator things become little bit more complex because now you
have the two-phases on the liquid side, heavy liquid, and light liquid, they should have a
separate section. They are also not getting surged to each other, when we are operating the
separator. In this case, heavy fluid is coming out from the bottom part. So, this is a heavy
liquid nozzle, and the light fluid is somewhere here in between. The feed is here, vapor is
coming out from the top.
So, in similar way let us start from the top. If mist eliminator is there, 6 inches have to be
added in the height, and one should be added as a room above the mist eliminator, then
other height, disengagement height, 𝐻𝐵𝑁 some more term will appear here, with those also
consider for a three-phase separation like not only gas is getting separated from the liquid,
but liquid-liquid separation should also be accomplished within that zone, and from where
we are taking the liquid out what is the height of that liquid is baffle used to separate the
heavy and liquid phase or not, how much area is available for each phase cross sectional
area or ultimately what is the total volume of the separator is occupied by a heavy and light
liquid; all will be considered when we are calculating the total height of a vertical
separator.
So, that will be done, like here the heavy liquid, here this is a disengagement height, when
we some of them, it comes out is again 𝐻𝑡 and when we decide 𝐻𝑡 /𝐷, the this would be
under design criteria and that comes out as 1.5 to 6. If it is in this range, the design may be
accepted considering what additional features like the baffle, mist eliminators and other
things are required or not required.
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Let us go to a horizontal separator. The things are little bit more complex. I said the drag
force exerted by gas on the liquid will be in the horizontal direction, while the gravity will
be playing on the vertical direction downside. So, the liquid, this is for the three-phase
separator, not for the two-phase separator.
So, we should have a room at the bottom of the separator or the horizontal separator, where
the heavy liquid can be stored or can be accumulated and then, above that there should be
a room for the liquid and there should be a prohibition, they are not mixing together and
this is hold up or surge for the lighter liquid and this is HLL, and there should be a region
where only the vapor phase is travelling or this particular region is occupied by the vapor
phase only.
So, in three-phase, we should have this height. So, the entire diameter of the horizontal
like this is the horizontal tube, the entire diameter should be sectionalized how much part
of these particular height of a separator is occupied by the heavy liquid; how much by the
light liquid and how much by the vapor. Considering the provision, there is no surging is
happening. Depends on we have this wire in separator or not the design will be different.
So, for example, here when we have this mist eliminator, this is already decided above the
mist eliminator, this would be 12 inch minimum and below that there should be 12 inch
minimum and when we have this weir, the things will be like this. So, the feed enter from
here, heavy liquid are getting separated and the liquid are getting out. From this region,
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where the liquid hold or surge should be counted considering the lower height, normal
height and maximum height of the liquid level in a separator, the separator can be designed.
Depends again on what is the nozzle diameter for the inlet and outlet. In this case, it is
considered all have the same diameter. The length should be adjusted to account all these
things those are happening within the separator and in this kind of the separator, we can
see the 𝐿/𝐷 ratio is given at what operating conditions the separator is used in terms of the
pressure. If it is 0 to 250 pressure, the ratio should be 1.5 to 3 and 250 to 500, this should
be 3 to 4 and when the pressure is more than 500 and that generally happens the ratio
should be 4 to 6.
So, within the range of 0 to any pressure, the ratio of total length to diameter should be
between 1.5 to 6. The total length could be depend on the internal arrangement, we have
like in case of with wire we have this 𝐿1 separate length and 𝐿2 is a separate length and
the total length will be 𝐿1 + 𝐿2 . Looks little complex, but if we go step by step procedure,
we can understand it in a better way.
Before we are going to understand the calculation procedure step by step to estimate 𝐿/𝐷
for the horizontal, and 𝐻/𝐷 for the vertical separator, let us understand some of the key
terminology or key terms those appear in this type of the design. First one is a holdup time
represented by 𝑡𝐻 , and that says the time it takes to reduce the liquid level from normal to
empty, while maintaining a normal outlet flow without feed makeup. It means for example,
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this is a separator, feed is here, we are getting the outlet of product from here. Let us
consider this, we are talking about the liquid outlet.
So, there is gas we are not counting, and we are counting the liquid holdup time that says
under the normal operation like let us say, this is normal liquid level, and this is minimum
or lower liquid level, and this is the maximum or highest liquid level. The time it takes to
reduce liquid level from normal to empty means achieving lower value. So, from this
normal to this point, how much time it needs when normal outlet is maintained and no feed
is entering.
So, by any means it happens, there is no feed entering to a separator while the outlet is
maintained at the previous condition, how much time it will take from normal to become
empty or reaching the lower liquid level. That is very alarming situation, already
mentioned. This equipment is connected to some other unit operation, and suddenly, if this
kind of situation happens, when there is no feed is entering into a separator, the liquid level
in the separator will go down and further, operation will also get affected.
That is where there is significant holdup volume, consider that allow the operator or the
engineer to make appropriate action to run the operation under the safe mode and that is
holdup time is very important. Depending on what is the holdup time, one can design the
separator, this much height in vertical separator or this much length should be dedicated
for that type of a separator. Another important term is Surge time. It says by any mean it
may happens, you are getting the continuous feed; but for example, the outlet got plugged
or it is not having any outlet, what will happens?
The liquid level in the separator either horizontal or vertical, the liquid level will go up.
When it is going up from the normal, and reaching the maximum liquid level that is
allowed, then the surging will start. The gas, liquid will start getting mixed and no
separation will happen. Again, this is alarming situation, something should be done to
make sure that the outlet is working properly and the surge time and holdup times are
going to guide us in what capacity or in a time capacity, something can be managed while
the operation is running continuously, and to have those time frame, the volume in a
separator should be designed in such a manner.
Holdup time, and surge time are two very important parameters and those are in the hand
of a design person, who understand how much time is required to maintain the situation to
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a previous condition. So, the holdup time, and surge time are two important parameters
and the time can be converted into area or height or length that we will see during our
discussion. When the data is not available because both the things depend on the
experience, the decision making capability, what these parameters should be chosen.
Because these are things allows us to run the operation safely and if the data are not given
for the surge time, it should be considered as half of hold up time, that is one of the crude
way of or one of the way of designing the things. So, let us go through the step by step
procedure, how we can calculate the different section, dimension for a horizontal and
vertical separator. So, let us start with the vertical separator, we are starting with three-
phase separator and later on that can be converted into two-phase separator calculation
procedure.
So, in a vertical separator, we have two section. We are supposed to deal with the gas-
liquid and liquid-liquid system. So, in gas liquid, we can consider gas as one phase, other
thing is just a liquid both heavy and light. We can calculate the terminal velocity by doing
the force balance or the previous expression, those we obtained and with the help of that,
we can calculate the vapor volumetric flow rate. And once we know how much quantity
of the vapor, we are going to deal with this, we can calculate the vessel internal diameter
because we know q is equal to area into velocity.
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So, when we know the vapor velocity, and that is considered by doing the force balance,
is a terminal velocity, conservative gas could take lesser value than that one and that could
be 75 percent of the terminal velocity. So, the vapor velocity could be just 0.75 of terminal
velocity. It may have been chosen differently, but in general it is considered as 0.75 𝑉𝑇 .
So, the vessel internal diameter considering there is no obstacle, we can calculate the area
and by cross sectional area, we can calculate 𝐷𝑖 . We will see the formula later on. So,
based on this crude assumption, what we did? We can calculate the internal diameter of
the vessel and then, we end here with the gas liquid part. We move to heavy liquid, and
light liquid part.
We do the same force balance there using the Stokes law; we can calculate settling velocity
of the heavy liquid, and rising velocity of light liquid. Considering those things, we can
calculate volumetric flow rate of both the heavy and light phases and settling time for both
heavy and light.
The settling time will help us to understand the designing of a separator. If baffles are
present as already mentioned, if internal arrangement is done like baffles are present in the
system, certain things has to be corrected because the baffle will reduce the total volume
and the cross-sectional area that particular phase can occupy.
After that, we can calculate the residence time of each phase, how long particular phase is
going to stay in a separator in terms of heavy liquid and light liquid and condition can be
checked that says if the residence time of light liquid is lesser than settling time of heavier
phase or other way, there is a possibility that we have to increase the diameter or dimension
of the column. Because the liquid separation is controlling the phenomena and we have to
increase the diameter and repeat the procedure again from step 4. It means here whatever
the diameter we have calculated that is based on certain assumption. That is first
assumption the vapor velocity is just 0.75 of terminal velocity. Second assumption we
consider there is a entire cross sectional area of a vertical separator available for gas to
travel; if there are baffles then or other obstacle, then that area is not available.
So, this can be corrected here by increasing the diameter, we can increase likes few more
inches; 2 to 6 inches can be increases and perform the calculation again until this condition
is satisfied and when we are satisfied with this condition, we can continue further otherwise
every time, we have to go to step 4, change the diameter or increase the diameter of vessel.
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Once it is done, we can calculate the holdup height and surge height. The two important
parameter here the holdup height for the light liquid and the surge height; if we can
calculate both, we are able to calculate the total height of the vessel considering other part
either they are related to some fixed number like mist eliminator 6 inches is required and
they are related to nozzle diameter or some other parameter. Just knowing important part
is what should be the surge height and holdup height that is allowing the operation is
happening smoothly.
We will see in the next slide, when we are going step by step again. Decision has to be
made; so, if the ratio 𝐻𝑇 /D is within this reasonable range 1.5 to 6, it is ok; otherwise, we
have to start again the calculation and find out the places, where the correction can be
made to maintain this decision criteria. We will see.
So, let us say step by procedure. First thing is terminal velocity. We know it depends on
density of the liquid. In three-phase, this density of liquid is a total density of both heavy
liquid as well as light liquid. So, considering both heavy and light as a single fluid, the
density should be calculated. As I mentioned, the conservative gas is like 0.75 of terminal
velocity. If amount or density of the gas are given to us, we can calculate its volumetric
flow rate. Knowing the volumetric flow rate by q is equal to area multiply by this velocity,
we can calculate the internal diameter of the vessel.
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𝜋𝐷 2
Again, in this calculation, we assume the area is available for the gas to use. If
4
baffles or other obstacles are there, we have to make the correction. K can be obtained
from the literature, internal diameter should be adjusted depending on what we have in
the column. If mist eliminator, then add more inches to diameter; if without mist
eliminator, the internal diameter you have chosen is fine.
Again, this is kind of a initial gas based on the condition like this, first condition; second
is this where entire area is used by the gas and this need to be treated if we are not getting
the satisfactory solution.
In fourth step by using the Stokes buoyancy law, we can calculate settling velocity of the
heavy phase considering, it is getting separated from the continuous light phase liquid, and
rising velocity of light liquid, again in this case the viscosity of heavy fluid should be
considered because heavy fluid is continuous phase from where the light liquid is getting
separated.
The volumetric flow rate if known for both, if we know what are these two fluids heavy
and light, their density, and the quantity to be treated in the column, we can calculate the
volumetric flow rate for heavy and light. So, now, we know the volumetric flow rate, we
know the velocity of those two phases. What we can do? We can calculate some other
things and those other things could be like settling time for heavy and light liquid.
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In that case, we need to know the height of the column that is going to be occupied by the
heavy phase and light phase and in this case, you will see here 12 is just a numerical value
because converting inches to feet, we will get that thing and knowing this time for the light
and heavy, we need to know the 𝐻𝐿 , 𝐻𝐻 and minimum value for these from the design
consideration is one feet.
So, the initial gas, we are going to use is just 1 feet. If the calculation is not meeting our
decision criteria, then we may adjust these; otherwise, 1 feet is considered for this, and 1
feet is considered for heavy. Again, if baffle plates are used, the area occupied by heavy
or light, mostly it is light fluid which faces this baffle plate, the area should be corrected.
There are several procedures, and the literature those allow us to calculate this 𝐴𝐷 and
based on that the 𝐴𝐿 should be calculated. The A is original without any obstacle, without
any baffles, the area of the section. The residence time of each phase can be calculated.
Now, we know the height, that we assume 1 feet for both light phase and heavy phase, we
can calculate the residence time of each phase, where it is considered the 𝐴𝐻 is equal to
area because we are considering the heavy phase is occupying the entire cross sectional
area, while the liquid phase or light liquid phase is going to occupy the area after correcting
it with the baffle that is installed there.
Condition is again same, 𝑡𝑟 for the light phase is lesser than the 𝑡𝑠 settling for the heavy
phase or other way the 𝑡𝑟 for heavy phase is lesser than the 𝑡𝑠 for the light phase, we are
not satisfied. There is the chances the surging will happen. In that case, the diameter of the
vessel, the third step, where we had calculated the diameter considering the vapor velocity
is just 0.75 of the terminal velocity should be adjusted, should be increased and when we
are increasing those calculation, those are based on the diameter should be performed again
to match the condition that says there is no surging is happening between the heavy phase
and the light phase.
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After knowing that thing, we can calculate the holdup height and surge height. Once the
criteria in the previous slide are met, and that is 𝑄 𝑡𝐻 /𝐴𝐿 , the area available and the 𝑡𝐻 and
𝑡𝑠 are the time, those are in the hand of operator or the designer who designed this
particular column and that is based on the experience. The 𝑡𝐻 and 𝑡𝑠 can be chosen and
usually 2 to 10 minutes are good enough for 𝑡𝐻 and half of that is the surge time, we can
calculate that thing.
So, the height of hold up and the height for the surge can be calculated and in the surge,
we are calculating both. Q for the flow rate of the light phase as well as flow rate of heavy
phase divided by total cross sectional area and once, we know each section 𝑡𝑟 , 𝑡𝑠 and other,
we can calculate vessels total height and that is summation of those small height, those are
the section in a vertical column or a specific job for a specific need.
And once we calculate that, we can check again the decision criteria, it is following in this
range or not; if not, we have to do correction again. Now, the correction can be made in
terms of the height, we had chosen for 𝐻𝐿 and 𝐻𝐻 . Again, if it is supposed to reduce, then
we cannot play with those because those are minimum, 1 feet we had considered. If those
are supposed to increase, we can increase those heights there.
Here, you can see the combination, here all mention. Let us see, what is this 𝐻𝐴 ? Minimum
6 inch should be there. So, certain things are not in calculation, they are fixed based on the
experience and 𝐻𝐵𝑁 depend on the diameter of the nozzle. So, it should be 0.5𝑑𝑁 + 2 feet
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should be added. So, the liquid height from above baffle to feed nozzle, this is 𝐻𝐵𝑁 , 𝐻𝑇 is
disengagement height. Again, the disengagement height could be 0.5 of the diameter or
minimum 3 feet.
If 0.5 multiplied by diameter is coming above 3 feet, it is ok; otherwise, 3 feet should be
the minimum disengagement height should be chosen. Hold up and other things; so, hold
up we can, we assume with 1 feet. If needed, we can change it. If the calculation is not
meeting the criteria and similar for 𝐻𝐿 in step 7, where we consider both the height should
be corrected.
For 𝐻𝑅 , we know step 10, that is where we calculated here and depend, if we want more
time to control the situation, we want more time for the surge and height, accordingly 𝐻𝑅
and 𝐻𝑆 can be adjusted. So, for more detail, you can visit the chapter in the book Advanced
Natural Gas Engineering by Wang and Michael Economides.
We can we can go through the example solved there. When we talk about two-phase
separator, the two-phase separator is simple compared to three-phase separator because
there is no need to calculate anything that is related to liquid-liquid separation. So, the
steps in the previous procedure 4, 5, 7, 8 and 9 can be just omitted and we can go through
the little bit simpler procedure. The things will be the same, the total height to diameter
should be maintained and we can adjust this height as well as the diameter of the vessel.
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So, if we go stepwise procedure, again gas liquid we know how to calculate terminal
velocity. The K value can be obtained from the literature, vapor volumetric flow rate
depend on the density and the amount of the vapor going to be treated with this can be
calculated, vessel diameter, just Q is equal to area into vapor velocity; we can calculate
the internal diameter, similar procedure as meted for the three-phase. While on the other
side, now liquid-liquid part is gone.
We can just consider one liquid and the volumetric flow rate as well as the cross sectional
area of the liquid can be calculated, and we directly go to hold up and surge volume and
hold up and surge volume, if we fix the 𝑡𝐻 and 𝑡𝑠 , we can calculate the holdup volume as
well as surge volume. Low liquid level height can be calculated and for that you see here
there are several reports, one of them is here based on the vessel diameter the LLL for the
liquid lower level liquid depend on the pressure can be chosen from the literature and that
is given for horizontal as well as vertical separator. The height of HLL in inches should be
chosen from the literature.
Further, now I know the volume, the cross sectional area, again no baffle is used entire
cross sectional area is used by the fluid or the liquid, we can calculate the height, and
height for both surge as well as holdup region. Now, previously in three-phase separator,
we started assuming a new 1 feet. So, here also the condition is minimum 1 feet should be
there for 𝐻𝑠 , it should be minimum half feet for the two-phase separator; but that can also
be calculated with this expressions.
If we go further, we will see the height from high liquid level to centre line. So, this 𝐻𝐿𝐼𝑁
is from the literature. These are the correlations given based on the experience that says
𝐻𝐿𝐼𝑁 = 1 + 𝐷, and that is the nozzle diameter and that can be in feet. So, the values are
given depending on mist eliminator or the inlet diameter is there or not, the empirical
formula can be used.
The ninth step is disengagement height. Again, that is not depending on the calculation;
most probably it is taken from the empirical or the experience. The height should be 0.5
of the diameter or minimum of 3 feet plus 0.5 of the nozzle diameter or 2 plus 0.5 of nozzle
diameter depending on mist eliminator is chosen in the design or not chosen.
So, once we know this small sections height, those either fixed by the design criteria those
are based on experience or by the calculation the total height 𝐻𝑇 should be counted and
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we can see from here, this is HLL first one. Now, we have this height from low level to
normal level that is hold up height from normal level to higher level that is surge height,
now we have from this level to nozzle 𝐻𝐿 in and then, this is 𝐻𝐷 disengagement height and
if mist eliminator is there, then the height should be added; if not, then this should be 0.
If mist eliminator is there, 6 inches for mist eliminator 1 feet above of that and when we
𝐻𝑇
sum all of them, the criteria should be maintained. So, when we see H T calculation,
𝐷
𝐻𝑇
we still want to check ratio and that should be within the acceptable range that is 1.5 to
𝐷
6. So, this calculation is little simpler than the three-phase separator.
Now, when we consider the horizontal separator, you see the procedure or some of these
step are similar; but more detailed information is required in terms of the total diameter of
the vessel in a horizontal separator is going to be shared by the phases those are present.
So, if it is a three-phase separator, the diameter part should be occupied by the heavy liquid,
then light liquid and on top of that, this should be the vapor or the gaseous phase that is
occupying the diameter.
So, initially steps are little bit similar like the terminal velocity, we can still assume the
same force balance equation is there, we can calculate the terminal velocity. Again,
conservative gas can be made for the vapor velocity, we can calculate the amount of the
gas going to be treated with the separator. We can calculate the internal diameter and
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similar can be applied for the light and heavy, we can calculate the amount of heavy and
light means the volumetric flow rate. Holdup and surge volumes should be calculated
because that is where the option in the design part, where we can keep the room for
emergency situation.
So, the vessel diameter can be considered just like considering the volume of these surge
and holdup considering 𝐿/𝐷 ratio, and the 𝐿/𝐷 ratio again from the literature that says at
what operating condition, the horizontal separator is going to be used. If it is 0 to 250 psi
the 𝐿/𝐷 should be chosen as 1.5 to 3.0, and 250 to 500, 3.0 to 4.0 and if the pressure is
higher than 500, it will be 4.0 to 6.0. So, depending on the pressure condition, we can
choose one of the lower limit of 𝐿/𝐷 to calculate the vessel diameter. Considering again,
this is entire cross-sectional area used by the 𝑉𝐻 and 𝑉𝑆 .
Once we know internal diameter, we can process further to calculate some of the
information that is required. So, set the vapor space high that is above the liquid level that
is 𝐻𝑉 to the larger of 0.2 diameter or 2 feet, which one is the larger. We can fix 𝐻𝑉 value
and once we know the 𝐻𝑉 value, we can set the height of the heavy and light liquid. This
can also be set to a particular value, most probably it is given as like this minimum number
should be there, and then, calculate the area occupied by the heavy and light liquid phase
divided by the total area and considering all the systems, we can calculate the minimum
length to accommodate the liquid holdup as well as surge in this section. So, the total
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volume divided by the area and that area is corrected like this is total area, this is vapor
area, this is heavy, this is light. The remaining area is for the surge and hold up and the
length can be calculated because we know the volume of surge and volume of holdup.
Then, we can calculate the liquid drop out time, height divided by the vapor. So, the in the
vapor part when we have gas and liquid, in that region what is the time the vapor will travel
from inlet to outlet, within that time if we want liquid or dropping out, we can calculate
the time required for that purpose. Actual vapor velocity will be different because now
previously, we consider a conservative gas, where we said by doing the force balance, we
can calculate the terminal velocity. Using the terminal velocity, but conservative gas we
can calculate the vapor velocity.
Now, we know the area occupied by the vapor and we know the volumetric flow rate of
vapor, we can calculate the actual vapor velocity and once we know that, we can calculate
minimum length required for vapor liquid separation using these two data; actual vapor
velocity multiplied by the liquid drop out time.
We can calculate 𝐿𝑀𝐼𝑁 and when we say 𝐿𝑀𝐼𝑁 is like this, we have to check. If 𝐿 > 𝐿𝑀𝐼𝑁
design is acceptable, go to the next step. If 𝐿 < 𝐿𝑀𝐼𝑁 , set the new value of L, as 𝐿 = 𝐿𝑀𝐼𝑁
and if the condition are too lesser than the 𝐿𝑀𝐼𝑁 , then we have to increase the vapor region
or the height of the vapor region in the horizontal separator.
It means we have to increase the diameter of this thing or when we are increasing the
diameter, we have to calculate the 𝐴𝑉 again and we have to start from step 9. Here, 𝐴𝑉 is
appearing here. So, based on this we have to correct the 𝐴𝑉 and then, calculate the length
and check length again. If length is greater than greater than minimum length, it means L
can only be reduced and 𝐿𝑀𝐼𝑁 increased, if 𝐻𝑉 is reduced.
So, the volume or the height occupied by the vapor should be reduced and then, we have
to go again to step 6 and then, step 9 to recalculate the things. For this and other calculation
much less than and much greater than means a variance of greater than 20 percent. So, this
means like when we should consider the greater than greater than condition, when it is 20
percent; difference between L and 𝐿𝑀𝐼𝑁 we should take these kind of the actions.
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So, when we go further, we can calculate the settling velocity of the heavy and light phase;
not only the velocity, we can also calculate the settling time for the light and heavy phases.
We have to replace 𝐻𝐿 with this formula for the light liquid and heavy just𝐻𝐿𝑁 to calculate
the residence time; to calculate the settling time and the residence time can also be
calculated because we know now the area occupied by the heavy liquid phase and we know
what is the volumetric flow rate of the heavy phase.
Similar for the liquid phase, the area available is 𝐴𝑇 − 𝐴𝑉 − 𝐴𝐻𝐿 , we can calculate the
residence time for that. Similar condition as we tested for the vertical separators should be
checked here because that says there is no surging is happening and then, increase the
vessel length. If this criteria says like this, then we have to increase the vessel length, liquid
separation is controlling the phenomena and to change the length, we can choose
maximum of either this or this quantity. So, this came out from here. If we adjust this, we
can get the length that is should be chosen as a new criteria is a maximum of either this or
this.
Then, calculate 𝐿/𝐷, once we know 𝐿/𝐷, if it is greater than 6, then increase the diameter.
𝐿
So, in first case, we have to decrease the diameter, if the < 1.5 and when the ratio is
𝐷
greater than 6, we have to increase the diameter go back to step 5, repeat the entire
procedure to calculate the L value.
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Further, there are some other things that can also be calculated like the surface area of the
shell and heads according to the literature, what should be the weight of the vessel, but we
are not interested in that part. Ultimately, we want to know the total length that is required
in the horizontal separator and when we can adjust the length by diameter ratio that is in
the acceptable range point 0.5 to 6 depend on the pressure of operation, we can settle down
there with the design. Other things are there which allow us to do more refinement about
the things.
If additional devices like boot, weir and bucket are present means any obstacle or any
internal facilities to increase the residence time or some other things are present in the
system, we have to correct our procedure considering those part also. Here, I have
highlighted like two-phase horizontal separator design procedure is very similar to that of
the three-phase separator except there is no liquid-liquid separation; as we had seen in the
vertical separator. When we shifted from three-phase to two-phase separator, the things
were much simpler than the three-phase separator.
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So, those can be repeated for the horizontal separator and again, this thing has been taken
from the book and more detailed with the numerical calculation can be found in this book.
In this lecture, we just had considered how to understand the internal height or length
distribution in a horizontal and vertical separator, how they are going to effect the design
and where the scope to adjust the parameter.
We did not consider certain things. Those are out of the scope of this subject, like the
material of construction, the weight of the separator, the design pressure we had chosen
design pressure to calculate some of the parameter; but specifically, we did not consider.
Material of construction will be considered based on the design pressure and the pressure
margin should be kept for the safety reason like 10 percent of the maximum allowable
pressure. The vessel thickness that is also part of the mechanical design of a separator that
is not considered, corrosion allowance over the time the corrosion will play a role and the
allowance in terms of the thickness should be considered, we did not do that thing.
We did not consider the head design and detail of internal design. We just considered when
there is a baffle present, the area available for a particular phase will get reduced. We did
not consider how many baffle should be there; what should be the location of the baffle
there. The wall thickness, surface area and appropriate vessel weight can be used from the
literature that says depend on the component, the wall thickness can be calculated and
ultimately, approximate vessel weight can also be calculated.
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Here, the source the typical heads used depend on pressure and diameter what type of the
heads should be used. I mean this, I consider as out of the scope of the subject. So, in
summary, we understood the separator, we understood the type of the separator. We just
focus on gravity based separator. In gravity base separator, we understood the calculation
procedure that allows to calculate the volume of vapor and liquid phase that is can be
achieved from a particular separator at a particular temperature and pressure condition.
Then, we discussed about the procedure of two-phase and three-phase horizontal and
vertical separator design and the design criteria. With this, I would like to end my topic
here.
Thank you very much for watching the video and we will meet in the next class.
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Prof. Pankaj Tiwari
Module No # 04
Lecture No # 15
Dehydration of Natural gas
Hello everyone. In today’s lecture, we will continue our discussion on natural gas processing, and
we will cover dehydration of natural gas.
When we look our production system, the gas reaching the surface facilities it will meet the
separator. The separator is going to separate the phases of the fluid that is getting produced based
on the separator chosen, i.e., two phase, three phase separator. Accordingly the produced phases
can be separated out as water, gas and oil. After this when the gas which is supposed to be
transported by a pipe line to the consumer, the gas needs to meet certain specification of pipeline
design.
When we see from that perspective the natural gas after passing through the separator, is supposed
to be treated to remove the impurities present in the natural gas, or some valuable will compound
those are also present in the natural gas. The water in natural gas gets separated at the separator,
based on the composition of the natural gas like hydrocarbon and non-hydrocarbon gases, the
temperature, and pressure the solubility of water varies.
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So after the separator , the natural gas still carries significant amount of the water and that water
needs to be removed. The process of removing the water vapor from natural gas is called
dehydration process. The natural gas after the separator or the natural gas that is untreated carries
few hundred pounds of water per million standard cubic feet of gas while the gas pipeline normally
require water content to be in the range of 6 to 8 per lbm per MMscf. Hence, the water removal is
required because the presence of water in natural gas gets several problem like the solid hydrate.
If the water is present and by any means the temperature and pressure of the natural gas at any
point is falling in the range of hydrate formation the water that is present in the natural gas will
form gas hydrate and it will plug the pipeline, and this leads to several problems. Not only hydrate
formation the water solubility will get changed as a function of temperature and pressure. It will
come out from gas phase to liquid phase when it is happening we have two phase system, water +
gas and the slug flow will be present in the pipeline or in any flow system and that will create a
problem.
When natural gas have the acid gases and water is also present in it, that creates a problem or the
water creates a problem of erosion and corrosion. Not only the problem associated with the
presence of the water in terms of erosion, corrosion and phase changes the water that is present in
the natural gas if it is getting transported from one place to other place the more volume of the
natural gas is getting transported which have no additional energy content.
Water doesn’t have any energy, when we are transporting natural gas with the water means
unnecessarily we are transporting more amount of the volume. So even after the separator when
we have the natural gas that contains significant amount of the water and appropriate dehydration
process should be chosen and designed to remove that water vapor that is present in the natural
gas and the selection of dehydration process and the design criteria depends on primarily two parts.
First is what is the amount of water the natural gas is carrying selection of the types of dehydration
process and designing process will depend on that factor. Second is the presence of acid gases
effluence the water content treatment. So if you have a process that is chosen based on just water
content but if acid gases are also present along with the water they will also influence not only the
amount of the water content is measured they will also influence the process design and the overall
process.
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When we say natural gas have hydro carbon and non-hydro carbon gases depending on the
temperature and pressure condition the amount of water that is present in the natural gas depends
on the composition of the natural gas also. So this slides shows here when we have different gases
like hydrogen sulphide, methane, and carbon dioxide in pure state.
The amount of the water they can content at a particular temperate and pressure depends on the
pressure, and temperature. For example in hydro carbon gases like methane that is the major
constituent of natural gas the amount of the water content at a particular temperature and pressure
can be determined with the help of this chart that says at a particular pressure for example here
and a temperature let us say 1000 𝐹 this is the amount of the water content the natural gas or the
methane can carry.
This chart also shows when we are changing the temperature and pressure the water content in the
methane as well in the other non-hydro carbon gases also changes. That says if we can change the
operating temperature and pressure condition we can see how much water content can be
accommodated by the natural gas or by it is constituent we had seen here for the pure component
when it is a mixture behaviour will be different.
But the trend will be same, like overall when we are increasing the pressure the water content is
decreasing and when we are reducing the temperature the water content is decreasing again.
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So the water content that is, the solubility of water in natural gas increases with temperature and
decreases with pressure as we had seen for the pure component. Here we can see for a mixture that
is considered as a representation of the natural gas and from this Mcketta and Wehe method that
is represented in a graph form that can also be represented in the table format that says at a
particular pressure and a particular temperature what is the solubility of water or other way what
maximum amount of the water can be present in the natural gas and that we can see from this table
as we are increasing the pressure the amount of the water content is decreasing.
Similarly, when we are increasing the temperature the amount of the water content is increasing,
and the similar data has been shown in this graph also this is also from the Mcketta and Wehe.
When we have condition at the intermediate location for example here it is showing for 15 25 Psia
and if you want a 20 psi we can always do the interpolation to get the data at a position which is
not given in the table.
Similar in the graph also, we can read it. This is more convenient way to get the data at a particular
pressure and temperature both for a single component as well as a mixture means natural gas is
showing with increase in temperature and decrease the pressure the solubility of water in natural
gas increases.
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When it comes to determine the water content, either we can read certain publication chart data
available in the literature where we can use the establish mathematical procedure to calculate it.
Here I am showing again from Meketta and Wehe graph that is for the sweet gas means which is
not having any sour component in it like 𝐻2 𝑆, and 𝑆𝑂2 primarily in the water content
determination. The salt present in the liquid water also influence the water content calculation
primarily, the water content in a natural gas decreases when the salt concentration increases.
So the salt present in the liquid water reduces the water content of the gas. When we have a natural
gas as a sweet gas and at a particular temperature and pressure data we can see the water content in the
natural gas. We can read this chart and say for example we have a gas at natural gas at 600 𝐹 and
certain pressure let us say that pressure is around 2000Psi this is at 2000 Psi line here this point
we can read the amount of the water content by the natural gas at that condition.
The correction should be made primarily for the specific gravity because this data considers
specific gravity as 0.6 and the specific gravity is different then we can use this inside chart that
says at a particular specific gravity we can go vertically to a temperature condition at which the
gas A is and going on the Y axis we can calculate the correction factor that should be included for
the specific gravity means when the gas is not having specific gravity 0.6 we have to make the
correction factor for that.
This is not only the composition of the natural gas, that is in the form of a specific gravity. The
salt concentration also influences and for that we can see another inside chart that says, if we know
the salt in the brine solution, we can go vertical and choose the point where it is striking the incline
line and we can see the ratio of 𝐻2 𝑂 from brine by 𝐻2 𝑂 from water the correction factor that
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represent the 𝐻2 𝑂 in the brine solution when the salt is present or the 𝐻2 𝑂 in just pure mineral
water or means the water which is not having significant salt concentration in it.
So while doing this we could calculate the water content of the sweet gas. Now if our gas is sour
gas we have to make the correction factor again or we have to adopt the process that can give us
the water content. When the sour gases are present in the natural gas for that purpose we can use
this another chart that is given by Wichert and Wichert in 2003, and using this chart we can see
what is the percent of that acid gases or in the terms of 𝐻2 𝑆 equivalent that accounts for both 𝐻2 𝑆
and 𝐶𝑂2 using this expression and once we know that percent we can see that percent and at what
temperature our gas is.
So for example that percent is just 35, and when our gas is 1500 𝐹 we can see we are here from
here we can go vertically up and see the line of pressure let us say 2000 Psi and from here we can
see on the Y axis we can calculate the ratio that say 𝐻2 𝑂 in sour gas divided by 𝐻2 𝑂 in sweet gas
so from this chart in the right hand side we can get the 𝐻2 𝑂 in sweet gas condition and using the
left and chart we can convert this to estimate the 𝐻2 𝑂 in the sour gas.
All these is good or valid, when the following conditions are met for example the pressure should
be up to 10000 Psia the temperature should be 30 to 350 degree you can see from this chart where
it is shown and gamma g should be 0.6 to 1.8 the chart is given only for that range and 𝐻2 𝑆 up to
55 % this is equivalent 𝐻2 𝑆 in the natural gas. If that is matching we can use this chart to get the
water content of the natural gas.
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The same procedure we can write in the mathematical way for example the water content at 14.7
psi and 60F from the chart assuming 0.6 gravity as we seen in the last slide from the left hand side
chart or from the Mekette and Wehe chart we can apply the correction factor for these specific
gravity, for the salinity and once we know both the correction factor we can calculate the water
content assuming the gases just as sweet gas not having sour gases in it.
We can calculate the 𝐻2 𝑆 equivalent in this formula going this into right hand chart we can
calculate the point that represent the percent of 𝐻2 𝑆 equivalent and the temperature going vertical
on the upward chart we can calculate the ratio that shows the sour gas to sweet gas ratio and already
we know water content in the sweet gas we can calculate the water content in the sour gas.
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With this procedure we are able to determine the water content in the sour gas there is another
process to calculate the water content and that can be done by calculating the dew point. Dew point
is the temperature at which the natural gas is saturated with water vapor at a
given pressure we understand from our phase diagram behavior if gas is a mixture it will give us
the phase when we are talking about PT diagram.
From this PT diagram we understand this is a dew point curve and when we are changing the
pressure we are increasing the pressure this will go to liquid phase more than the gas phase and
when we here we have mostly the natural gas in the gaseous phase. Similarly if we are going at a
high temperature we will go more towards the gas side and when we are reducing the temperature
we will go or may enter again in the phase envelope and get the liquid.
So the same thing is applied when we have the dew point calculation at a particular pressure if we
are able to change the condition and find out difference between the dew point temperature of
water saturated gas stream before the dehydration or after the dehydration we can calculate how
much amount of the water content can be removed and the difference between the dew point
temperature of a water saturated gas stream and the same stream after it has been dehydrated is
called dew point depression. So the dew point depression can tell us how much water can be
removed from the system.
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So there are ways there are procedures that allow us to perform the dehydration of natural gas. So
the dehydration system can be classified broadly in four major procedures that is direct
cooling when we have the natural gas if we cool it because of the difference of dew point condition
the water component will get condense from the gas and we can separate it compression followed
by cooling.
So for example when we are pressurizing the natural gas again we will go into the two phase
natural gas system where the water molecules will come out from the gas phase under high pressure
condition and by further cooling it we can get the water separated from the natural gas. But both
direct cooling and compression followed by cooling like in this situation when we have the inlet
gas and outlet gas when we are changing either the temperature in the direct cooling or temperature
pressure followed by temperature change in the compression followed by cooling procedure the
water content here will be different the water content here.
We will be able to get the water separated out from the natural gas in most of the cases it depends
on the availability of until water vapor decrease as the temperature is lowered at a constant pressure
that happens in the direct cooling procedure. So in direct cooling procedure we decrease the
temperature at a constant pressure during the cooling procedure the access water in the vapor state
becomes liquid and it removed from the system that we can remove from here.
Cool the gas to temperature below the dew point will give us the more separation cooling is used
in conjunction with other dehydration process like the compression process where compressing
the natural gas will allow us to remove more water compared to just cooling process similar by
performing the absorption and adsorption process allow with the cooling will provide us the better
removal of water content on the natural gas.
So in that way we can consider the gas compressor as a dehydrator because during the compression
stage we are going to increase the pressure and because of that the water will come out from the
gas phase. In general it happens the dehydration process of direct cooling and compression
followed by cooling are not enough to remove the desired quantity of the water from the natural
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gas and along with these two process it is often absorption and adsorption process are associated
or are performed.
So what is absorption and adsorption process so they are the process to dehydrate natural gas up
to certain level when it is matching the specification of pipeline transportation. And dehydration
by absorption and adsorption practically remove the most of the water content present in the natural
gas before it is going to pipeline or the transmission line. So the absorption is a process in which
water vapor is removed from natural gas by bubbling the gas counter current through certain choice
of the liquid those have special affinity towards water and those liquid are able to separate the
water component selectively from the natural gas.
Water vapor in the gas bubble entered in the liquid and carried away with the liquid out of the
column where they are getting contacted. So in absorption process we sketch here we are saying
counter current flow is happening so we have natural gas or the wet gas, wet gas means the gas
which have the water is going to a absorption tower and from the top.
We have the liquid or a selected liquid that is flowing downward gas is flowing upward they are
getting contacted here in the absorber tower where there could be either the trace kind of
arrangement or packed bed kind of arrangement and because of the contact here the gas becoming
the lean gas means the water has been separated out and the liquid is becoming rich liquid means
it have now water with it.
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In the adsorption process we have the similar kind of the arrangement but the major difference
between the absorption adsorption process is in absorption we have the liquid that have selectivity
towards the water and able to separate the water from the gas while in the adsorption we have the
packing of the solid granular material or a bed of granular solid that have affinity for water and
water is separated out from the natural gas with the help of that solid packing.
So if we say the nomenclature for this absorption and adsorption process the vessels that allow
either the absorption or adsorption process to take place is called the contactor or absorber. So this
vessels or the tower is a contactor or absorber if we are talking about specific terminology in case
of adsorption it is a absorber tower or in case of adsorption it is a adsorption tower. But in general
terminology it is called as absorber or contactor.
The liquid or solid that has affinity for water and is use in the contactor is called the desiccant so
when we have the adsorption process the desiccant is liquid and when we have the adsorption
process the solid packing is a desiccant. The two major types of the dehydration process equipment
based on the phases we are using like the liquid and gas we can say liquid desiccant dehydrator
also we can call it as a adsorption process or solid desiccant dehydrator it means it is a adsorption
process.
When we compare both the solid adsorption dehydrator there are typically more attractive than
liquid specially the liquid is chosen is glycol dehydrator and this is happen because the solid
adsorbent have more surface area because of the porous nature because of the forces or the
capillary forces they applied on the fluid or the gas that is passing through it the solid absorber are
more efficient and more effective.
While on the other hand when the dehydration by absorption using the glycol is considered it is
more economical then the solid packing or the adsorption process when we are comparing the dew
point means the amount of the water should be removed is same. If you want to reach the water
content of the dry gas means after the dehydration process if we compare the dry gas in terms of
water content and if it is same the absorption process is in glycol liquid is considered more
economical.
We will see a major difference between the absorption and adsorption process in the subsequent
slides.
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So this is the adsorption process the flow diagram shows all the equipment or the flow of gas
through the symmetric diagram and in this symmetric diagram we can see there are centrally two
towers there could be more than two towers we can say this is number 1 absorber or number 2
absorber that should be a actually absorber because we have the solid packing here the process is
called absorber.
We can say it is a absorber or contactor there could be multiple because in the case of absorption
process when we are performing the adsorption process to remove the water from the natural gas
over the time it is required to regenerate the solid packing. And when we have just only one tower
it will be a situation when we have to shut down the operation either clean the impurities those got
stick to the solid packing or just replace the solid packing in both the cases we have to shut down
the process that is why always there are multiple towers and one and two are in operation other or
in the standby mode and or in the regeneration mode.
When we want to switch to other tower the previous tower that is got contaminated or that is where
the solid packing is not more effective as the time passes so we have to use another
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tower in the operation. If we look more closely here we can see the center part is here where the
natural is travelling from here.
Before natural gas goes to dehydration operation it should pass through a filter or a separator
depend on the composition natural gas have if it is containing some solid particular if it have some
liquid compound those should be separated out before they are going adsorption process or the
adsorption tower because those liquid will block the pores present in the solid packing and reduce
the efficiency of the process.
So the gas is passing through filter process and you say this symmetric diagram include several
other equipment other than the adsorption tower those are required we will see one by one so when
the gas is passing through filter this is called the wet gas. So we have the wet gas here, wet gas
means it have the water with it and the wet gas can either to this side or this side assuming the wet
gas is going to the tower first and we are operating only one tower and when it is going from the
top it will pass through this packing of this solid.
So in the tower gases pass from the top not from the bottom the reason passing from the top is we
are not going to disturb the packing of the solids in the tower because of the high velocity of the
gas that is why it is pass from the top and when it is pass from the top it will pass it will travel
through this solid packing and that is solid packing could be because of the granular silica gel
bauxite alumina or activated alumina or molecular is type of the material.
The silica have preference over the others because of it can tolerate the significant percent of acid
gases present in the natural gas before it is going to be in a falling situation and when it happens
what will be the situation we are going to get the gas from the bottom part and when this gas is
coming out from the bottom it may go till end and going to be a dry gas outlet and this will depend
on what is the efficiency of this absorption process.
If it is able to remove most of the water present in the natural gas it is just a dry gas and it go to
outlet. Here it is shown as desiccant bed where we have the stand by desiccating tower or
adsorption tower and in that case when this is in operation this is going to regeneration process. In
regeneration process what happens whatever the water molecules or the contamination in the
natural gas those adhere on the surface of the solid.
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The solid should get free generated so the tower can be used for the next cycle and in that case we
have to make the arrangement in such a manner a part of the gas is going through some heating
process and the heated natural gas is passing through the second tower or the regeneration tower
from bottom to top and we are able to remove all the impurities or able to regenerate the bed for
the usage.
When it is happening natural gas got heated and before it can sent to a separation process it has to
go through a cooler if the natural gas have more temperature or natural gas is at a higher
temperature the amount of water content will be high which the separation will be difficult that is
why the natural gas should be cooled down before it is going through the process of dehydration
and that can be done using the cooler.
We have one regeneration gas scrubber also when we are removing the contamination from the
natural gas we have to have a separator from where we are able to get the water that is getting
separated in the regeneration part should be able to collect at the end and this will be the water to
dispose, if liquid content is also there in the natural gas that is also getting separated during this
process we have to our this three phase gas scrubber that can provide the additional option for the
liquid separation.
Otherwise if we look in this seed we have we have two towers multiple towers could be there with
the desiccant bed packing the efficiency depend on the packing it have there is a heater and cooler
combination to heat the natural gas so the regeneration process can be effectively performed and
then further cooling the natural gas so it go to dehydration process and at the end we have a gas
scrubber which is able to separate the water out from the regeneration gases.
In this process if we see the efficiency will depend on the amount of the natural gas that is getting
dehydrated and the type of the packing it have the usual life of the packing is around 1 to 4 years
it depends on the contamination as well as the water content present in the natural gas that is going
to the dehydration process.
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And if we see the advantage of adsorption process we can say lower dew point can be achieved
and that means we can get the dry gas which have very minimum amount of the water content and
that could be up to less than 1.0 lb per MMscf. That is the advantage of using the solid desiccant
again the affinity the impurities and the circulation rate will affect the process.
Higher contact temperature can be tolerated as we said we are supposed to cool the natural gas
before it is going to the dehydration unit means the adjacent tower even the temperature of the
natural gas is not that high because of the solid packing those are designed tolerate the higher
temperature the higher temperature process can be tolerated but depend on again the adsorbent
chosen.
Adsorbent means the solid packing higher tolerance to sudden load change especially on startup
so as we see the packing of the solid can disturb if we have the high gas flow rate from the bottom
we do not do that think similar if there is any sudden low change is happening the solid packing
may disturb we may get the channel formation and in case of the solid desiccant we have more
tolerance for such kind of the chances and that helps us when we are starting up the process or
during the startup of the plant .
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High adoptability for recovery of certain liquid carbon in addition to dehydration process so this
packing for example this silica granular silica gel packing that have the acceptability or
adoptability for the other contamination those could be higher hydrocarbon present or some solid
particles in the natural gas those could also be separated out in the dehydration process.
Certain issues are there as with any other process so the issues with the adsorption dehydration
process or solid desiccant becomes less effective as they age means over the time when they are
getting use because of the contamination present in the natural gas because of the water is getting
accumulated we are they are going through the regeneration process at a higher temperature the
efficiency of those a solid desiccant it becomes less and after certain time user life 1o to 4 year the
replacement is required it is a part of the process.
Dehydration tower must be regenerated as mentioned there should be standby adsorption tower
which is under the regeneration mode or it is already regenerated it can used when the first one is
put under the shutdown mode and that is should be regenerated and cool for operation before
another tower approaches exhaustion means when we need the second tower it must be ready
otherwise the operation needs to be shut down.
Hydrogen sulfide can also damage the desiccant and reduce it capacity and that is the advantage
of using this silica over the other desiccant because it has more tolerance from the 𝐻2 𝑆. Sudden
pressure such may upset the desiccant bed and channel the gas stream resulting in poor dehydration
process those should be taken care when we are going to design or going to use adsorption process
for moving the moisture from the natural gas.
Specifically the pour size distribution in the desiccant they should not get block permanently or
the regeneration step should be operated in such a manner when the effective surface area of the
silica particles or any other solid desiccant can be recovered to its original state so the efficiency
of the dehydration process can be maintained.
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When we talk about another process that is badly used is the absorption process so the water vapor
is removed from the gas by intimate contact with a hydroscopic liquid desiccant in absorption
dehydration tower the contact is easily achieved in packed or tray column. So the absorption
process we have the solid packing here in this type of the process where we want the gas and liquid
or getting contacted in the tower we should have a some arrangement where the contact time can
be increased that can be done by creating a packing with the inert material or arranging the trace
in the column.
That we can see here so this is the glycol gas conductor mostly there could be several solvent view
for such purpose but the glycol has ben widely used as effective liquid desiccant and the four types
of the glycols like the ethylene glycol easy di-ethylene glycol DEG tri-ethylene glycol and tetra-
ethylene glycol or the combination of them can be used to perform the absorption dehydration
process.
So this sheet is shown for the glycols that could be either of them or the combination of them or
the glycol gas contacted tower shown here that says we have the packing inside of it this shows
for the tray type of the arrangement when we have the trace and allowing the fluid to travel from
a certain section of this trade tower and from bottom to top there is a significant room or the volume
available to get efficient contact between the gas and liquid.
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The liquid which is chosen is again having some hydroscopic means specific affinity to water and
it will be able to absorb the water from the natural gas and when it is happening again the similar
kind of the terminology we can follow so the gas that is wet gas means it is rich in water is being
sent to this absorption process before it goes to absorption tower again if it is carrying some
impurities like the liquid hydrocarbon solid particles and others those should be separated out with
the help of some inlet scrubber it is like a separator.
So the gas or the wet gas inlet is here we are going to get the distillate outlet in this separator and
if we have oil and water free water I mean to say then we have use a three phase separator here
and after that when this is happening the gas from this scrubber or separator is going to flow from
bottom to top in this absorption tower and this liquid desiccant is flowing from top to bottom and
that is where the counter current flow is happening in this tower and gas and liquid are in the
contact because of the packing and because of the tray arrangement the contact time can be
adjusted to have the more efficiency of the process.
So the glycol that is coming to the system we can say coming through this line glycol cooler we
can see the glycol that is getting regenerated or means getting purified before it is sent to the tower
and where we have this contact and the bottom part we can say we are going to get the lean gas
here it was the rich gas that was sent to the absorber and what about the glycol or the solvent
desiccant so this solvent desiccant that was sent here is lean and from the bottom we are going to
get the solvent which is rich glycol means rich glycol means it have more water.
And when this rich glycol is coming may not having only the water but some impurities those are
transferred from gas to glycol and that is where first thing should go through some filter
arrangements. So this is the place from where the glycol is or rich glycol is getting out of the tower
it should go through from filter unit where any impurities those enter into the glycol should
separate out because it is going again to a pump and any impurities may damage the pump.
After the pump it is sent to a flash separator and this flash separator is able to separate out the gases
those may have transferred from the natural gas to glycol and the remaining glycol
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will go to further unit and this vent gas that may be methane or some other hydrocarbon gases may
be used for energy requirement or may be just went out and discharge so the glycol that is here
which is carrying the water it is a rich glycol and this rich glycol is going to a heat exchanger and
after that it will go to a reboiler section.
In this reboiler section the glycol will get separated out from the water and the reboiler operation is
easy in case of the glycol solvent because of the boiling point difference water have boiling point is
around 100 0 𝐶 we can say it is 212 0 𝐹 and glycol have around 204 0 𝐶 means 400 0 𝐹 . So because of
significant different in the boiling point we can easily separate or boil of the water from the glycerol.
In that case early boiler is required in the energy for the reboiler can be provided either from the
external fuel gas or the gas that is produced in the flash separator. So a part of that can also be used to
energy required for the boiler before it is going to burn in the boiler it has to pass through the scrubber
to take out any impurities in the gas and when this separation is happening we can say this is stripping
is still a long tower because of the self-reflex.
The water will go out because of the low boiling point just 100 0 𝐶 and the glycol will fall down
here and get accumulated in this freezer and from where because of the arrangement it will go to
heat exchanger place get heated it will transfer the heat to the glycol that is passing here one is
flowing here in the shell another is in the tube and the arrangement can be done on the heat transfer
calculation which one should go to shell side which one should go to tube side and we are not
discussing the heat exchanger in detail.
But the arrangement is done in such a manner so the glycol that is here reduce the temperature
little bit but transferring the heat to this glycol the rich glycol that is going to this flash separator.
So the lean glycol and rich glycol are exchanging the energy and further here it is coming to this
section where the glycol cooler which have the natural gas or the dry gas is passing through it in
the shell side or in the tube side we have the glycol that is hard that is further getting cool down
and when it is happening then it is going to tower at a desired temperature it needs.
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In this process over all we can say we have the inlet scrubber here we have one scrubber at the end
also we are able to separate the rich glycol and the gas if any present and in between we have one
absorption tower and reboiler where we are concentrate ethylene glycol by removing the water
vapor and we can re circulate the glycol here so the efficiency of this process compared to
adsorption process where we have the solid.
First thing is it does not need to shut down the process or additional tower the regeneration is done
in terms of re-concentrating the glycol. If any losses of the glycol may happen because we are
exposing the glycol to high temperature makeup of the glycol is easy compared to solid
dehydration process where we have to change the packing of certain time. And in this process the
reboiler is operated around 350 0 𝐹 and we are able to re-concentrate glycol up to 99.5 % or better.
The losses can be managed by making up the glycol to this process we can use either a single type
of the pure glycol or we can go with a combination but from the studies conducted TEG as gained
nearly universal acceptance as the most cost effective of glycol due to its superior dew point
depression, operating cost, and operation reliability. The dew point depression can be achieved up
to 40 0 𝐹 to 140 0 𝐹 significant water removal can be performed with the help of TEG and in the
pressure range of 25 psig to 2500 psig and gas temperature 100 to 160 0 𝐹.
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So this can be operated we cannot expose to a high temperature because in that case the degradation
of glycol may happens when the glycol is getting degraded certain chemicals may get formed and
those will contaminate the entire operation. So we should not exceed or we should not expose to a
very high temperature condition but within this operation condition we can achieve significant
dew point depression.
The dew point depression depends on the equilibrium dew point temperature for given TEG
concentration and contact temperature. So at what temperature the natural is getting in contact
depends on the TEG concentration and that temperature the water removal can be achieve and the
water removal will also be represented in the form of dew point depression.
So if we understand at what temperature and pressure the gas is at one point and at what condition
or the other point if we can calculate the dew point at this condition and the new condition we can
calculate the amount of water is removed from the natural gas very hot gas stream are often cool
prior to dehydration prevent vaporing TEG in that case we will lose the solvent or the liquid
desiccant that I should say at tri glyceride in our in this case and if the vaporization of the glycol
is happening we have as add as a makeup from the outside and that will include addition cost to
the process.
So if we compare as mentioned previously if we compare the adsorption process with the

absorption process we can see the adsorption process can be more effective because the solid
packing does we can go from 1 year to 4 years and the selectively of that packing towards water
molecules allow us to perform the efficient process in terms of water removing. But if the water
removal is same in both the process this process is more economical because only thing we have
to add the makeup glycol not replacing the entire packing as in the case of the solid dehydration
process.
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So if we specifically talk about the absorption advantage so the glycol dehydrator considering
glycol as liquid desiccant to perform the absorption process it offer several advantage like the low
initial equipment cost low pressure drop across absorption tower make up requirement may be
added readily easily for the glycol that may get vaporize over the time if the temperature is high
or it may lost little bit in flesh separator or somewhere the plant may be used satisfactory in the
presence of material that would cause falling of some solid adsorbent.
As mentioned the solid adsorbent or solid desiccant make get fall because of some contamination
those are going to clock the force it means going to reduce the effective surface area of the solid
desiccant available. So if those kind of the chemical or substances are present in the natural gas it
is better option to use the absorption process compared to adsorption process. Glycol dehydrator
also present several operating problem like the adsorption process or like any other process when
we are talking about the advantages there are certain issues also with any operation.
So for the glycol dehydrator if the suspended matters like the dirt scale formation iron oxide
present they may contaminate the glycol solution and if it is happening the efficiency of the process
will go down more care needs to be done in terms of the putting the glycol filter the pump that
may get damage because of the impurities present flash separator when we are considering only
the gas is going on the bend and rich glycol is going through this a reboiler and heat exchanger
then the reboiler step.
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So every place if the impurities are present the efficiency may a down we have to be more careful
in taking the more accent to separate out these impurities. Overheating of solution may produce
both low and high boiling decomposition product. So for example if we have the TEG the
composition of TEG may produce different compounds and those are going to take a part in the
absorption process and the process will be become less efficient when both oxygen and hydrogen
sulfide are present corrosion may become a problem that is universal problem when we have the
water and went hydrogen sulfide together the problem of corrosion will be there.
Highly mineralize water with inlet gas may over the long time period crystallize and fill the reboiler
with solid salt. So if the water that is present which have also some significant minerals present in
it that is getting separated with the glycol going through the flash separator then going to heat
exchanger then finally reboiler when the water is getting out because of the evaporation process
those mineral will remains in the glycol phase and if that the case they may create a problem.
To start a plant all trays must be filled with glycol before good contact of gas and liquid can be
expected. So this is the operation problem that happens with any type of the gas liquid contact in
a tray packed or column packed tower that will be also be in the case of dehydration absorption
process. Sudden surge is should be avoided as mentioned in the adsorption process also in the
starting and setting down a plant or otherwise large carry over losses of solution may occur during
the process.
So we compare absorption and adsorption process certain features are same and certain advantage
are offered by the absorption process and certain advantage offered by the absorption process.
When we talk about the design aspects we can discuss the absorption process for its design
application.
So the glycol dehydrator design depends on certain effectors that determine what size of the tower
should be what should be diameter what should be capacity of the associate devices
like this separator at the inlet flash separator reboiler duty heat exchanger dimension, glycol cooler
all depends on the glass flow rate that is going to be dehydrated the composition of the gases or in
terms of the specific gravity of gas at what pressure the gas is going to be treated and the maximum
working pressure of contacts.
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So we are making the gas liquid contact in the tower at what pressure that is happening gas inlet
temperature at what temperature the gas is entering to the absorption plant and outlet gets water
content required. That is the most important one the outlet gas water content and that means the
dew point depression what dew point depression should be achieved and up to what level the dry
gas after the dehydration process should be made dry means the less water content determine the
specification or the design aspects of the absorption process.
Certain criteria are mentioned here so at least of the following tool design criteria should be or
must be employed when we are talking about the process or absorption process that is the design
meeting one of the criteria or not if not certain measure should be taken to make this process more
effective, more efficient more economical. So for example the glycol to water ratio.
So when we say this much percent of the water content is present in the natural gas we want to
reach to certain percent of the water content by removing the water from the natural gas how much
amount of the glycol circulation should be employed to achieve that target and it is said the GWR
glycol to water ratio there should be in the ratio of 2 to 6. So 2 to 6 gallon TEG per lbm of 𝐻2 𝑂.
This should be in the range of 2.5 to 4 for the field dehydrator operations so the GWR becomes
important otherwise we have more circulation of G compared to the water we are moving the
pumping cost the size of the equipment going to deal with the glycol like the flash separator
reboiler all things will adopt the cost to the process lean TEG concentration when we are talking
about re concentrating or recycling the TEG back to the absorption tower we should design the
process that is meeting the recovery or re-concentration in the range of 99.0 to 99.9 % lean TEG.
Lean TEG means the water is not there or value of 99.5% lean TEG is utilizing most design so
design of entire absorption dehydration process should be done we are able to recover 99.5% glycol
of the TEG from the process sending it for the recycling purpose. So when we talk in detail of the
design parameter for the absorption dehydration process we are not discussing about mechanical
aspect but what should be size of the equipment that is going to be used to achieve the desired dew
point depression.
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So if we talk the first unit that is installed in the dehydration absorption plant is the inlet scrubber
mostly it is at the height of seven and half feet for the diameter it depends on the gas that is going
to pass through it and the operating pressure it is getting operated based on that we can choose the
diameter of the inlet scrubber. It is similar to separator the separator where we have the separator
pressure at which it is going to be operated and that amount of the natural gas it is going to deal
with the diameter should be chosen.
We already know the height or we already fix the height seven and half feet and the volume
required to accommodate that gas will be calculated and the diameter can be calculated from this
chart given by Sivalls, this is given at a particular specific gravity and temperature different chart
may be obtained for the different conditions.
Second unit that is important is glycol gas contactor again the standard height consider for this
absorption tower which have the tray and the packed bed to provide the more contactor
for the gas and liquid for that the minimum required diameter of the contactor can be determined
based on the gas capacity of the contactor and standard gas 0.7 specific gravity at this temperature.
So similar what we have here but in this case we are not having the standard gas or the gas with
the 0.7 specific gravity we have the different temperature also. So the correction for the
temperature and the specific gravity should be included to calculate the gas capacity at the
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operating condition and the correction depends on the type of the gas contactor we are using it is
a packed bed or it is a tray.
There are several tables reported in the literature the temperature correction, CT can be done
depending on the temperature it is getting operated. So we have the timetable where the several
temperature data are there and accordingly the correction for the temperature can be included in
the expression. Similar for the specific gravity also what gravity we have for a gas we are dealing
with the correct factor are available in the form of table in the literature.
But again different correction factor will be applied for different arrangement for example tray or
the packed one. Knowing the correction factor knowing the standard condition and 0.7 specific
gravity gas at 100 0 𝐹 we can calculate the amount of the gas that is going to be deal by a gas
contactor the height is already fixed we can calculate the diameter. Important parameter is how
much water has been removed from this tower or absorption process can be calculated by this
expression that says 𝐶𝑤𝑖 − 𝐶𝑤𝑜 multiply by the Q that is the gas flow rate.
𝐶𝑤𝑖 is water content at initial gas that is the wet gas and 𝐶𝑤𝑜 water content of the outlet gas that is
the dry gas if we take the different of that multiply by the gas flow rate divided by 24 that is just
for the conversion to unit because the water removal is calculated in terms of hours while the gas
flow rate in terms of the per day we can calculate the amount of water that could be removed from
this process.
And to remove that water how much glycol circulation rate should be we can calculate knowing
the GWR if multiply GWR with this 𝐶𝑤𝑖 initial water content of the wet gas multiply by the
gas flow rate we can get the glycol circulation rate to achieve the water content required in the dry
gas or desired dew point depression.
Other things those are involved in the absorption dehydration process like the flash tank which is
separating the rich glycol from the gases if any the dimension can also be calculated from the
literature by knowing the amount of the glycol that is going to be deal by that flash separator.
Similarly we can do for the reboiler duty how much energy should be supplied to reboiler if this
much amount of the water and glycol is going to be separated at the reboiler condition and what
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should be the volume going to behave like a storage and from where the lean glycol is going to
transfer to heat exchanger device and further it from the cooler it is going to absorption tower.
So in this lecture we had understood the several dehydration process starting with the cooling
compression followed by cooling both depends on changing the temperature and pressure
condition and the water or the dew point of the natural gas will get change and accordingly the
water can be separated out from the natural gas. For that we understood the adsorption process that
based on the solid packing in the column and in detail we understood the adsorption process.
And altogether we can say by performing the absorption and adsorption process most of the water
present in the natural gas can be dehydrated and we can get very minute amount of the water
present in the natural gas that is passing out of the dehydration plant. There are procedures where
the 𝐶𝑂2 , 𝐻2 𝑆 can also be separated out along with the water but those process face the problem
depend on the type of the process chosen we will discuss the sweetening processes removal of 𝐻2 𝑆
and 𝐶𝑂2 in the next lecture with this I would like to end my lecture here thank you very much for
watching the video we will meet in the next lecture thank you.
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Prof. Pankaj Tiwari
Module No # 03
Lecture No # 16
Sweetening of Natural Gas
Hello everyone, in today’s lecture, we will continue our discussion of processing natural gas.
In today’s lecture, we will discuss sweetening process in the previous lecture, we were
discussing about removing the water vapor from the natural gas.
So in this lecture, the acid gases present in the natural gas will be discussed. So the 𝐻2 𝑆 and
𝐶𝑂2 in natural gas well-streams are called acid gases because they form acidic solutions in the
presence of water. As they have no heating value that is why they should be removed, otherwise
when transporting the natural gas along with these acid gases as was the case in the water
removal process also water doesn’t have any energy value, similarly 𝐻2 𝑆 and 𝐶𝑂2 also doesn’t
have any energy value. Thus, we are unnecessarily transporting more amount of the natural gas
which is having the less energy. Not only the energy content, these gases are corrosive in nature
in the presence of the water. So they create a lot of problem for the equipment and pipeline
design for handling the natural gas.
𝐻2 𝑆 in the presence of water becomes extremely corrosive and cause permanent failure of
valves, pipeline and pressure vessels. It can also cause catalyst poisoning in refinery, so if the
natural gas is sent to further processing units where the catalyst is being used and in that
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process, if 𝐻2 𝑆 is there, water vapor is there, then 𝐻2 𝑆 will create the poisoning for the catalyst
and the catalyst deactivation will occur.
In most of the cases, the pipeline specification limits 𝐻2 𝑆 content to 0.25 gram per 100 feet
cube of gas that is approximately around 4 ppm. So the gases 𝐶𝑂2 and 𝐻2 𝑆 make the natural
gas sour gas and if we removing these gases, along with the water we have the gas that is
termed as sweet gas. The acid gases are 𝐻2 𝑆, 𝐶𝑂2 , COS as well as Mercaptans.
Mercaptans are a kind of a structure like R-S-H. These are also called Thiols and they have
very bad odour. They should also be removed along with the other acid gases to make the gas
feasible in the domestic purpose. The removal of the 𝐻2 𝑆, 𝐶𝑂2, COS and Mercaptans is
required not only because of the pipeline requirement, but also they create a major problem in
terms of the acid rain, greenhouse gases and the product of these acid gases when they are
combusted fall in the criteria pollutant also.
So the environmental concern should also be taken care when we are using the natural gas. So
sweetening of natural gases means removing the acid gases. The presence of acid gases makes
the natural gas sour gas and after removing this natural gas becomes the sweet gas. The product
of sulfur compounds when it is oxidized, 𝑆𝑂2 is one of the criteria pollutant that were this
should be removed and most of the process those are used to remove the 𝐻2 𝑆 also remove this
𝐶𝑂2.
However, the selectivity of a process should be chosen because carbon dioxide is not as bad as
𝐻2 𝑆. Removal of 𝐶𝑂2 may be required when we are going to send this gas for the cryogenic
application, where because of the low temperature 𝐶𝑂2 get solidified and creates a problem.
Carbon dioxide is also corrosive in the presence of the water and as mentioned most of the
processes that remove 𝐻2 𝑆, also remove 𝐶𝑂2. When both the gases are present in the natural
gas our process should be chosen such that it can remove both the gases, along with other acid
gases like COS and Mercaptans.
(Refer Slide Time 05:18)
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So the removal of sulfur compound is very much required when we are going to send natural
gas for the end user applications. For example, the 𝐻2 𝑆 removal is very much required because
it is toxic gas, more than 600 ppm concentration in the natural gas is considered very fatal, and
its toxicity is compared with the cyanide. Combustion products like sulfur dioxide, trioxides
contribute to the acid rain, corrosive to almost all the metals and allowable concentration in
natural gas is less than 4 ppm. That is why 𝐻2 𝑆 must be removed from the natural gas and the
removal process of 𝐻2 𝑆 and other sulfur compounds from the natural gas is called sweetening
process. We can classify sweetening processes as we did for the dehydration process like there
are ways where the physical processes can be adopted.
Like in the case of the dehydration process the direct cooling, the compression followed by the
cooling where the physical processes where the just changing the operating conditions the
water could be separated, and specifically designed processes like the adsorption and
absorption processes are widely used.
Similarly for removing the acid compound or performing the sweetening processes, if we look
in the literature, there are several processes. More than 100 processes are there, they can be
employed to remove the sulfur compounds from the natural gas. If we broadly classify them
we can say they are solid based processes like the adsorption kind of processes, there can be
the absorption kind of the processes or could be the direct conversion processes where
the sulfur compounds are directly gets converted to elemental sulfur.
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So if we look into the solid bed processes, the processes like the irony sponge processes and
the molecular sieves processes are similar to adsorption processes for the dehydration where
the packing of solid bed is used to remove selectively the compound from the natural gas. In
case of the sweetening process it is 𝐻2 𝑆 or carbon dioxide or some other gases those are present
in the natural gas.
So this solid bed processes like the irony sponge, molecular sieves, there could be some other
solid packing also in the tower that can be used to perform the sweetening processes in the
absorption processes. Further it can be classified in two parts physical absorption processes
and chemical absorption processes. In the physical absorption processes, the solvent used
doesn’t react with the 𝐻2 𝑆, 𝐶𝑂2 or other acid gases, but physically it have certain affinity to
these gases selectively or in a combined manner for both 𝐶𝑂2 and 𝐻2 𝑆, they are getting
separated from the natural gas. The processes could be water wash process, Selexol processes,
and Sulfinol processes.
On the other side, there are chemical absorption processes, the reaction between the solvent
chosen and the acid gases present in the natural gas occur and the separation of acid gases from
natural gas can be accomplished. There are again several processes, some of them are
highlighted here like the amines based processes or the hot potassium carbonate processes.
In the direct conversion process the process is called Stretford process that is used long time
back for the direct conversion of 𝐻2 𝑆 to sulfur, it to be looked based on the other criteria how
to classify the processes, we can see for the hydrogen sulfide removal processes, we can lump
the processes in the form absorption by regenerative solvents also called the wet processes.
In this kind of the processes, the solvent that is used for the absorption purpose is getting
regenerated either it is a physical solvent or chemical solvent, both the solvents are getting
regenerated in their respective processes and being recirculated to perform the continuous
operation. The chemical solvent could be the amine or the carbonate solvent.
In the category of physical solvent this could be the Di-methyl ether of polyethylene glycol or
some other. There are several chemical and physical solvents have been reported in the
literature to perform the sweetening process or there is a possibility also to use both chemical
and physical solvents to perform the absorption process in a regenerative mode like the
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process where we choose the chemical solvent as well as physical solvent in a particular
proportionality and perform the absorption process.
On the other side the adsorption on the solid bed also called the dry process classified as non-
regenerative adsorption processes where the packing material or the material which is used to
selectively remove the acid gases like the zinc, iron oxide or there might be some other
materials that cannot be regenerated and there could be processes where the material is
regenerated like molecular sieves are used to perform the adsorption process to remove the
acid gases.
There are certain other processes that are based on the membranes. So the membranes are
designed such that they have very specific selectivity to separate out some of the compounds
from a particular gas stream. In this case the membranes can be selected those allow to pass
through 𝐻2 𝑆 and 𝐶𝑂2 gases selectively and retaining the other gases on the other side. All
together we can see there are several processes
Those are similar to what we did for the dehydration processes. We have the solid bed or the
absorption tower where the liquid is been circulated and the gas is in the contact with the liquid
and the selectively 𝐻2 𝑆, 𝐶𝑂2 or other sulfur compounds are getting separated out from the
natural gas. Further the industry sweetening process can be classified as non-regenerative
process, generating process with recovery as 𝐻2 𝑆 or recovery with the elemental sulfur.
The 𝐻2 𝑆 removal processes again can be classified based on the process name like the cryptal
process it is the combination of several processes which use the amine solvent that could be
MEA, DEA, DGA and MDEA. The Benfield Corporation process that use t he carbonate,
potassium carbonate and this selexol process that uses the physical solvent MPEG.
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Similarly for the removal of Mercaptans, the processes are named as caustic treatment process
which is used for lighter Mercaptans compound removal, Merox process that is further
classified in a Merox extraction and Merox sweetening processes and converting Mercaptans
to disulfide, the process named as doctor sweetening process or the sodium plumbide process
On the other hand when we talk about the elemental sulfur recovery the processes are classified
as Claus processes. In Claus processes we can have the option of modified Claus processes that
work from the reaction equilibrium limited. Cold bed adsorption process or modified Claus
process with tail gas clean up, this selective oxidative process is also there which generate
elemental sulfur while removing the acid gases from the natural gas and that can also be
accomplished by wet oxidation based on aqueous solution this process is named as redox
process or Bi- thermal cracking of 𝐻2 𝑆. In advance side, we have the processes that could be
the hybrid process where the combination of one or two processes are being used to remove
the acid gases from the natural gas either in the form of the 𝐻2 𝑆 or in the form of elemental
sulfur.
Biological processes are getting advanced, another process that is PSA Pressure Swing
Adsorption process is just a physical process, where the operating conditions like the pressure
is changing in such a manner the acid gases are getting separated out from the natural gas. Let
us discuss some of the processes those are widely used to perform the sweetening process at
the industrial level. We are not going to discuss each and every process but some of the process
uses the concept of physical separation or chemical separation or converting the acid gases to
elemental sulfur will be discussed in a brief manner.
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Like for example the iron sponge sweetening process, it is batch process also known as dry box
process in which the sponge being a hydrate iron oxide supported on a wood chip is used and
the natural gases just passed through this batch mode packing. We are going to get the gases
those are present in the natural gas. Like the 𝐻2 𝑆 is getting separated on the bed of this wood
chip iron sponge.
In iron sponge sweetening process there is a tank which is filled with the iron sponge on the
support of wood chips and the natural gas which have the sour gases is passed over it. After
passing through this bed we get the sweet gas. This is the sour gas, so the packing inside this
tank is 𝐹𝑒2 𝑂3 and when the gas which have the 𝐻2 𝑆 passes, the reaction happens between this
ferric oxide and 𝐻2 𝑆 and we get ferric sulfide as the product on this bed and the water is
removed.
In the regeneration mode, we can regenerate this bed which is operated under the batch mode.
In that mode we are going to perform the regeneration process by passing the oxygen through
this bed and because of the reaction happening here we are going to get 𝐹𝑒2 𝑂3 bed along with
elemental sulfur on the bed.
So the reaction does not proceed without the water, so some amount of the water along with
alkalinity should be present in the tank that is where the process will occur and the reaction
will cause the temperature to be lower than 120 degree Fahrenheit. Then only this reaction
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will occur at a high temperature. It will not occur, if the water is not present or alkalinity is not
present in the tank, the iron sponge reaction will not be effective to remove the 𝐻2 𝑆 compound.
So this is based on the chemical reaction process where the ferric oxide reacts with 𝐻2 𝑆, and
gets converted into some sulfur compound 𝐹𝑒2 𝑆3 and during the regeneration process we are
going to get this elemental sulfur as the product. The number of regeneration processes is
limited because this sulfur or the elemental sulfur remains in the bed and after certain
regeneration is stepped, this bed may not be useful for performing the 𝐻2 𝑆 removal process
thus we have to replace the bed.
If we want to perform this irony sponge process at a larger scale, as it is a batch mode when
we have this packing, just passing the natural gas over it, we can put the multiple units in
parallel to perform the reaction at a larger scale.
If we talk about amine based sweetening process, which is widely used to perform the
sweetening of natural gas. In this process also known as alkanolamine sweetening process,
which is not selective towards choosing one particular type of the acid gas but it removes both
𝐶𝑂2 and 𝐻2 𝑆.
Different amines are used to perform this alkanolamine sweetening process, those could be
MEA Monoethanolmine, Diethanolamine, Trietanolamine MDEA, DIPA or DGA on the
combination of them. There are several studies performed where the combination of them
maybe performing better than Individual.
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But all together MEA is considered as one of the best options as solvent. In this process, the
things are almost similar to that of the dehydration process, so far any absorption or adsorption
process we have the two units, one is to perform the absorption and adsorption process and the
other unit is to have the regeneration of either the solvent or the solid packing material.
Similar to the processes in the amine based sweetening process the raw gas which have the
acid gases along with that, it enters to this absorber tower and passing from bottom to top. We
are circulating this solvent, the chosen solvent could be individual amines or the combination
of the amines that is passing through this absorber tower from top to bottom and the gas and
the solvent are coming into contact and the chemical reaction happens as amine have the
affinity to 𝐻2 𝑆 and MEA + 𝐻2 𝑆 are going to form MEA hydrosulfide and releasing some heat
in this process. The MEA also reacts with 𝐶𝑂2 in the presence of H2O and we are going to get
MEA carbonate along with the heat.
So this two reactions happens in the absorber tower and selectively both 𝐻2 𝑆 and 𝐶𝑂2 are going
to convert in another chemical form along with the heat release, and after that the gas that is
passing from the top is clean gas because these acid gases are removed with the help of this
solvent. The solvent which is coming out of this absorber tower from the bottom part, may go
to a flash gas drum kind of tower or a separator or a flash separator that is an optional device
where it is separating the just free gases out of the solvent. Otherwise, the gases that are with
the solvent will go through the heat exchanger unit and after that they will go to regeneration
unit.
In regeneration unit, we are going to separate this solvent from this chemical which is formed
in the absorption tower. Either it is a physical or a chemical reaction the regeneration to be
performed inorder to recover the valuable solvent, and the valuable solvent can be sent back to
the absorber tower to perform the continuous operation and reducing the cost of supplying the
fresh solvent every time.
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In that case, in the regenerator there is an increase in the temperature, it means we are supplying
the heat and the chemical formed in the absorber is going to release the MEA from both
hydrosulfide and carbonate compound along with the 𝐻2 𝑆 and 𝐶𝑂2. So the reverse reaction
whatever happens in the absorber where you will be able to separate this 𝐶𝑂2 and 𝐻2 𝑆 from
the natural gas.
The reverse reaction happens in the regenerator where the 𝐶𝑂2 and 𝐻2 𝑆 along with water also
get liberated and the MEA, the solvent chosen to perform this process gets recovered. The
recovered solvent is going back through the heat exchanger, pump and gets circulated at
temperature which is required to perform this process to absorber and perform the continuous
operation.
The heat exchanger like the cooler is required because during this regenerated process, we use
the higher temperature to remove the MEA from this chemically formed compound like the
MEA Hydrosulfide and MEA carbonates, that is why the coolers and the other assemblies are
required.
On the other side if we see this a regenerated unit where we have the heating options through
the reboiler and similarly whatever is getting on the top we have the condenser type of the
assembly where we are able to recover the acid gases and the remaining solvent is goes back
to the tower like a distillation column.
So altogether depends upon the solvent being used. We always have the absorber and the
regenerator facilities to perform the sweetening process. As already mentioned MEA is
preferred to DA or TA solution because it is stronger base and more is attractive. MEA as a
lower molecular weight, thus the circulation is easy to maintain the ratio of amine to acid gases.
We did not discuss in detail how the factors like concentration of the acid gases, the circulation
rate of the solvent, the temperature and pressure at which the absorber and regenerator are
being operated are going to affect this process. So far we only discussed the flow sheet where
we have different units assembled to perform the sweetening process.
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In glycol amine process, this process removes simultaneously water vapor, 𝐻2 𝑆 and 𝐶𝑂2 from
the gas stream. The process flow sheet for the glycol amine process is similar to what we have
for the amine process. In any type of the absorption process, we are going to have the two
towers, one is for the absorption process and the other for the regeneration process and the
other accessories like heat exchanger knock out drum, pump going to be placed to perform the
process effectively. Similarly to amine processes are solvent is used in the glycol amine process
is also, but here the solvent is a combination of glycol and amine.
Most of the time the solution or the solvent concentration is 10 to 30% by weight MEA, 45 to
85 % glycol, 5 to 25 % water. The advantage of the process is that combination of dehydration
and sweetening can be performed in a single unit. If you remember in the dehydration process
we use the glycol to separate the water vapor from the natural gas.
In the previous slide, we discussed how amine is going to help us to remove the acid gases. So
the glycol amine process is a combination of both glycol process for the dehydration and the
amine process for the acid gas removal and in this process both dehydration and sweetening
process are performed simultaneously.
This is the advantage of choosing this glycol amine process however the disadvantage is the
increased vaporization losses of MEA because in the regeneration unit the glycol is having the
higher boiling point, we have to go at a higher temperature to regeneration unit and
because of the boiling point difference in the MEA and the chosen glycol, we are going to lose
MEA.
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So compared to amine process, glycol amine process offer certain advantages as well as certain
disadvantages are there. However, the efficiency of a particular process or the selectivity of a
particular process depends on the other factors.
Next is a selexol process, it is based on the physical solvent which is used to remove the acid
gases from the natural gas. So selexol process is used worldwide for bulk removal of 𝐶𝑂2 and
simultaneous 𝐻2 𝑆 remover and this process is more effective when we have low 𝐻2 𝑆 to 𝐶𝑂2
ratio.
It means this process is more effective when we are going to remove the 𝐶𝑂2, and along with
𝐶𝑂2, 𝐻2 𝑆 is also gets separated out. This is used as a mixture of Dimethyl ether of propylene
glycols as a solvent which is non-toxic and as high boiling point. Process flow sheet is similar
again where we have one the absorption tower where the separation is happening and the
another combination of the unit where we have the regeneration facilities to recover the solvent.
In this process also, we can see the inlet gases here which is having the acid compound and
after the absorber process we are going to get the gas that is ready to sell and we can call this
sales gas it is having the very low concentration of acid gases and the acid gases are removed
during this entire process.
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After regeneration, we have the least selexol bed to the process and the acid gases are vented
out from this part. So like amine and glycol amine process, in the selexol process, it is just
different. In case of the solvent chosen to perform the absorption process, the selexol is the
physical solvent another process is sulfinol process, this is used to remove 𝐻2 𝑆, 𝐶𝑂2, COS, CS,
Mercaptan and polysulfide from the natural gas.
So all sort of the acid gases can be removed using this sulfinol process, again the process flow
diagram is similar to what we have for the amine process.This process uses a mixture of solvent
which allow us to perform both physical and chemical absorption processes simultaneously.
This solvent is composed of 40% sulfolane that acts as a physical solvent and 20% water and
40% DIPA or MDEA acts as a chemical solvent. Because of having physical and chemical
solvents, the operation of sulfinol process can be very selective to remove certain type of the
gases either bt getting separated in the form physical solvent process or in the chemical
absorption process.
This process is usually used for higher 𝐻2 𝑆 to 𝐶𝑂2 ratio or where 𝐶𝑂2 removal is not required
to the same extent as 𝐻2 𝑆. So this selexol process is used when we have the ratio of 𝐻2 𝑆 to
𝐶𝑂2 at low level and when this ratio of 𝐻2 𝑆 to 𝐶𝑂2 is higher, we should use this sulfinol
process.
The advantage of sulfinol process, it uses both physical and chemical solvents, so it’s a hybrid
solvent process. The other advantage it offers is we can use a low circulation rate of the solvent
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to perform the separation of sour gases. The solvent have the low vaporization losses. Its
degradation rates and the corrosion rates are also low and it has the less tendency of forming.
The high effectiveness of removal of carbonyl sulfide, carbon disulfide and Mercaptans along
with 𝐻2 𝑆 and 𝐶𝑂2 makes sulfinol process as a good candidate when we have the natural gas
that contains all these kind of the sulfur compound. The disadvantage of this sulfinol process
includes absorption of heavy hydrocarbons and aromatic compound.
So if the natural gas has the higher hydrocarbon compounds in it and this sulfinol process
should not be used because the physical and chemical solvent used to perform the sweetening
process. They may interrupt with the aromatic and the heavy hydro-carbonate compound and
will become contaminate and the efficiency of the process will get reduced.
So after discussing some selective processes, processes that fall under the solid bed packing
like the irony sponge process, amine solvent process, glycol amine again the combination of
two solvents process, the selexol process which have more affinity for 𝐶𝑂2 removal compare
to 𝐻2 𝑆 and the sulfinol process that should be used when we are targeting the 𝐻2 𝑆 removal as
primarily consult.
We can see there are several other processes and the selection of a process depends on several
criteria. The foremost criteria is the composition of natural gas that is going to be treated in this
sweetening process. How much percent of 𝐻2 𝑆 and 𝐶𝑂2 is present in the natural gas other than
𝐻2 𝑆, 𝐶𝑂2 and the water vapor, how much percent of the other sulfur compound like COS,
CAS, Mercaptans are present in the natural gas.
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So the type and the concentration of these impurities or the sour gases or the acid gases which
makes the natural gas as the sour gas are present and at what level they should be removed.
The selectivity of the acid gas removal is also very important. The target is removing the 𝐻2 𝑆
or 𝐶𝑂2 the temperature and pressure at which the gas is going to be treated or going to enter in
the sweetening process is also one of the criteria to choose the sweetening process.
Important one is also the volume of the gas that should be treated and other than considering
amount of the gas, the composition of the gas and the temperature and pressure, it is going to
be treated the economics of the overall process should also be considered because each process
includes certain type of the equipment those should be installed to remove the acid gases.
The equipment list could be the inlet knockout drum depends on the impurities present in the
natural gas or at other places when we are using the different solvent before it is going to the
regeneration process, knockout drum may be required, absorber tower, flash tank, heat
exchanger network to exchange the heat or to reduce the temperature of the solvent when before
it is going to the absorber tower back and the filtration, if this solid particles are present or if
the solid based processes used.
The desirability of the sulfur removal due to environmental problems or economics should also
be considered. So the selection of a process based on the composition, based on the economics,
based on the several criteria should always be judged or controlled based on the gases
specification required before it is going to send to end consumer.
So if we chose a particular process that is going to fail in meeting the guidelines of the
transportation system, the process is not going to be useful. We have to choose a process that
is going to meet the gas specification that is decided by the regulatory authority. So with this,
I would like to end my topic on the sweetening process.
In this lecture we discussed briefly about some of the sweetening process those are used at the
industrialist scale to make the sweet gas from the sour gas, and meeting the specification of the
pipeline. Thank you very much.
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Prof. Pankaj Tiwari
Module No # 04
Lecture No # 17
Compressor Design
Hello everyone, today’s lecture is on compressor. Compressor is a device that is often used in
natural gas industry whenever we want to send the gas to a higher pressure, we have to use the
compressor.
So compressor is a machine for raising the pressure of a gas or a compressible fluid. As we can
see in the figure, when we are transporting natural gas through the pipeline system we have the
gathering system at that place. We collect the natural gas from several sources including the
production wells or the gas processing plants, if it doesn’t have enough pressure we need
compressor to send it to main line.
Similarly at the distribution end if you want to send this natural gas to a higher pressure we need
a compressor. During the main trunk line or the transportation over this long pipe line the natural
gas pressure declines primarily because of frictional losses offered by the roughness of pipeline.
That is why at a certain distance compressor station need to be installed to maintain the through
put or the constant transport rate of the gas, and that can be calculated by performing the pipeline
design at what particular position the pressure will reach up to certain low level and that low level
pressure needs a compressor to compress the gas to send it further. That calculation depends on
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pipeline design, layout pipeline at what rate the gas is coming to the compression station? What
rate the gas should send back to pipeline again?
Not only during the transportation, the natural gas that is in axis need to be stored and for a storage
purpose compressor is required. We will see at some other places also compressor is required for
example when we have any unit process let us consider dehydration. In dehydration also when we
send the natural gas to a dehydration unit at a constant rate we need a compressor if pressure needs
to be maintained. Similarly for sweetening and other removal processes, another example I had
given here is LPG domestic tank in India. We can get the LPG, propane + butane and depend on
the composition of propane and butane filling a bottle or the Cylinder at a particular temperature
and the pressure where this will go to liquid phase, we need a compressor to maintain that pressure
or filling the butane, propane mixture into that bottle.
That is why whenever we need pressure to go up, or the natural to be transported, stored or injected
we need a compressor. During the production of natural gas, because of the liquid loading the
reinjection of natural gas is required or gas recycling is required to send back or to inject the natural
gas back into the reservoir formation or in the wellbore we need compressor.
When natural gas does not have sufficient potential energy to flow a compression station is needed,
and that is not necessary in the pipe but at any location from the production to consumer.
With this background, in this class we are going to understand the theory component of the
compressor. We will understand the basic theory like how does the compressor work, and the
design aspects. We are not going to discuss the mechanical design of the compressor like the
material of construction, the thickness and other aspects.
So in the discussion of uses of compressor, we can see that the compressor compress the natural
gas from one pressure to another higher pressure level depends on the application different types
of the compressor design. The primary factor that decides the compressor choice is the quantity of
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natural gas that should be transported or that should be compressed + the discharge pressure, that
is the pressure at which the gas should be discharged.
So let us see one by one at different application levels. What is the need of this quantity and
pressure accordingly the compressor can be chosen? So in gas field gathering system compressor
should be used below the atmospheric pressure to 750 psig. In the case of a well which is not
producing, a compressor can be used as a suction at the inlet condition and for discharging at a
higher condition and that needs a few 1000 to many mmscf per day capacity of the gas that should
be suck from those wells or from particular gathering station to main trunk line. In main line
station, they need from 200 to 1300 psig repressing or recycling station they need very high
pressure demand, like the gas should be compressed to 6000 psig for processing, and secondary
oil recovery mechanism as mentioned already. The gas may be re-injected in the reservoir
formation for enhancing the gas production as well as in the reservoir which is primarily producing
the oil.
The gas can be injected, and that comes under the secondary oil recovery mechanism storage field
station. Whenever you want to store either in depleted oil reservoir or in a particular device and
that should be stood by high pressure around 4000 psig, so significant amount or the volume of
the gas can be stored.
Distribution plant station needs a pressure between 20 to 100 psig range, and sometimes as
mentioned for the bottling purpose like LPG kind of thing. If we are doing this similar thing with
the natural gas in the form of CNG (compress natural gas), we are bottling it. The pressure should
go up to 2500 psig, thus a higher horse power compressor is required.
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When we come to the type of compressor, there are variety of the compressors available in the
market, and those can be designed to meet the specific need for broad classification is positive
displacement is dynamic compressor within this classification the reciprocating compressor and
centrifugal compressor are widely used in the natural gas industry and primarily it is reciprocating
compressor that have more application in the natural gas industry.
The selection of compressor require several considerations, primarily the amount of natural gas
that should be dealt with the compressor, the pressure compression ratio or it is a ratio of discharge
pressure to suction pressure, the horse power required, the cost involved, easy maintenance, and
other parameters. For example, here we can see that this is reciprocating compressor that is mostly
used in the natural gas industry. It can be used to flow rate up to 30000 CFM and a discharge
pressure up to 10000 psig.
So it can accommodate very middle range of the natural gas 30000 but very high pressure 10000
psig. So the crankshaft that is rotating, and this rotating motion is converted to a pistons linear
motion. So piston, and cylinder assembly is there and the piston is moving inside the cylinder. In
one stroke it is taking the gas and in the other stroke it is discharging the gas at a higher pressure
and that linear motion allow us to increase the pressure of the gas at the discharge end.
Other things about the compressor is it has several moving parts, that is why the maintenance cost
is high compared to centrifugal type of the compressor where the moving part are less and it does
not work on the confinement and physical squeezing of the natural gas principle. While the
reciprocating compressor does work on using the slender that is compress the natural gas and send
it to higher compressor.
In this type of the centrifugal compressor, here is kind of impeller which have a rotation. We are
getting the gas in at a one location and it is discharging at a higher pressure. The kinetic energy
gets converted into pressure energy that is why at the higher end or the diffuser end we are get the
gas at a higher pressure. This is good for a large quantity of a gas to be handled like 100,000 cfm
and the pressure is little low up to 100 psig they are considered very good.
Other categories in rotary blower, one or more impellers rotating in opposite direction .One
impeller moves in the clockwise direction, and another impeller moves in the anti-clock direction
and they discharge gas. The pressure difference between the suction and discharge should be very
low up to 15 psig, if we need we can go with this rotary blower kind of the device.
This type of the arrangement when we talk about the choice of a compressor, it depends on not
only the price but on the chart of the inflow rate of the amount of the gas that should be dealt versus
the discharge pressure. So when we have discharge pressure on Y axis, and inflow on the X axis
you will see there are several types of the compressors, which are falling in this chart they are
overleaping also then depending on the other factors like the mechanical losses wear and tear prices
availability of the parts maintenance cost we can pick one of the compressor for that purpose.
In this lecture we are going to discuss on reciprocating compressor and centrifugal compressor in
detail.
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So when it comes to a compressor, compressors are necessary to ensure that the natural gas gets
to the destination. There should be sufficient pressure along the path and outlet that could be path
or could be just outlet for a particular segment where the gas needs at a higher pressure. The process
depends on as mentioned in the last slide, the overall compression ratio is discharge pressure to
inlet pressure means suction pressure.
The ratio is RT it may be written as just R or RT or some other notation, the gas capacity is Q that
is getting transported. The process design follows this kind of the pV behavior when we have the
pressure on the Y axis and volume on the X axis. So the piston reciprocating compressor, where
the piston is moving it is going through 4 steps. In first step it have the part where it is just
increasing the volume in the chamber, and in the second step it is compression and this is step
where it is discharging and here shown like this is reaching back to axis but in actual there might
be some volume or the clearance volume that remains in the cylinder that should be also be
accounted, and the area under this curve is work that should be done by the compressor to compress
the gas from 𝑝1 low pressure to 𝑝2 higher pressure.
The process has four steps, they are the compression, expansion, suction, and discharge. So the
process of compression can be done in isothermal manner, adiabatic manner or polytrophic. Most
of the compressor to work with the concept of adiabatic compression process but actually they do
work with under the polytrophic condition.
Reciprocating compressor, they are more towards the adiabatic compressor while the centrifugal
compressor they are more towards the polytrophic mode and move towards the adiabatic if the
efficiency can be increased. Let us consider the part, that is not in the area under this curve, we
can see the area under the curve when the gas is compressed isothermally is low. Isothermal
compression means 𝛥𝑇 = 0 and adiabatic means 𝛥𝐻 = 0.
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Between both the processes, this is isentropic, adiabatic so this is reversible isentropic process
where the energy exchange is not happening under the isothermal condition that is temperature is
constant. If we can compress the gas under the isothermal condition the less energy is required to
compress that gas. But it is not possible always to operate the compressor at a isothermal condition
it has to be operate in a very slow motion when the temperature is not changing.
While under the isentropic or adiabatic condition also when we have this condition that the heat
flow should not be there, but in actual or in practical sense heat happens. Similarly for
reciprocating type of the compressor where there should be any clearance volume but within the
slender piston assembly during one complete stock some amount of the volume of the
gas from the previous cycle remains in the slender and that should be corrected for completing
another cycle or the new cycle.
So if compare all these three processes isothermal, polytrophic and adiabatic we can say
polytrophic which have this exponent n is equivalent to k when the process is adiabatic and this
is equal to 1, and when we have the isothermal process. Hence, the polytrophic process can be
studied, later on it can be converted to adiabatic or isothermal but in case of natural gas knowing
the value of n is difficult. We can know this k, adiabatic or isentropic component by knowing the
composition of the gas we understand this from our class on natural gas properties if we know
the 𝛾𝑔 we can calculate the value of k.
The area under this curve can also be calculated by performing the integration. If we know which
path the gas compression step is following, either the polytrophic or the isentropic or the isothermal
process. Importantly the adiabatic process is mostly followed by reciprocating compressor while
the polytrophic process by the centrifugal compressor. So when we have the expression for 1 form
we have to convert into other form, when the process happens in a different manner.
Two other important things comes when we talk about compressor design are, how to calculate
the power required to compress the gas from 𝑝1 to 𝑝2 that can be done either by the analytical
expression, and the analytical expression comes from the energy balance across this compressor
which is taking the gas at one pressure and discharging at the other pressure or by enthalpy entropy
diagram and that also called the Mollier diagram, and the other is the volumetric efficiency is for
the reciprocating compressor where we have to account for this clearance volume also.
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So let us say when the perfectly reversible adiabatic process, that is an isentropic process is
happening we can say the process is following the path, where 𝑝𝑉 𝑘 = 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑡. Again the
expression to calculate the area under this curve is done considering the ideal gas behavior and
whenever the non-ideal behavior is very much required we have to correct that equation
considering the compressibility factor.
Otherwise complexity involve from here itself and becomes difficult to solve the basic equation
like 𝑝𝑉2 𝑘 = 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑡 for isentropic process. If we include the non-ideal behavior or the real gas
behavior then it becomes complex. So let us say k is an isentropic exponent it is a ratio, 𝐶𝑝 /𝐶𝑣 at
a particular temperature and within this 𝛾𝑔 versus specific gravity range k can be calculated using
the empirical expression.
Once k value is known, we have the 𝑝𝑉 𝑘 , we can go through the integral process and calculate the
area under this curve. When it is polytrophic process the value of n can be related to k through the
polytrophic process efficiency 𝐸𝑝 , and that 𝐸𝑝 comes in the relationship as (n – 1)/n, that sometime
𝑛−1 𝑘−1 1
given another expression is R sometime it is RPI. So RP = = =𝐸
𝑛 𝑘 𝑝
So if we know the 𝐸𝑝 value, that will be required on scientifically type of compressor which
follows this polytrophic behavior we can calculate the value of n to be use in the isentropic
process calculation and Rollins in 1973 given the empirical correlation to calculate the 𝐸𝑝 , and it
depends on the amount of the natural gas that is getting compressed so at the suction end or at
point 1 the amount of gas 𝑞1 , at that temperature and pressure condition the value of q should be
known at the inlet condition then one can calculate the value of n using the expression because we
know the value of k.
The isentropic exponent k applies to the ideal frictional less adiabatic process, that is already
mentioned while the polytrophic exponent n applies to the actual process with heat transfer and
frictional forces are also getting applied that is why the efficiency should be included to have the
conversion from k value to actual value of process that is n.
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If we look, how this process is happening we can calculate the area under this curve so for example
when the isothermal process is happening. Under isothermal process 𝛥𝑇 = 0, as well as n = 1 and
we have this pV = constant. If we calculate the area under this curve, that is equal to work done 𝑝1
to 𝑝2 is Vdp, and if we do the integral of this converting the or using the ideal gas law we will
𝑝
𝑅𝑇𝑙𝑛(𝑝2).
1
Now if the process is happening under isothermal condition, we can get the work done or work
required to compress the natural gas from 𝑝1 to 𝑝2 . Again ideal gas behavior is considered for this
case when non ideality to be included, we have to modify this equation. In that case most of the
time it is not just modification in the equation but several empirical formulas are given those
account for the non-ideal behavior of the natural gas.
When we have the isentropic process we can use the relationship where 𝛥𝐻 = 0, and we can get
𝑘−1
𝑘 𝑝2 𝑘
the work done, 𝑊 = 𝑅𝑇1 ((𝑝 ) − 1), again it is for the ideal gas we can modify this thing
𝑘−1 1
and this expression is result of mechanical energy balance equation and that mechanical balance
equation says to calculate the theoretical work required we have to perform the energy balance,
and that energy balance across the device which is taking the gas at pressure 𝑝1 and discharging at
pressure 𝑝2 should be equal to the enthalpy of the gas, that is entering to the system that also
accounts for the pressure term + kinetic energy + if it has any elevation energy + the Q energy
included in the system is equal to the 𝐻2 + 𝑢2, kinetic energy + potential energy + work done.
We assume in our compressor case considering not only the ideal behavior, we also assume there
is no significant change in the elevation. There is no significant change in the elevation this should
go out, and there is no change in the kinetic energy or if any change in kinetic energy is happening
that can be clubbed with the enthalpy of the system and there is no energy transferred through the
system Q is also equal to 0.
Thus with this balance equation we simply get ℎ1 − ℎ2 = 𝑊, and this W is work done and that
work done is equal to the system which is compressing natural gas 𝑝1 to 𝑝2 . By integrating this we
can get the W, that is equal to enthalpy change of the system, and a similar thing for the isothermal
condition and isentropic condition as well as for the polytrophic condition we can get the
expression for W.
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Second part is the volumetric efficiency, the volumetric efficiency represents the efficiency of the
compressor cylinder to compress the gas as mentioned the clearance volume is still remains slender
and that should be accounted to consider the volumetric efficiency that is why the ratio of volume
of gas actually delivered to the piston displacement should be counted.
So the ratio of the volume of gas actually delivered to the piston and that should be corrected to
suction temperature and pressure condition because the gas is a real gas, and its compressible
behavior or the volume it occupy at a particular temperature and pressure will be different. So we
have to correct the volume of the natural gas at the inlet temperature and pressure condition to
account for the clearance volume.
Instead of calculating the volume it can be done by applying the theoretical formula for volumetric
efficiency, where R is cylinder compression ratio where discharge pressure to suction pressure 𝐸𝑣
is volumetric efficiency that has no unit and 𝐶𝑙 is the clearance, it has the isentropic exponent k of
the system. In practical adjustment are made to theoretical formula in computing compressor
performance.
Again this is considered for the ideal gas where clearance volume or fraction of volume that
remains in the cylinder is accounted to calculate the 𝐸𝑣 while in practical sense this 1 is not 1 that
may be deviation and that should be accounted as 0.97 to correct for minor inefficiency such as
incomplete fitting of the cylinder during the intake stroke. This 𝑍𝑠 and 𝑍𝑑 are compressibility of
the natural gas at suction end and at discharge end, and 𝐶𝑙 is same clearance volume another term
𝐸𝑣 is included, that is also correction factor, and that is to correct for the condition in a particular
application that affect the volumetric efficiency, and for which the theoretical formula is
inadequate formula so the value for the volumetric efficiency is not considering the local
conditions at which this efficiency should be calculated and for that purpose this is small 𝐸𝑣 should
also be included in the expression to account for such kind of the corrections.
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So far we understood the way gas can compress from one pressure to another pressure we can
calculate the area under the curve. We can calculate the work required to perform that compression
process. But the discharge pressure is sometimes is too high compared to suction pressure, it means
the compression ratio is very high and in that case the heat release during this process is
significantly high.
Because of that the energy required or work done should be more because we understand from our
graph or Pv diagram the work done under the isothermal condition is the lowest one. So the
objective should be we are compressing our natural gas in that or near by the isothermal condition.
As it is deviating from isothermal condition going towards the isentropic condition more work is
required that is why the temperature change happening during the compression process. When we
are compressing the natural gas to a very high pressure the more temperature increase will be there.
Not only the energy required will be high but the damage to the compressor, the ceiling fitting
those are not appropriate to handle that temperature will also get affected. In that case it is a good
idea to perform the compression in this stage to avoid the losses or damage to the compressor as
well as the energy required to compress the natural gas from 𝑝1 to 𝑝2 , the cost will increase when
we have the multiple compressor but that can be compensated by reducing the maintenance cost.
So in field practice, the pressure should not exceed 4 so when we are discharging the gas from 𝑝1
to 𝑝2 should not be more than 4 times of 𝑝1. If it is happening, the system should be divided into
number of stages and the total number of stages depends on the suction pressure to final discharge
pressure. When the total compression ratio is greater than 4 more number of stages are required to
reach the final pressure the total power requirement is a minimum when the pressure ratio in each
stage is the same.
So the compression ratio should be defined in such a manner that in each stage the compression
ratio is same. So from stage 1, for example here we have the two stages. In stage 1 the compression
ratio like the discharge for example here this is a discharge so I should say 𝑝𝑑 to 𝑝𝑑1 from discharge
this is 𝑝𝑠1 .
So gas is going to compressor at 𝑝𝑠1 , it gets discharged at 𝑝𝑑1 . Again this pressure will be 𝑝𝑑1 as
a 𝑝𝑠2 for the second compressor and the discharge will be 𝑝𝑑2 . So the ratio for compressor to
𝑝
should be same as the ratio for compressor 1, this is 𝑝𝑑1. In that case the energy required to
𝑠1
compress the natural gas will be less. Number of stages required can be calculated using this
formula that says R over all compression ratio or the compression ratio for each stage is equal to
1
𝑝
( 𝑝𝑑 )𝑁𝑠 , and if we have only one stage then 𝑁𝑠 = 1, if we have 2 stages 𝑁𝑠 = 2, and similarly we
𝑠
can add on the things. When we do the stage wise compression some other unit are also associate
and that include like here in diagram 147 so you can say this 1, 4 and 7 these are the knock out
drums and they remove condensate liquid. Thus significant amount of the liquid is still present in
the system and this should not go to compressor they should be taken out some small particle or
something that is happening in the compressor or during this process where the small particle from
the metals are also coming to the fluid should also be removed with the help of this knock out
drum. Then it goes to compressor and we know when it is going to a compressor gas will be
compressed temperature will be increased under isothermal condition will required the less energy
and that is why the intercooler are installed between the two compression stages to maintain the
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temperature as an so the gas going to stage 2 have the same temperature as going to 1 with the
help of intercooler this can be after each process.
This intercooler is also even after completing the compression process 1 and 2 when it is going to
this pipeline. So 2 and 5 are compressors these are compressor 1, 2 compressor are there with the
tag name of 2 and 5, 3 is inter stage cooler and 6 is after cooler that is here. So the large
compression ratio result in gas being heated to undesirably high temperature that is why we
perform the compression in this stage manner, and when we have this stage manner as already
mentioned the smaller compression ratio is preferable to have the isothermal kind of the situation
and the discharge temperature should be below 149 degree C or 300 degree F to have no damage
to the compressor.
The computation is based on assumption that the process is ideal isentropic or perfectly reversible
adiabatic process, that we had performed but in the field this is not going to be the total ideal horse
power for a given compression. It is the some ideal work computed for each stage of compression.
So when we have the multi stage compression station the total power compressing 1 using just 1
compressor and having multiple compressions should be compared while we are adding
compression power required for each stage in the stage compression process.
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There are several ways to calculate the isentropic work. One way is analytical expression, that can
be obtained by performing the integral of the curve on the Pv diagram. Second we will discuss
soon, that is the Mollier diagram and in the Mollier diagram it is a rapid way to solve a compression
problem and just need to trace the increase in enthalpy from the slender suction pressure and
temperature to discharge pressure along the path of constant entropy.
So we are assuming it is a isentropic process, it means for example we have a device where the
temperature and pressure at the suction head are given. Similarly on the discharge head this is 𝑝𝑑 ,
and 𝑇𝑑 . If intermediate stages are happening for either single stage or multiple stages the constant
entropy path line should be followed and the difference in the enthalpy from this condition to this
condition should be read from the Mollier diagram.
This involves some care in handling and converting the barrier units, such as cubic feet per minute
pounds of vapor BTU horsepower, and it is a simple and straight forward method. So when we are
reading the Mollier diagram we have to be careful the way it is reported or given.
So if we see figure, the X axis have the entropy and Y axis have the enthalpy. We can see the
entropy unit is given BTU per pound mole, per degree and the enthalpy unit is given as BTU pound
mole, and those are little different then the value we are counting. So we have to be very careful
converting the unit to read this chart and after reading this chart we are going to report or convert
the value in the desired form we want to work done to compress this much amount of the gas and
that could be in scf, mmscf based on the mass based on the mole we will see that.
So the Mollier diagram provides a simple direct and regress processor for determining the horse
power theoretically necessary to compress the gas. Again it is a theoretical, without including any
efficiency determine because we are considering it is perfectly adiabatic isentropic process and
under that condition we can read that chart. For example we have the gas it is compositions are
known it means we know the gamma g the specific gravity.
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Because the Mollier diagram are different for different gravity natural gas this chart is shown for
0.6 gravity natural gas. If we have 0.7, 0.8 even intermediate 0.65, 0.75 the chart shape
or the location of the lines appearing in this chart will be little difference. So let us read this chart
where we are at point 1 the initial suction head and if we have the number of stages for the
compression.
For example we are going from 1 to 2 we have to go straight up and then follow the constant
entropy line till the point we are reaching 3 and because of the cooler inter cooler arrange the
temperature is same as 1 we are reaching at point 3 and from point 3 we can go to again another
compression stage we are reaching at point 4 and when we are cooling it down we are reaching at
point 5.
During this entire process when we are compressing from for example from 1 to 2 we can see on
the Y axis we can read the change in the enthalpy of the system that is happening well compressing
the gas from one point to another point. So thus with the help of the Mollier diagram having the
entropy enthalpy relationship in the form of a chart we can calculate the enthalpy change
happening in the process that could be either the single stage process or multi stage process.
Important is this is for the adiabatic work of compression and for the real gas this is accounting in
terms of different chart. Different chart in the sense this for 0.6 and similar chart can be get for the
other gas composition means the behavior or the composition of the gases are accounted in terms
of the gamma g.
Another approach that we already discuss the area under the curve will give us the mathematical
equation that can be used to calculate the horse power for each stage and again it is for the
isentropic work formula we can use this similar expression for the isothermal case and polytrophic
case also.
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The numerical factor will appear when we adjust the unit associate with each parameter and we
got the expression that will allow us to calculate the work or the power required to compress the
gas which have K value is this isentropic exponent as k, 𝛾𝑔 , is the specific gravity from 𝑝1 to 𝑝2
pressure and when this equation is used we have to consider the unit associate with it. For
example here now the work is measured in fit per lbf per lbm at other like temperature and
degree ranking gamma g is ok pressures are in psia but this unit is different in this expression if
we change this unit to other form you will different volume of the numerical constant here.
When the deviation from ideal gas behavior is applicable it means the pressure we are dealing with
if the compressibility factor is going to a play a major role in calculating the tableau the work or
the power required we have to include that in the expression and that can be done just by putting
Z1 means compressibility factor value at suction end in the expression the similar expression is
here and that represent the real gas behavior.
But we see there are several empirical behavior formula available in the literature and they
account both Z1 alone is suction head compressibility and sometime both suction head
compressibility and discharge compressibility in a more complex form if we write this
expression in terms of power we are going to get this is just a representation of this considering
some base temperature and pressure consideration we will get numerical coefficient here
constant value of 𝑝𝑏 and 𝑇𝑣 in the expression.
Again this have similar expressions 𝑧1 is appearing here along more complex expression more
empirical formula will give us both 𝑧1 and 𝑧2 in the expression. So we can calculate the power
required to compress the natural gas required the natural gas under isentropic condition to pressure
𝑝1 to 𝑝2 and it depends only on the 𝑇1 , the suction temperature not at the discharge temperature
because the compression process will generate the temperature and the discharge and will have a
different temperature depend on the type of the compression has been chosen as well as the
pressure ratio 𝑝2 /𝑝1.
So the theoretical adiabatic horse power can be converted to break horse power that is required
because the break horse power is the horse power input into the compression. So whatever we
assume 100% efficiency of the compressor is going to compress the natural gas while considering
this area under this curve or just performing the numerical integration over the expression we got
by the energy balance equation.
But the break horse power is something that is actual value of the power going to compressor and
that can be calculated like q the amount of natural gas that is going to be compressed, multiply by
the 𝐻𝑝𝑀𝑀 . If we go back and we see here the 𝐻𝑝𝑀𝑀 is required theoretical compression power per
mmscfd so we have to multiply this with q value to have the energy unit and divided by the
efficiency of the system that 𝐸𝑜 . 𝐸𝑜 represent for both type of the efficiency those are associate
with the compressor like the compression efficiency and the mechanical efficiency of the
compressor.
So the compression efficiency means as we discuss in the displacement type of the system where
the clearance volume remains there that should be included in the expression and the mechanical
efficiency means the mechanical losses thos are happening when the piston is
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moving inside the slender the mechanical losses will be there and those should be accounted. So
the mechanical efficiency account for mechanical losses that happens during this compression
process.
Sometimes we can divide this into parts where we have this break horse power 𝐻𝑝𝑏 =
𝐻𝑝
𝑞 𝐸𝑀𝑀 . Compression efficiency of the compressor 𝐸𝑜 = 𝐸𝑐 + mechanical losses in a separate
𝑜
term. But it is a good idea to combine both of them together represent by E0 that accounts for both
the factors in most modern compressor the compression efficiency ranges from 83 to 93% that
already mentioned the friction happens there the efficiency is not 100% as we consider the
frictionless process and the compression efficiency various from 83 to 93%.
The mechanical efficiency various from 88 to 95% and if we talk about the overall efficiency of
the system because of this not 100% compression efficiency and not 100% mechanical efficiency
the overall efficiency comes in the range of 75 to 85% only because we consider this as ideal
isentropic compression process.
So the overall efficiency of a compression depends on number of factor that we can count suction
pressure speed of the compressor, compression ratio this we discharge pressure the amount should
be compressed and some general mechanical condition of the unit that which type of unit we are
going to use. How many moving parts are there in that particular type of the compressor.
The actual efficiency curve can be obtained from the manufacture so those manufacture those are
supplying the compressors to us we can go and ask for a efficiency curve and that efficiency curve
account for the factor those are responsible for calculating the mechanical efficiency as well as
compression efficiency because both also depend on the pressure ratio we are using as we had seen
in volumetric efficiency expression that accounts for 𝑝2 /𝑝1.
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So the overall efficiency is a function of compression ratio as well as the amount that is going to
be delivered that is a chart should be provided the manufacture when we go to vendor and ask also
ask us certain things. So we should be very known some of the things those we have to tell to a
vendor.
For example the site elevation where we are going to install this compression what is the elevation
at that site inlet pressure outlet pressure discharge rate and the gas that is going to be handled by
this compressor 𝛾𝑔 , 𝐶𝑝 specific heat at constant pressure the value of k isentropic exponent and
compressibility factor and are included in our mathematical expression that is where both value
should be known.
Another way is just using the Mollier diagram that does not need all these calculation but again
that is for the ideal condition isentropic condition and for the polytrophic condition we have to
adjust considering the gas composition also. So the discharge temperature for real gas can be
calculated we know we can do again this 𝑝𝑉 𝑘 = 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑡. We can do this
at one condition and another condition we can get this discharge temperature 𝑇2 this sometimes
written as 𝑇𝑑 = 𝑇𝑠 that is the suction temperature.
𝑝2 /𝑝1 is the compressibility is added here to account for the non-ideal behavior and sometimes we
will more complex or more accurate expression where 𝑍2 /𝑍1 is multiply with this function to have
the discharge temperature value. So when we having the value of 𝑇2 known the discharge
temperature from a compressor and when we are going to apply the inter cooler or the after cooler
if it is just the single test process we can calculate the amount of the heat that is going to be removed
and that can be calculated 𝛥𝐻 = 𝑛𝐺, number of lb moles of gas.
𝐶𝑝 is the average specific heat under constant pressure evaluated at cooler operating pressure and
the average temperature the unit is written here otherwise numerical coefficient will come here
and 𝛥𝑇 is the temperature difference that we are going to achieve with the help of a intercooler or
after cooler.
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We can go through one example that will give us little bit more understanding about w these
calculations are done. So for example we have a gas that have specific gravity 𝛾𝑔 = 0.8, and that
is compressed with the help of a compressors this is our compressor at the suction end we have 80
degree Fahrenheit temperature and 100 psi pressure.
This is compressed to 1600 psia let us say the specific gravity is 0.6 we can take the some example
as given in the book. So we have this temperature and pressure condition at the suction end and
discharge end we know the pressure we can calculate the temperature the expression we just seen
let us not worry about that the we have to consider how many stages we should use.
So when we calculate the compression ratio that is says the discharge pressure divided by suction
pressure, and this is coming out as 60 and this is more than 6, more than 4 also that is why we have
1600
to go to number of stages. If we take the number of stages 2, so then again ( 100 )1/2, we are going
to get 4. So the pressure ratio is less than 6 when we have two stages process and in each stage
process the pressure is going to be four times.
So one process or in one stage we have 100 is going to 400 psi and this 400 is going to be converted
into 1600 psi. As we understand there will be a need of cooler to maintain the temperature that we
can calculate because we know the temperature here by using the expression we can calculate the
temperature going to be here or we can install the intercooler that is going to convert this
temperature back to the inlet temperature of 1 and that again another intercooler can be or after
cooler can be here which is going to bring the temperature again 80 degree F.
So in that manner we are going to get the same temperature at the end but the gas is compressed
from 100 to 1600 psia you can perform this calculation and putting everything in this expression
we can calculate to do this thing how much horse power required. And as we have the two stage
process.
We have to do this two times one for the first stage another for the single stage and if we do that
thing in the first stage we are going to get 𝐻𝑝𝑀𝑀 = 73.3 because we know this K value because
we know the 𝛾𝑔 we calculate the K value this value is known temperature pressure at P1, P2 known
to us 𝑧1 compressibility can be calculated by using the brill and backs method K is further known
we can calculate 𝐻𝑝𝑀𝑀 .
But in second case this 𝑝1 will become 400 and 𝑝2 will become 1600 so in second case we are
going to get 𝐻𝑝𝑀𝑀 , 2 is little different this is 69.5hp per mmscft. Similarly here this is 𝐻𝑝 per
mmscfd. Now the total compression power or theoretical power required is summation of both that
is comes out as 142.8. Now we can do further calculation and calculate the break horse power if
we understand how much gas is getting transported or compress using this compressor the Q value
and if we know the efficiency of this compressor.
If both are given we can calculate the temperature we can do the intermediate cooling process also
and similar we can do with the help of the Mollier diagram also for the scientifically compressor
the processor could be more or less similar little bit different we can say first we have to
compressor ratio based on the inlet and discharge pressure this is okay if multiple stage is required
again we have to go through this multistage compression process concept.
Based on the required gas flow rate under standard condition we can calculate the gas that is going
to be compressed at the inlet condition we can use this relationship and the value of polytrophic
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efficiency 𝐸𝑝 can be calculated as shown in previous slide using the Rolle’s formula and once we
𝑛−1
know the 𝐸𝑝 we know the k value we can calculate this 𝑛 , it is also known as 𝑅𝑝 we can calculate
this value of 𝑅𝑝 using the 𝑅𝑝 value we can calculate the temperature 𝑇2 at the discharge end.
In next calculation we can estimate the gas compressibility factor values at both inlet and outlet
condition because we know now the discharge temperature also calculate gas capacity at the inlet
condition considering the real gas law. Now we had included gas compressibility at suction end at
the discharge end in the expression and let us repeat this processor from step 2 again until the value
of 𝑞1 converse with this acceptable deviation.
So in the previous time we just had converted this 𝑞1 using the value of q given to us perform this
calculation considering a particular efficiency of the compressor and we go this 𝑞1 value again in
the step 7 and we have to perform the calculation repeatedly till the satisfactory answer is achieved.
Calculate horse power little bit more complex formula because the way compressibility is
accounted.
𝑧1 +𝑧2
So it is average of compressibility , so the average is included there 𝐸𝑝 , the polytrophic
2𝑧1
𝑟 𝑅𝑝 −1
efficiency of the process and upon n and similar manner can calculate some other parameters
𝑅𝑝
like the polytrophic head related to gas horse power can also be calculated where the unit is in
mass flow rate in lbm per minute.
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The efficiency of the scientifically compressor should be included calculate the value of n that is
polytrophic exponent and other for calculation should be performed to have the work or the energy
or the horse power required to compress the natural gas from 𝑝1 to 𝑝2 the expression may be
different in terms of how the compressibility is included in the real expression. So let us summarize
the compressor design calculation that is where we consider perfectly reversible adiabatic process
𝑝𝑉 𝑘 is constant.
We could also consider the volumetric efficiency using this expression more complex expression
could be there accounting for the real gas behavior. The stage compression is a concept where the
gas can be compressed in a stage wise manner and in that stage wise manner we have to calculate
the number of stages required once we know that thing the work done in each stage can be
calculated considering the area under the curve and the 𝑧1 can be included here account for the
non-ideal behavior more complex formula can also for the possible considering the accuracy of
the work is required.
Horse power work can be converted into horse power required to compress the natural gas and the
horse power to calculate the break horse power because this theoretical horse power it does not
include the efficiency of the compressor the discharge temperature by using the calculation buy
using this expression and the heat removed by intercooler is just by this expression similar thing
can be done at least upto this enthalpy or the energy required during this compression stage with
the help of Mollier diagram that represent enthalpy versus entropy relationship for a specific gas
that have particular 𝛾𝑔 .
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By changing the gamma g the chart will get changed with this I could like to end my compressor
class that had given us the idea of how to design some part of the compressor when we are going
to purchase a compressor we have to have the understanding of some of the basic things those
needed to choose a particular time and size of the compressor with this I would like to end my
today’s lecture we will meet in the next lecture so thank you.
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Prof. Pankaj Tiwari
Module No # 04
Lecture No # 18
Measurement of Natural gas
Hello and welcome back. Today’s lecture is on measurement of natural gas. Whenever we are
dealing with natural gas either in production, or processing, or transportation it is very much
required to know the amount of the natural gas that is being pass through a particular point. It is
very much required to have a measurement technique that is acceptable by both buyers, and sellers,
and also should be accepted widely.
Refer Slide Time: 01:30)
The measurement of natural gas techniques are often based on the concept of pipeline where we
can measure properties like pressure, flowrate etc., This is because, in most of the processes like
dehydration, sweetening, distribution natural gas has to transport through the pipeline.
The volumetric measurements of the natural gas are required starting from the gas reservoir to its
ultimate user. The accuracy to measure the natural gas is required to understand the quantity of
gas passing through a given section of pipe over a period of time. So if we understand the quantity
of gas passing through a particular cross section of a pipe, we can understand the flow rate over a
time period. It is of para-mounting importance of gas seller and purchaser.
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Commonly used method for measuring of natural gas is by volume. We understand the value of
the natural gas is also depend on energy content how much energy it is containing but to quantify
the energy content also we need to understand the volume of the natural gas that is purchased or
that is sold. Natural gas is compressible by the nature we understand it the volume depends on
temperature and pressure.
So when we talk about measuring the natural gas in terms of the volume it becomes important to
understand at what temperature and pressure the volume is measured. If it differs from one location
to other location certain corrections should be done in the measurement. So first specifying the
base temperature or standard pressure and temperature is a fundamental importance.
Most of the time, the standard temperature and pressure conditions are specified but they depend
on the location. So area to area the base temperature, and pressure vary accordingly, so the
correction in the volumetric measurement should be implemented.
So if we want understand the way to measure the volume, there are several methods those allow
the measurement of the natural gas directly or indirectly. Most of the time the direct measurements
are not done, in the case of indirect measurement technique, a parameter is measured and converted
into volume. So for example the list shown is having several ways of measuring it. So Orifice
meter, Venturi meter, flow Nozzles and Elbow meter there could be putative is also there they are
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based on the head meter concept. So head meter means the measurement of the differential head
caused by a restriction in a pipe in which fluid is flowing. So if a natural gas is flowing through a
pipe line we can put certain restriction and changes happening in the pressure can be recorded. The
recorded pressure can be converted into velocity and knowing the cross sectional area we can
convert it into flow rate, and this is indirect way of measurement of volume of gas that is passing
through that pipeline.
Other method is by using a displacement meter, turbine meter where the way of measurement
natural gas depends on specific device. Like in displacement meter it is number of stock the piston
is making in each stock the slender is the piston is discharging known amount of the gas at the
other end. So the number of stocks slender is making over a period of time plus the slender volume
that is used to discharge the natural gas can give us the volume that is getting transported from this
particular section.
Similarly in the turbine meter number of rotations made by the turbine because the natural gas
passing over it, we can convert that number of rotations to volume. All these devices needs certain
calibration because they are designed for considering XYZ type of material or the fluid. But when
they are used for the natural gas certain calibration is required, and it accounts for the changes
happening because of the fluid or other conditions.
The rota meter is another device where the cross sectional area through which the fluid is passing
is getting increased and a floating device in it, floats depending on the pressure it is facing from
top side and bottom side. Location of the float on a graduated scale will tell us about the volume
of the gas that is passing through the rota meter. We will discuss this little later and other several
techniques could be there like the ultra-sonic meter, Vortex meter and now with the advancement
of the technology several other techniques are also being used to measure the flow rate or the
volume of natural gas.
But the factors those affect this selection of measurement method include the desired accuracy
required in the measurement range like how much quantity of the natural gas is flowing through
the pipe or at what range the measuring device should be able to measure the flow rate. Also the
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duration of the usage, initial cost, pressure, temperature, cost of operation acceptability by others
involved decides the choice of the device.
But it should also be accepted by the others so instead of going for each device we can just go
through the most acceptable device that is used to measure the volumetric flow rate of natural gas
and definitely it is Orifice meter. Orifice meter works on the principle of head meter means a
restriction in the pipeline create the pressure difference and that will allow us to measure the flow
rate.
The Orifice meter is the most common equipment used in the natural gas industry for measurement
of natural gas flow rate. It has two parts namely, primary element and the secondary element. The
choice of Orifice meter as a most common equipment is because of the accuracy at which the
Orifice meter can measure the volumetric flow rate, other factors are simplicity in the design,
installation, and maintenance. Its cost range is also acceptable, it works over a wide range of flow
rates at a low cost. Important reason is the availability of standard table of meter factors as I said,
when the conditions are changing the device should have a calibration chart to calibrate the flow
rate to apply the correction required to have the accuracy in the measurement. So if we look on the
orifice meter which qualifies the most common device to use for the natural gas measurement
because of certain advantage it offers due to its characteristics.
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In the orifice meter, primary element just produces the differential pressure, and the secondary
element measures that pressure. If we look on the symmetric diagram, it says the flow is happening
in a pipeline with a restriction placed in the path way of a fluid, and it is called Orifice.
So the Orifice is circular and it is put across the flow with the help of flange or other device which
can hold this orifice in the fluid path. It is mostly placed at the center of the pipe, so the orifice
bore is at the center of this flow line, and because of this restriction the flow which is happening
in the pipeline will get converted to another flow regime, due to the changes in the pressure and
kinetic energy, that we will discuss later.
The flow will pass through this orifice, and then later on, it will again after certain diameter take
its position back and flow will occur in the normal direction as it was happening before. This
restriction was placed in the path line, and the orifice plate holding device also called the flange or
the devices which is holding this fine machine orifice at a constant position, won’t disturb because
of the flow. If that is happening the disturbance are going to affect the position of the orifice plate,
the correction cannot be done in the measurement and we will get the wrong measurement.
The orifice plate should not have a significant thickness, the thickness of the orifice plate depends
on the diameter of the pipe in which it is placed. Generally, this should be very fine machine, and
the size of this orifice should be very precisely known. It should not have any kind of roughness,
and any kind of the database through that bore otherwise the calculation will be different.
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The question is how we can use this device, which has the restriction. Lets look at those aspects
more clearly. So this is the pipeline through which the flow is happening, and suddenly a very
small or thick plate with the circular hole at the center is placed because of that the pressure energy
will get converted into kinetic energy and we will get such kind of the pattern.
As you can see, the minimum area where this fluid is going to hit is not at the orifice but at a
certain location called Vena contractor. This is the smallest diameter of the flow stream where the
lowest stream is passing through this orifice but meeting at a particular point. So the meter in
which the gas flow is happening, the orifice that is creating the restriction or change in the flow
rate or change in the velocity at that point the device that is holding the orifice plate or the part of
primary element device of the orifice.
In this secondary element there should be connecting device to this point. Let us say it is point 1,
and the other is point 2, we will discuss about the location separately. For example here the
position of point 1 and point 2 are on the flange so one at the upstream side and 2 at the downstream
side, and before fluid is reaching to 2 then pass through the orifice. Now the pressure will be
different at point 1 and point 2. So measuring device require this data like static pressure, means
the flowing pressure plus pressure difference because of the restriction is called secondary device.
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There could be different forms of the device here it is shown as the manometer. There could be
transducer and some other way to monitor this change in the pressure. Position of the connecting
tapes could be either at the flange position like one and two points or just close to the flange or
could be far from the flange. It depends on specifically on the accuracy required, the internal
diameter of this tube through which is the fluid is flowing, and the diameter of this orifice.
But important point we can keep either this or this arrangement depend on the accuracy and the
arrangement we can have. If the diameter of the tube is very less we cannot keep at the flange
point because the disturbance will not be monitored with significant changes happening in the
pressure line or other way if we keep at a larger distance the pressure change due to the orifice,
not only the measurement will be counted but also the friction losses, which we will discuss later.
So it is like a device, where if the internal diameter of this tube is less than two inches, we cannot
have this flange tapes. There could be another position the dew point placed at the minimum or
smallest diameter of the flow stream or the vena contractor and the position 1 and two could be
like this that is also having a restriction because it is very difficult to adjust where that exactly the
smaller diameter is going to hit. However, certain calculation can be done to find out but it is
difficult to adjust and should be suitable when the diameter of the tube is greater than 6 inches.
Pipe tape where the position of 1 and 2 outside this orifice of the left hand side and right hand side
could be anywhere but as we increase the distance the uncertainty in the measurement increases,
and it goes up to 50% error. As already mentioned the pressure loss because of the roughness of
the pipe will also be accounted during the measurement.
The recording difference, and that static pressure gauge using circular chart to read the pressure
difference that is happening in the upstream and downstream side. The position where we are
measuring the pressure is upstream pressure and downstream pressure so all three type of the
arrangement we have the flanged tapes, Vena contractor tape or pipe tapes. In all three
arrangements, the positions of upstream and downstream will be different and based on the
difference in the position based on the reading they are recording. There should be a device which
is going to record the differential and static pressure or upstream and downstream. Last stream I
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have shown in the mano meter could be for that or the other device that is in the form of the chart
or electronically we can record the data.
We already understand from our CPR class, and choke performance class, where there was
restriction that was put in the flow line to control the flow rate. Here we are going to use the same
concept, the restriction we are going to put to measure the flow rate. When the fluid is travelling
through this pipeline, and in that case we considered the pipeline, and in that pipeline the restriction
was there similar to as shown in the last slide, and the flow was happening under the isentropic
process condition 𝑃𝑉 𝑘 = 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑡, and this is specific volume (1⁄𝜌).
For the flow that is happening, we could set up the mechanical balance equation that says the
kinetic energy pressure energy and gravitational energy at one end will be equal to that at the
second end. As we are considering very small difference across this measurement we can say there
is no friction losses accounting for that system. While doing so we could establish, as area is getting
reduced, velocity will increase. By knowing this velocity, flowrate on the other side can be
calculated..
So the pressure energy is getting converted into kinetic energy if the tube is placed horizontally,
there is no gravitational component that is going to play a role. In that case, if we adjust the things
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𝛥𝑝
we are going to get the relationship like the velocity = some constant, + 𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑡𝑖𝑐 𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑔𝑦 +
𝜌
𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑣𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑔𝑦.
So when we are going to write the mechanical balance equation for this device and simplified for
the case of the Bernoulli equation which says the pressure head kinetic head plus gravitational
head at one point is equal to all three heads at the other point plus the friction loss. If there is no
frictional loss, the sum of all these three energy at one point will be equal to the second point and
that happens when we talk about the orifice meter because the pipeline is not that long. So we can
ignore the frictional loss because of the roughness of the pipe, and if we do so we can arrange our
orifice meter in a long horizontal pipe line. It is recommended to be around 5 times of internal
diameter to 45 times of the internal diameter to place the connecting tapes that goes to secondary
element of the orifice and within that range the friction losses are not that important.
Here we consider the horizontal tube, so gravitational forces are also not going to be important.
So when the pressure is changing because of the orifice the velocity or kinetic energy will increase
and when we can relate the change in pressure with velocity we can get the value of velocity or
knowing the diameter we can calculate the area, multiplying area with the velocity we can get the
flow rate.
This is what we did exactly in our CPR class also, then if it is done we will get this kind of the
𝛥𝑝
relationship where u = K√ 𝜌 . K is the constant that will account for the other things like the unit
conversion and some other parameter those may appear as the correction factor for example this
chart coefficient and others, but in a simple case it is just a constant.
Now the 𝜌, the density of the real gas is also not constant it will change with temperature and
pressure condition another expression can be written that summarizes all the changes happening
in the system.
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Flow through the restriction in the US field unit system give us the relationship that says how 𝑞ℎ
is the volumetric flow rate is cfh (cubic feet per hour) is related to the diameter of the orifice,
𝐶𝐷 discharge coefficient, Y is the expansion factor, 𝑃1 upstream pressure, 𝑃1 − 𝑃2 is the pressure
difference, 𝛽 is the ratio of orifice diameter to internal diameter of tube or the pipe, and 𝑧𝑖 is the
compressibility at one point , 𝑇1 is the temperature at the upstream side, and 𝛾𝑔 is the specific
gravity.
This relationship is a result of performing energy balance equation, first law of thermo dynamics.
Simplifying it to Bernoulli, even in Bernoulli case pressure at or the pressure head is related to just
the kinetic head, and considering this isentropic process we are going to get this expression. In this
expression if you see, the Y that has a very big expression accounts for the changes in pressure
ratio or case specific head ratio 𝐶𝑝 /𝐶𝑣 in that case.
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So all those parameter related to the changes happening in gas expansion volume are accounted
by Y and 𝐶𝐷 discharge coefficient altogether if we compare this equation or the basic equation
given for orifice meter equation from the first law of thermodynamics considering Bernoulli
equation and end result comes out like this that says the flow rate is equal to some constant,
′
𝐶√ ℎ𝑤 𝑝𝑓 , ℎ𝑤 is the pressure difference, 𝑝𝑓 is the pressure or absolute pressure or static pressure or
the flowing pressure.
The units are given here if we compare these two equation we can see this 𝑝1 − 𝑝2 is equivalent
to ℎ𝑤 just units are different. We can adjust for the unit, and 𝑝1 here is the upstream pressure or
the flowing pressure and the 𝐶 ′ accounts for everything that is appearing here. If we write that in
the form of some correction factor considering this equation 𝑞ℎ is good enough to represent the
flow is happening through the restriction and that can give us the volumetric flow rate just knowing
𝑝𝑓 upstream pressure and ℎ𝑤 the difference between upstream and downstream pressure we can
calculate the 𝐶 ′ separately considering the other parameters those may affect.
And that happens when the fluid is passing through the orifice it takes difference form because of
pressure energy is getting converted into kinetic energy certain energy at orifice should also be
included. So let us see what this 𝐶 ′ is having this 𝐶 ′ include altogether eleven factors we will
discuss one by one all those eleven factor some of them is like this the by appearing here is similar
to what is by appearing in this correction factor.
The 𝐹𝑏 is this part numerical coefficient area of the orifice or the discharge coefficient that can be
club altogether and can say this is a base orifice factor because it depends on the geometry and
dimension of the orifice and some others.
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Let us go one by one considering the parameters those are making this 𝐶 ′ . So let us start with FB
basic orifice factor it is a quantity that should be included in the correction factor because it
depends on the location of the tape we discuss three locations so what where the tapes are
connected it accounts for that the internal diameter of the run time and the size of the orifice means
the diameter of the orifice.
There are literature the tables are prepared for having such kind of correction considering the
diameter of the tube and considering of the diameter of orifice as well as position of the correcting
steps like and they are like flange tapes they are like pipe tapes or the they are like vena contractor
tapes. The Reynolds number is very much required it should be included because it depends on
pipe diameter and the viscosity density and velocity of the gas.
Say if the gas composition are changing it is viscosity is changing or the tube through which the
gas is flowing anything is changing Reynolds number value will change and that correction should
𝑏
be included in the correction factor and that in the form of 𝐹𝑟 = 1 + , there are tables given
√ℎ𝑤 𝑝𝑓
in appendix C of Gua and Gallumber book those summarizes the value of b, rough factor that is
required in the Reynolds number correction factor.
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The expansion factor this is a correction for the variation in density it is a function of differential
pressure obsolete pressure the diameter of the pipe, the diameter of the orifice and types of tapes
this is also correct for the type of the isentropic process is happening is the K value that depends
on the properties of gas 𝐶𝑝 /𝐶𝑣 . So the gas expansion properties are counted in the form of Y.
Pressure means factor so in the pressure at that condition the orifice installed may be different so
we can use the Boyle’s law for correcting the difference in base pressure from 14.73 psia so that
14.73
for that we can use this . The temperature base factor is similar to pressure base factor and it
𝑝𝑏
is direct application of Charles’s that allow us correct for the base temperature changes from 60
degree Fahrenheit.
Flowing temperature that correct the effect of temperature variation it means the flowing
temperature is different then base temperature the correction is needed because of two reason the
high temperature means flow will increase and a higher causes the gas to expand which reduces
the flow so the compensation should have the combined effect that is caused the quantity of flow
of a gas to vary inversely as the square of absolute flow temperature.
So if we see our equation in that equation like 𝑞ℎ = something, and then the pressure difference
𝑝1 − 𝑝2, we were having the temperature here 𝛾𝑔 and may be some other parameter (1 − 𝛽)4. So
the temperature is inversely proportional we should also include
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that factor as a correction factor 𝐹𝑡𝑓 , the is usually applied to the average temperature during the
time gas is passing the temperature may be taken by recording chart or by any thermometer reading
that is installed at that location where the orifice is installed.
Especially gravity factor so it is used to correct for changes in the specific gravity, and should be
based on the actual flowing specific gravity of the gas as determined by the test. So the sample
should be taken be taken at the place where the orifice is installed and the correction should be
made. From the same expression we can see the 𝐹𝑔 is inversely proportional to 𝛾 or √𝛾𝑔 and that
is where the correction should be included to have any changes in 𝛾 appears.
This factor varies inversely square root of specific gravity with a given force applied on a gas on
large quantity of light gas be pushed through orifice then a heavier gas if the gas is having a mixture
of lighter and heavy compound if we are not considering this correction factor it means we are just
saying everything is passing through same time but in actual scenario happens natural gas which
is having the lighter and heavier compound lighter compound will pass through before the gas is
heavier compounds are getting change to pass through the orifice that why the correction should
be implemented.
Another important correction factor is super compressibility factor that accounts for having a real
gas behavior of natural gas compared to the ideal gas and it varies to temperature and
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pressure and specific gravity and that is why it should be included in that factor. So if look in the
big expression this is similar to what we have here when we go through the energy balance
equation we have the compressibility the denominator under the square root similar we have for
𝑇1 similar we have for 𝛾𝑔 .
Either we are using this big expression or for simplicity purpose we are come at all these factor in
the form of 𝐶 ′ .
Let us see some other factor how they influence or how this should be calculated like the other
parameter manometer factor that is not in that expression is used with mercury differential gases
and compensate for the column of compressed gas opposite of mercury leg. So we have the natural
gas which is going to manometer because of the pressure on the static side as well as in the
differential side and the weight of the gas over the mercury reservoir of the orifice meter
introduction error and determining the differential pressure across the orifice unless some
adjustment is made.
So this adjustment which is accounting for the pressure difference pressure and some other
parameter for the gas that is entering tin the mercury column should be implemented and the
correction varies with ambient temperature static pressure and specific gravity usually this is not
considered if the pressure is below 500 psia or when the mercury gas differential gas is are used
then it is not required.
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Gauge correction factor so the gauge where we are measuring the flow rate or where the horizontal
section of the pipe is considered to place the orifice it is location is specific also so if it is not
installed at 45 degree or other than 45 degree latitude and above the sea level we have to have the
correction for G and at that correction for the G in terms of latitude and elevation from the sea
level can be given with this big expression.
This is a polynomial equation in terms of L and also having the H in that expression orifice thermal
expansion factor is introduced to correct the error resulting from expansion or contraction of orifice
operating at temperature appreciably different from the temperature at which is orifice can be
bored. So the orifice was bored was particular at a temperature now it is exposed to different
temperature the change that is happening in the geometric of the orifice should also be included in
the expression as a correction factor.
Usually the value may be 1 or this because the expansion is not that much or the temperature
condition it is going to face or not different then this is bored. Then the correction says it should
include the t – tm, t is the temperature of operation and tm is the temperature during the boring
both are same this will go out we will be having just Fa = 1.
So if we see this 𝐶 ′ that include all this correction factor so instead of correcting for each using
the chart table or the appendixes we can just calibrate our device and calculate the C
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prime value and then 𝐶 ′ value will include for all these correction factor altogether and that is
could be done during the standards chart available or a supplier who is supplying us who is
providing this 𝐶 ′ value after performance certain experiment.
So the characteristic and condition of the flow to be metered by the orifice device depends further
on the maximum peak hourly rate or minimum hourly it means what is the fluctuation is happening
in the flow rate also effects to decide orifice is going to work precisely or not the fluctuation is too
much the orifice is not a good idea to have the flow rate measurement accurately.
Metering it is pressure record is available and permissible pressure variation so again the pressure
gauge those are going to monitor the or it going to record the pressure changes static pressure as
well as differential pressure should be available in the range of we are going to operate the orifice
tube measure the flow rate because those should be able to measure the pressure range that is
fluctuation or that is even the constant value that may be the low value or high value the pressure
is should have that capability.
The quantity of gas flowing through at orifice constant pressure various at the squared root of
differential pressure from the expression we know with respect to pressure, Q and pressure is
having the relationship where the Q is proportional to √𝑝𝑓 . Similarly q is proportional to √𝑝𝑤 . So
if any changes in static pressure, and difference in pressure is happening that is not directly
proportional to 𝑞ℎ , where the sensitivity should also be considered. When we are going to measure
very precisely what is the flow rate the gas is having through the particular section.
Impractical to construct a differential gauge that will continuously require pressure at a acceptable
accuracy, that is below the one sixth of the maximum range. So whatever the maximum range we
have chosen, design the orifice for that range. The minimum range or lower range or the lower
range could be 116 of that maximum range beyond that it is very difficult to have a very precise
measurement.
So the maximum, and minimum capacity may change by changing the orifice plate if you want
low we want to go beyond the 116 of the maximum range. We have to choose a particular orifice
design to measure maximum and minimum flow rate through fixed diameter tube. In a horizontal
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pipe is designed for a particular type of the fluid range if we are going beyond that range we are
going to change the orifice or orifice dimension.
In an orifice meter, when we have the fluid flow, that is coming from one end, and going out from
other end. The flow behavior will be as shown in figure. When the effective length L depends on
the diameter of orifice, and the diameter of pipe, it might be in the range of 0.35D to 0.85D. So for
example we have the connecting tape just before he orifice like here 0.1 or the upstream. Another
is vena contractor here downstream so depend on the size of the orifice this flange is going record
very precisely otherwise if we are changing the flow rate to be measured the vena contractor
position will also get change and again we have to have a different orifice to have the correction
or to have the precise measurement of the natural gas.
So orifice equation is a result of Bernoulli equation, when we consider the horizontal pipe and the
resultant equation is accounting for all the changes happening in terms of temperature,
compressibility, 𝛾𝑔 , basic temperature and pressure conditions, Reynolds number changes, gauge
location factor orifice thermal expansion factor. All these are accounted in the form of 𝐶 ′ literature
is available we can get the value of 𝐶 ′ and then this selection o orifice depends on some other
factor also those are discussed here.
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Now all this is on the primary device, where the restriction is imposed and pressure difference is
generated. Now we need the secondary device that can record the data or can monitor the data.
Although we have the distillation we can install several electronics devices at point of interest or
the place where the orifice is installed we can record the pressure difference that pressure
difference can be converted into flow rate.
But still in the remote area or at several places the chart concept is still in the use in that chart the
data differential pressure and pressure are recorded periodically and the chart data can be used
convert pressure data into flow rate data and that can be done with the wrong charts those can be
of two types the uniform scale or the direct reading chart for the differential pressure inches and
the static pressure in psia or the other form of the chart is where the chart read the square root. So
in the first time, we have a circular chart and they are equally spaced and full range of the pressure
that can be meet when the gas is flowing the chart is designed for that the maximum rate and
minimum rate entire reason can be classified in a equal space and those equal space is having the
location where the static pressure and the differential pressure can be monitored.
In this kind of system, actually the recoding chart are somewhere very remote area where just a
guy or a service engineer or a service man is going, and placing a chart and that chart has some
mark on it like our watch dial, and where the mark is from 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 three
types of needles are there those just move with a specific rotation speed and give us the timing.
Similar thing is in the recording chart, so a clock touch this needles with a specified period that
could be just like the watch or could be different depending on the operator who is going to use it.
We can have the chart that are recording the data for one month, one week, one day or just for 12
hours. The chart is indicated with the position and in this particular needle is particular pointer
with some pressure on it.
It will move in the direction or it is kind of a spring, where the position will depend on the pressure
it is facing, and the needle position that is moving in a circular motion also will leave the foot print
on the chart. Those foot prints are actually the static pressure, and the pressure difference will be
shown in the next slide. So the chart could be of two types just on the actual scale or second one
on the square root scale.
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So on the direct reading chart where we have the actual scale and this scale is spaced and equal
distance apart the lines are created in that region those are equally space and in many cases the
differential spaces and the static pressure or recorded on a chart with the common spacing the
example is here the 50 unit chart is used on a gauge having a differential pressure of 100 inches
of water and a static pressure of 500 pisg.
Remember the pressure difference units is inches of water, and the pressure unit is or the static
pressure is psia, psig that is being recorded on equally spaced direct reading chart. Then each
circular line on the chart represent 2 inches of water pipe, and 10 inches psig. It means a chart is
placed at the location where we have the orifice, and that chart is equally spaced based on the
range it has 100 inches of water. If we have the 50 lines on the chart each line will represent 2
inches of water and if the maximum static pressure range is 500 psig each line will represent 10
psig as the pressure position.
We can see for the square root chart but this is equally good or the direct chart also if we are just
ignoring these scale that is put on it. These scale in our hand generally but it is designed on the
square root form and the if we look from here this is the center and we have kind of a needle here
and the chart is fixed and the needle is moving with respective time that is specific to this chart
like this.
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It might be moving with just in the concept of 1 week or 1 month just one day and when the
pressure is there like this is a static pressure the smooth line you are seeing this is static pressure
which is almost smooth and the waving lines here those are the pressure difference that is recorded
at a particular time you can see 5, 6, 7, 8 at a different time as a the needle is moving we can get
the reading of differential pressure.
So the recorded differential of a typical flow pattern normally follow a waving line on the chart
the smoother line on the chart represent the static pressure as I just mentioned the scale shows here
it is a difference between the direct chart and the square root chart. The square root of the
percentage of full range of case or as represented by full scale of the chart it is in our hand we can
design this chart or reading at full scale or full range of the gauge will be 10.
So if it is from here the position says if the needle is moving up to this point for example from this
center needle this up to this point it is 1 line this is 2, 3, 4 and 5 and finally the line is 10 actually
when it is at 10 it means the maximum and the maximum value in 10 inches means it is 100 inch
of water and for static pressure that is 500 psi. If the position of the needle at the point of static
pressure, and pressure difference, we can calculate the actual value and that can be done just
knowing reading chart value and chart factor. So chart factor is defined because it is a square root
ℎ 𝑅
chart it is defined as √100 . So whatever the factor we have on this scale we can get that thing
pressure difference and similar for the static pressure and the value ℎ𝑤 and 𝑝𝑓 can be calculated
with the help if this chart.
For example here we have this 100 inch full length and 500 psig full length chart and the position
of the needle is at 0.5. So we can use this expression to calculate the pressure difference ℎ𝑤 and
𝑝𝑓 static pressure. So the reading chart we know is 5 this is also 5 and the Rh the value is 100 and
for 𝑅𝑝 it is 500 and if we do this calculation we will get hw is as actual value 25 inch water and 𝑝𝑓
we will get 125 multiply by 5 is 125 𝑝𝑓𝑤 , 125 psi when the needle is going at 5 position.
So we can use such kind of the chart to have actual measurement or converting the needle position
to pressure reading and knowing this pressure reading we can put in the orifice equation to get the
value of q the flow rate.
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Other than the orifice meter or head meters those are like LO meter, Pitot tube and something
those work on the principle of restriction is the displacement meter, those are used for the
measurement of the natural gas. The reciprocating displacement or the rotary displacement as
already discussed in the introductory slide the reciprocating displacement or the positive
displacement depends on the movement piton movement.
So in displacement metering relies on the piton position on the cylinder the volume of the cylinder
discharge gas occupied while in the cylinder is equal to the piston displacement and knowing that
value knowing that number of piston we can calculate the value of natural gas that is flowing
through that point and this expression can be used for that purpose. In rotary displacement meters
they rely entirely on different chemical principle then that of the reciprocating displacement it uses
two meta impellers of the same size.
These impellers rotated on the individual shaft and that design and spaced to rotate tangentially to
each other and when they are rotating they are in closing in a cylindering case and in each rotation
they are discharging non amount of the gas on the other side knowing the number of rotation
knowing the impeller dimension we can calculate the volumetric flow rate.
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In turbine meters for example this turbine the gas is rotating this turbine we can convert the number
of rotation of the turbine using some calibration chart in to the amount of the natural gas that is
flowing to have those many rotation of this turbine. Elbow meters uses a centrifugal forces in the
curve of a pipe elbow to measure flow like this is kind of a point where we have the elbow and the
centrifugal force that is appearing at the elbow we create the pressure difference and that pressure
difference can be used as like orifice meter to measure the low rate.
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Other measurement device is a rotor meter that use the very well area concept the area here is
different and as going up the area is increasing temperedly and the gas is flowing from the
bottom this is float and the position of the float in this column can be calibrated on the scale to
calculate the volumetric flow rate of the gas passing through the section. In Rota meter a fluid of
given density establishes the equilibrium position in a tampered team in a given flow rate the
upward force of the flowing fluid it quest down the force of the gravity with the help of the
calculation we can establish the relationship that will give us the q value.
This is widely used for a not very high flow rate just in the medium flow rate range or in the
laboratory or pilot plant this is the picture of how this Rota meter looks like this is the needle at
the bottom part to control the flow rate gas bubble kilometer then also be used but it is used in the
laboratory where we have just a connecting tube gas is passing through bubbles can be created
with some sour and the bubble will travel because of the gas flow rate from non-position one to
another position two we know the volume of this the time the bubble needs to travel from point
one to point two can be used to calculate the volumetric flow rate.
Some other devices are also shown here like the mass or volumetric flow meter that digitally
provide the value directly when the gas is passing through it or the pilot plant or filed scale pressure
gauge those can monitor the gases flow rate. But the more important is the orifice meter is the
device that is widely used for considering the volumetric flow rate in a wider range however we
do not consider certain other parameter like the compressor position if those are nearby the orifice
meter they will create a problem in the pressure fluctuation certain fitting turn in the pipe we also
disturb.
That is why the orifice meter is installed in a location when there are no disturbance from the
compressor or delivery end, from the fittings. Otherwise we have to apply the correction factor
for all, with this brief idea of how the natural gas can be measured with different methods as well
as the details discussion of orifice meter that is a head meter. Similarly Reynolds equation can be
established for other head meters also. I would like to end my lecture here, thank you very much.
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Prof. Pankaj Tiwari
Module No # 04
Lecture No # 19
Transportation of Natural Gas – I
Hello everyone, and welcome to the class on transportation of the natural gas-1. This class is
going to be in two parts namely transportation of natural gas 1 and 2. So far we understood, how
the natural gas is being produced from reservoir to surface, and at this surface how it is purified to
meet the requirement of customer. To send the natural gas, which is purified at the surface to the
customer, we have to adopt certain type of transportation mechanism.
There could be several ways of transporting purified natural gas by meeting the customer
specification, which is required record in terms of water removal, contamination removal, taking
out valuable hydro carbon and selling them separately. At the same time customer needs the natural
gas that has certain amount of energy more than the pure gas.
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So it depends on the regulation specification of the transportation as well as what could be
separated out, and at what extent that could be done in the separation facilities. The transportation
can be accomplished by several means, this chart shows on the X axis distance to which the natural
gas is being supplied from its source to consumer or from its processing plant to consumer, and
the Y axis is the amount of the gas is being transported. The unit is bcm/year i.e., billion cubic
meter per year, and the X axis is the distance in km. So this relationship shows, when we chose an
option to transport the natural gas it depends on several factors one of the factor is how much
quantity is being transported and how long it is going to travel. If it is very high amount that needs
to travel but not very far distance, not very far in the sense somewhere in this region we can choose
either the small pipeline design system or can compress this natural gas, and send it in CNG mode
or it could be converting into some other liquid form all the options can be chosen.
When the distance is large, it depends on the quantity, still choose pipeline or CNG or the GTL
process. But when the amount is too high for short distance, short distance means around 1000 km
which is the distance significantly high compared to one continent to other continent or from one
country to other country where it needs to be transported to a sea line then the mode will be
different.
So if the distance covered by the land, and the pipeline can be lay out even on the onshore, or
offshore and the quantity is significantly high. We should choose the pipeline system. And pipeline
system is something that mostly adopted so far for the transportation of natural gas compared to
other means it accounts around 75% natural gas being transported from one place to other place
by the pipeline transportation mode.
These are the crude data but approximately pipeline is dominating the transportation mode when
the quantity is high as well as distance is also too high like more than 1000 Km. We cannot just
lay out the pipeline at certain terrain or region because of the geographical or
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political reason or by some other possibilities of facing the problem in terms of bay of dry or
other things in the pipeline design.
Another mode that is mostly used is LNG, liquefied natural gas and if we see the crude data
available in the literature, the liquefied natural gas accounts the remaining balance of the
transportation i.e., around 30%, it does not mean other modes are not being practiced.
So LNG mostly account 30% of the gas, that is being transported. This is a proven technology at
safe mode but very energy intensive, required the terminal where it can be deep freeze or the
temperature can go down up to – 160 C, where the natural gas is being transported. The gas which
is being transported mostly is methane, and methane needs much lower temperature to transform
to liquid phase.
When we going to –160 C and liquefying this natural gas terminal are required for the purpose
and when it is in a special type of the tanks transported from one place to other place in a special
type of the tank system again at the other side terminals are required where it again be converted
into gas phase. CNG is also a mode of transportation and this stands for compressed natural gas.
It is economical compared to LNG because we do not need to go to that much low temperature.
However the compressor is required to compress but the handling equipment shipping from one
place to other place, the type of the tanker or the shell of vessels required allow us to send gas in
compressed manner in much economical manner than the LNG. Sea transport can also be
accomplished while we are compressing the natural gas and sending it in the CNG mode. The
small volume and short distance when the volume is not too high and when the distance is also not
very high that mode should be adopted and that is here in this region where the CNG is occupying
significant part of this graph.
CNG is used in the vehicles now, so there are significant number of vehicles on the road those
are running on compressed natural gas if further modification can be some in the mechanisms of
using the CNG. This is a larger part and it is having a better future prospective. Other technique
could also be possible where one can convert this natural gas or methane to liquid that can be done
by GTL process. We can do it with Fischer Tropsch process using a specialize catalyst and
temperature-pressure condition, this lighter hydro carbon compound can be converted into heavier
compound or other petro chemical compounds those can be used for other purposes.
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Like DME, Di-methyl ether, Methanol those can be generated at the source itself and the liquid
is being transported through the tanker or by other media. We will be discussing the processes like
LNG, CNG, GTL in little bit more detail at the later part of this transportation natural gas lectures.
Let us focus on pipeline that account 70% and mostly used mode of transportation for natural gas
to transport from one place to a very long distance.
When we focus on the transportation on the pipeline we can see a symmetric diagram that shows
how natural gas can be transported from one pace to another place. This figure shows on the left
hand side the places from where the natural gas is getting accumulated or gathering station, and
the pipelines are called gathering pipelines. Here I had mentioned a gathering system and when
the gathering system is collecting the gases from various sources like the supply from other source
from gas processing plant where gas was being treated or processed and importing part also.
There may be having a different part in the pipeline system where they can be included through
this trunk line system, the long distance trunk line system and put it in the main trunk line. So
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if we classify this in a broad way we are having three types of pipeline systems, the gathering
system where we are collecting the gases from various sources, import gas processing plant supply
sources, then it is going through the main trunk line and travelling a very long distance.
On the other side, before it goes to consumer we are having another place, local distribution
service load, where these gases are further transported in a small diameter pipeline to consumer
and these lines are the distribution lines. Between the gather system and distribution line there is a
main trunk line where the natural gas is transporting from one place to other place.
As already discussed in compressor class the flow is happening because of the pressure difference
and pressure decline because of the friction losses in the pipeline system that is several
compression stations are required to compress the gas. Two important aspects here, LNG plant
like when natural gas is transported from one place to another place in the system from gathering
system to distribution line, may be the demand and supply is not matching because during the
summer time and winter time the demand is different.
In the winter time more natural gas is required to heat the building, heat the residential areas and
for other purposes the natural gas that is being produced should be stored. That could be stored
either in the form of LNG plant or it can be stored underground in the depleted oil-gas reservoir,
where we know the geological formation detail, and whenever the demand is high compared to
supply when use this underground storage or LNG plant processing facilities to match the demand.
Altogether, pipeline that is having different diameter, different specification, and similar here and
the trunk line that is spread over a long distance pass through several (()) (12:36) like several path
it is going to travel.
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So when it comes to transportation through pipeline, pipeline design is very much important
because that says depending on the quantity and the distance, how to design the specific diameter
pipeline. We are going to discuss mechanical aspects like flow rate, pressure, and diameter
relationship. So the pipeline design means appropriate size of the pipeline to meet the through put.
So we want to send specified quantity of natural gas from point 1 to point 2 through pipe line
that is having certain diameter and certain length that we need to travel in point 1 and point 2 how
much gas we are going to send through this pipeline depend on pressure difference also. When
there was not demand of natural gas the calculation involved in pipeline design where good enough
to understand the process now the demand is high the pipeline system should be used very
efficiently even at higher pressure or the maximum level pressure to meet the through put or the
requirement of the natural gas at the other end.
That is why appropriate size of the pipeline to meet the through put should be considered in the
design. Appropriate distance between compression station as already mentioned is required to
compress the natural gas to meet the demand again. So appropriate location of compressor should
also be identified, it should be part of the pipeline design systems where the compressor should be
installed and at what horse powers should be provided to a compressor.
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So the specified amount of the natural gas can be transported with the already led out pipeline
system. Pipeline is an equation when we talk we should do the pipeline design the design equation
depends on the diameter and gas quantity to be transported operating pressure and temperature
most of the time it is considered the temperature is not changing and the flow is happening under
isothermal condition and the length and the terrain.
How long it is going to travel, and what type of the path it is going to face, like it is having just
a horizontal flow, it is having some inclination or it should be just a single pipeline, should be a
combination of single pipelines or just a bigger diameter single pipeline or may be the looping of
the pipeline with that we will be discussing the transportation of natural gas.
So the complex equation that have been developed for sizing natural gas pipeline in barriers flow
conditions as already mentioned depend on how much quantity we are supplying what type of
terrain it is going to face the equation we take little bit different form. The typical equations those
are used in the natural gas industry to design the pipeline or to establish the relationship between
the flow rate and pressure drawn, specification of the pipe line like the diameter and the length as
well as fluid properties. That equation can be in a different form, the mostly used forms are
Weymouth equation, Panhandle equation and modified Panhandle equation we will discuss this
one by one.
The optimum balance is sought between pipe tonnage and pumping horse power record, how
much quantity is being transported via pipeline and how much energy is required to transport that
natural gas, that function or that relationship must be optimized. For economic operation it is
important to preserve full pipeline utilization whatever the mode the pipelines are designed serial,
parallel or loop pipeline the entire diameter of the pipeline, all this things must be effectively
utilized for transporting natural gas economically.
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If we go further and see how to set up the mathematical equations for this pipeline transportation
mechanism. The theoretical equation can be set up by considering the first law of thermodynamics
several assumption need to made we will make the assumption as we go further and solve the
problem or solve the equation that is in the desired form is how my flow rate is related to pressure
draw down with other important parameter like the fluid properties and diameter and length of the
pipeline as well as the inclination if it is travelling through different terrain.
So under steady state condition, we are just assuming the one dimensional flow in Z direction,
where we are having the pressure difference 𝑝1 − 𝑝2 the length of this pipeline is L if it is having
certain inclination like this we can account that with the help of angle theta that this pipeline is
making if the pipeline is inclined at a particular angle we can adjust the gravity forces accordingly.
So for steady state condition one dimensional flow considering only gas phase is flowing we can
modify that terminology saying dry means only the methane gas mostly the methane gas sweet
means most of the impurities already taken out and compressible that is our natural gas in
compressible gas is flowing through this pipeline of diameter D and length L for this constant
diameter D we can set up the equation considering it is under the horizontal condition or it is at
being certain inclination or the non-horizontal condition the pipeline is layed out.
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We can see the balance of the forces of the flow driving force that is allowing the flow happening
from 𝑝1 to 𝑝2 will be balanced by 3 type of the forces the elevation or potential energy changes
that is happening so the pressure energy will be equal to the potential emery changes happening in
the system because of the friction the pipeline roughness depend on the roughness of the pipeline
the friction forces can be applied and there will be rest in the flow.
So the friction losses should also be accounted in the balance equation as well as kinetic energy
change we are ignoring any shaft work done on the system we are just considering a section of a
pipe where we are saying the pressure is changing from P to 𝑝2 flow is happening at that is applying
ⅆ𝑝
the first law of thermodynamics we can set up the conservation equation that says = kinetic
ⅆ𝐿
energy change frictional losses + potential energy change in the system.
This is one type of differential equation if we can integrate this equation we can get how the
pressure drop is a function of flow rate pipe diameter and fluid properties. If we look more closely
on this equation we can say this equation can be applicable or can be apply for our system where
rho, f and u.
Rho is the density of the fluid the gas which is flowing through the system through this pipeline
f is the friction factor that is offered by the tubing and u is the velocity with means this gas is
flowing through this tube if they can be defined we can solve this equation easily considering any
analytic solution and we can get the desired relationship depends on the system we are having we
can simplified this equation also.
So for example when we are having the horizontal flow this angle should be 0 and we are getting
so this angle should be 0 and we are getting sin theta 0 that is equal to 0 means gravity is not
contributing into this system and we can ignore it. other cases could be there when we are saying
the cross sectional area of tube is not changing the flow is not happening at that high rate where
the kinetic energy change is also contributing for this pressure drop we can ignore this kinetic term
also.
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If it cannot be ignored either one either the gravity or the kinetic we have to include in the
equation and more complex equation need to be solved. Let us go step by step in the first case we
area assuming the gravity is not playing any role as well as kinetic is also not playing role the
pressure drop is happening because of the friction losses only.
When we do so we get very simplified equation that says the pressure drop because of the friction
can be related with the viscous shear or the frictional losses and that is dP / dL = Rho some
mechanical energy losses of work that is getting converted to heat when the fluid is flowing
through this tube because of the resistance offered by the two line heat will be releases to the
environment and that will be equivalent to the pressure drop happening because of this friction
losses.
We can convert this into some flow variable we know how to do it we did two three time we
passed also especially when we are dealing with the WPR well bore performance relationship
𝑓𝑢2
where we can establish this is equal to , and this is responsible for accounting the fluid
2𝑔𝑐 𝐷
properties in terms of f. So thus if we put all of this here what we are going to get the relationship
that says if the flow through pipeline is having is happening in the horizontal tube and no kinetic
energy is changing we got this form of the equation just substituting this here we will get it.
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𝜏
This can also be related by the definition of friction factor that says friction factor 𝑓 = 2 , if
𝜌𝑢 ⁄2
we put that thing we are going to get the similar thing. Here the terms are having their usual
meaning like the pressure the unit may be different and depend on the unit system chosen and in
numerical coefficient any appear there if all the unit system are matching there wil be any
numerical coefficient.
We did this several time in the past so we can ignore this time and rho flow density now a fluid
is not incompressible the density will change and we know from our properties of natural gas class
how to relate rho with the local condition that is P and temperature this is a compressibility should
be small Z. Z compressibility 29 gamma Z is the molecular weight of the natural gas or the apparent
molecular weight of that natural gas.
Similarly when we converting this into the flow properties like the velocity of the fluid we know
u it is difficult to measure the velocity of u. But you can convert that into some quantity those are
locally can be evaluated or can be considered for example we can convert by knowing the flow
rate and cross sectional area u q/A again q is a property of temperature and pressure we can convert
it to q is the standard condition and we will get the expression we did this few times before also
should not be having any problem to understand how we got the expression for rho and u.
When we put in this equation we will see now this function is in terms of pressure and
temperature serious it was in terms of fluid density and velocity and they are the function of local
condition we converted them both density and velocity to pressure condition.
403
When we do so we are going to get the expression that is appear like this after substituting the
value we can also get this expression. So this is rho value we got the equation how the pressure
drop is happening when the fluid is flowing or the gas is flowing through a pipeline of the diameter
D at a particular length in this pipeline we can estimate the pressure at the end or at any location
after solving this differential equation but again the problem is not solved because we see here
when we converted this we have f and u.
This equation which is a balance equation or energy balance equation under certain condition
says how the pressure drop is related to fluid properties and it shows the basic equation for the
development of any pipeline equation under certain assumption those assumption may create some
problem or some deviation from the result obtained by this equation.
For example gravity, kinetic energy were not considered steady state condition may not be a case
when flow is happening and shaft work is not considered there might be some addition work done
on the natural gas form the outside but under certain assumption those we had discussed this
mathematical equation is good enough to represent the flow through horizontal pipeline under
steady state condition through a pipeline of constant diameter.
The difference in this equation originated by the method using handling the compressibility factor
and friction factor so in this equation we will see the compressibility is appearing and f is appearing
and both have dependency on other parameter. Similarly we will see u also depend because by the
definition u is also function of temperature and pressure now.
When we integrate this equation considering all this terms are constant although those are not
constant we will see we will get this kind of expression where it says inside the integral we are
having the pressure, temperature and compressibility temperature may be assume constant may be
taken average similar the pressure either we are evaluating it locally or we are taking it as a constant
or the average by any mean once we know the temperature and pressure as well as gamma Z of
this system we can calculate the compressibility as we know from our properties of our natural gas
class how to calculate the compressibility.
We were discussed one example to understand the procedure of performing the pipeline design
integrating this equation may result in a simple expression but before we go further we see the
404
friction factor eu is function of Reynolds number and of the relative reference of the pipe we cannot
take it out of the derivative term because it is function of Reynolds number. Reynolds number is a
function of flow rate, flow rate is a function temperature and pressure.
Similar for u also so let us see what we can do or each term when we go further for velocity we
can simply this can be converted in terms of temperature and pressure and we can put it inside the
integral side for the f friction factor it depends on which form we are going to calculate the friction
factor value.
So if we look in the literature we see the friction factor versus Reynolds number relationship that
is also called the Moody’s chart relationship that account for the changes happening in the value
of friction factor when a gas or any fluid is passing through a tube of some roughness and some
diameter. So this relationship is log log scale on the Y axis is the friction factor on the X axis it is
Reynolds number and there are several lines those represent for different relative roughness of the
pipe.
If we classify this chart we can see there are four reason when is laminar flow where the flow is
not dependent of the roughness of the pipe it just a Viscous flow or not very high flow rate is
present in the system. In most of the cases in pipe line design we are in the turbulent region before
we hit the turbulent region there is transient region where the distribution in the value of friction
405
𝜀
factor is not that high with respect to then the third reason is complete turbulent region and forth
ⅆ
one is smooth pipe region where it is not depending much on the Reynolds number jus tit deepens
on the roughness of the pipe.
It is important to understand the chart is in terms of Moody’s chart not in the finding friction
factor for so value of f we are getting from where is a Moody’s friction factor, 𝑓𝑀 that is I mention
here 𝑓𝑀 is a function of Reynolds number and roughness depend on which reason we are it is
depending on Reynolds number or not it is depending on the relative roughness of the pipe or not
and what value should be chosen depends on under what condition the flow is happening through
the pipeline.
For example in the laminar region we can see here form this chart this is the region where the
friction factor is just function of Reynolds number and it is having the reciprocal relationship. So
64
the Moody’s friction factor is just can be calculated using ,you do not need to worry about
𝑅𝑒
roughness of the pipe and if it is finding friction factor chart we will see the relationship between
fm = 4 times finding friction factor accordingly the adjustment need to be done.
I case of finding friction factor we will get 𝑓= 16/𝑅𝑒, so we are seeing here the 16 by Nre this
point we will see this chart is respect the finding friction factor otherwise it is Moody friction
factor. The relationship in laminar region can be established by well-known phenomena of Hagen-
Poiseulle flow in the pipeline. Due to the characteristic of the complex nature of the curve several
equations have been designed for this region all three region transient region, turbulent region and
smooth pipe region.
Accordingly we can choose which region the flow is happening in the pipeline not only the region
where the flow is happening in the pipe line but we can see how it is changing with respect to
𝜀
Reynolds number and several expressions have been reported in the literature in the form of
ⅆ
correlation we can choose based on the limit range or condition is specified for each expression
and that we can see in the next slide.
406
We already discussed similar kind of the things when we were developing the relationship before
wpr. In wpr we were having the vertical flow of the gas from 𝑝𝑤𝑓 to 𝑝ℎ𝑓 we discuss the phenomena
with some inclination later on we solve the problem for vertical flow system. Let us come back to
our problem where we said the friction factor f is a function of Reynolds number and of relative
roughness of pipe.
We know by the definition of f or from the Moody’s chart it depends on how to estimate the
relative roughness ed. It is defined as relative roughness of the pipe to the pipe internal diameter,
𝜀
f(ⅆ) , it is the value should be provided by the vendor who design the pipe or who is supplying the
pipeline. Incase it is not available we can calculate by performing certain experiment and see
comparing the pressure drop is happening in a particular pipeline compared the very smooth
pipeline.
We can estimate this value or in other case when we do not have the value we are dependent on
somebody we can choose very acceptable value of f that is 0.0006 inches and divided by the
diameter we can calculate the relative roughness where we know the relative roughness of we need
to know the Reynolds number to read the Moody’s chart. We know by the definition of Reynolds
ⅆ𝑢𝜌
number rho Reynolds number = , by adjusting the parameter as we did in previous classes we
𝜇
can establish the relationship Reynolds number = 20𝑞 𝛾𝑔 𝜇d.
407
So it depends on q, and q depends on temperature and pressure. That is why when we are going
to read the Moody’s chart we should know the flow rate. And if we are going to calculate the flow
rate we have to perform the iteration. So depend on the flow regime we are in the laminar region,
turbulent region, transient region or later turbulent region we can establish the either we can read
the chart and get the value of f for the single phase and multi-phase the system will be different we
have to be little bit careful when we are taking about the multiphase system.
For the laminar flow now we know Moody friction factor is 64/ NRe in case of turbulent single
phase flow system for f value there are several expression only few of them are included in this
several we discussed already in the class of WPR. So for smooth wall pipe Drew, Koo and
McAdams in 1930 they had designed or establish the correlation that says when you are in the
Reynolds number where 103 − 106 , you can use this expression and that says it does not depend
𝜀
on ⅆ, you can just establish the value of f knowing the Reynolds number value.
And this is for smooth pipe when it is a rough pipe Nikuradse say had developed relationship and
that relationship is widely used for the pipe line design because it do not depend on the Reynolds
408
𝜀
number, and you see here this is . So calculate the value of f we need to know only the roughness
ⅆ
of the pipe and if roughness of the pipe is known we can get the value of f.
This is valid for large value of Reynolds number where the effect of relative roughness is
dominant. It is not the value of Reynolds number but the effective roughness that is more
contributing towards deviation in the f value depending on the condition. So to determine f value
we can use this expression, Guo and Ghalambor showed that this expression given by the
Nikuradse for friction factor is valid not only for the gas flow, but also valid for gas flow with
some solid.
𝜀
Further the expression accounting the range of the flow where both f, as well as Reynolds
ⅆ
number are going to dominate the phenomena, and it is developed by Colebrook in 1938. The
relationship says we can also include Reynolds number in Nikuradse expression which accounts
for the Reynolds number effect on the calculation of f. This expression can be put back to
Nikuradse if we assume the Reynolds number effect is not significant this equation will be similar
to what Nikuradse has proposed.
Now in this equation the problem is on the left hand side. where we have the friction factor, and
on the right hand side also we have the friction factor. In this kind of equation, we need to perform
the iteration procedure either by the golden section search or Newton- Raphson method or other
optimization method. We can perform trial and error procedure, and the iteration procedure to
establish the relationship.
In order to avoid this difficulty, Jain in 1976 modified this equation and proposed an equation
which has 𝑒𝐷 , and Reynolds number both, but does not need iteration and this equation proposed
by Jain is recommended for all calculations requiring friction factor determination to a system
where the turbulent flow is happening.
409
So let us comeback to our theoretical equation, which was accounting for change in potential
energy, change in frictional losses, and kinetic energy change for those are continuity to pressure
drop with the help of known parameter like, how to convert density and velocity into temperature
and pressure condition, we could establish this relationship.
And that relationship says now if we know f how to count it can we take it constant or not
similarly for 𝑢2 you can solve this expression we know 𝑢2 cannot be taken out it has to go inside
of the integral sign using this relationship when we integrate this we are going to get this
expression. To integrate this equation we have to make certain assumption for the temperature we
can assume the isothermal process is happening there is not temperature changes happening or
temperature changes happening is represented by the average temperature 𝑇̅.
Similarly the compressibility factor z is measured at the average temperature and average
pressure condition, here average refers to the arithmetic average. We can calculate the
compressibility factor and that can be taken out of the internal sign assuming it is constant in the
process.
When we integrate this we will see after during the separation of pressure term on the left hand
side and others on the right hand side we got this expression if we can re arrange the things we are
going to get in terms of q, where inside the root we have ((𝑝12 − 𝑝22 )𝐷5 , then 𝐷5 came because 𝑢2
we have it as, q / A. So when we square it ((𝑞 ∕ 𝐴)2 , and from it become 𝐷4 , as one D was already
there we will get 𝐷5 here.
410
After adjustment, seeing this is 𝑇𝑏 , 𝑃𝑏 at a particular tape temperature and pressure we can relate
Q with pressure draw down or pressure difference in the square form 𝐷5 means the diameter of
the pipeline, 𝛾𝑔 specific gravity or property of the natural gas average temperature average
compressibility, f value will be put up there and the L the length of the tubing.
All have the usual meaning here depending on the unit system specified for each, we will get this
C the numerical coefficient here, that may get different numerical value. But here again this
equation, we go after doing the integral after making certain assumptions we see the Q on the left
hand side is again dependent on f that is friction factor, and if f is calculated by Reynolds number
iteration are required to come out the accurate solution of this equation.
The specified substitution used may be diameter depended then we already know if we are f that
is just depending on diameter of the tube either it is 𝑑𝑖 or 𝐷𝑖 or it is depends on the Reynolds
number only Panhandle equation derived based on certain assumptions. In the Weymouth
equation, it is just a function of the diameter, and in Panhandle equation it is a function of just
Reynolds number we will see this in the coming slide.
So now the equation that has been developed here is only for horizontal configuration. We
considered 𝜃 = 0,, and we neglected this term as well as the kinetic term assuming constant
diameter tube. Now we can derive the same equation considering the 𝜃 ≠ 0, it is having
particular inclination the pipeline is having inclination from the surface we can establish the
relationship for non-horizontal flow condition also we will do this later on.
411
So let us go for the horizontal flow, what we got when we convert the unit as mentioned in the
last slide the numerical coefficient C that is appearing in the last will get change now, the q will
also get change here it become 𝑞ℎ , it means the flow rate is measured per hour, standard cubic feet
per hour and the numerical coefficient appearing here remaining things are same, it has been taken
outside and this term is called transmission factor
So when by f and its root is called transmission factor, the Moody’s friction factor may be a
function of flow rate and pipe roughness that we discussed depends on the functionality of f this
may take different forms for fully turbulent flows. Reason for f may be defined like this where it’s
𝜀
not a function of Reynolds number just the relative roughness 𝑒𝐷 or in other term ⅆ, we can say
using this it is not depending on the Reynolds number if not complete turbulent reason is there f
depends on the Reynolds number and we have to calculate the Reynolds number put it in the
equation of f which uses the Reynolds and iteration need to be performed to calculate the 𝑞ℎ value.
So not depending on the f functionality, chosen the mathematical equation that is the solution
of simple balance equation may take different form.
412
So for example Weymouth equation, it is widely used for the horizontal flow, and it eliminates
the trial and error procedure, by just assuming f is a function of diameter alone. If we express f in
0.032
the form , we will get 𝑞ℎ in standard cubic feet per hour the flow rate with respect to some
𝐷 1/3
base temperature and pressure will take this form.

Here because of D, the 𝐷5 got converted to 𝐷16/3 , and other things are almost same. The
Weymouth equation is commonly used in natural gas industries to establish the relationship
between q, pressure, temperature, diameter of the pipe and other properties. But this equation is
under certain assumption what we assume no mechanical work is done steady flow is happening
isothermal condition is assume so T either it is isothermal constant temperature or 𝑇̅ is chosen to
represent the flow constant, and compressibility factor 𝑧̅ is constant.
So it is calculated either at a average pressure that average pressure could be just athematic
𝑝1 +𝑝2
average or may be the athematic average of compressibility itself. So compressibility is
2
calculated at pressure 𝑝1 and then 𝑝2 , we get 𝑧1 and 𝑧2 , and then take the arithmetic average of
both, we are going to get the average value of compressibility or it might be defined in other form
where how the compressibility is changing with respect to pressure, in this pressure range 𝑝1 to 𝑝2
𝑝
integrating the area under the curve in the form of,∫𝑝 2 𝑧 𝑑𝑝, and dividing this by this 𝑝1 − 𝑝2 , we
1
can get the average value of the compressibility.
413
The pressure may be chosen either as a athematic average or may be other more complex form
which provide the accurate value of the average representation of the pressure that depends on the
way pressure is changing with respect to 𝑝1 and 𝑝2 can it be taken as average. Similarly the
compressibility factor z, how it is changing linearly with respect to pressure, may be just average
is good enough or if it is not changing linearly with respect to pressure. We may use this area under
the curve to calculate compressibility value that average condition or it is the average value of the
We also assume the flow is horizontal, 𝜃 = 0, and no kinetic energy changes happen in the
system. If any of the assumptions mentioned here are not applicable, we have to modify the
equation because the results obtained by setting the mathematical equation under this assumptions
will deviate from the real results. That is can be done by including term into the equation like we
did in WPR where the flow was happening at a inclination angle and we assume gravity plays an
important role in fact in a vertical pipeline system gravity plays a major role to place the pressure
draw down around 75% and that is where we can we could establish the relationship.
Similarly we can do for the transportation of natural gas pipeline, also another method that is
Panhandle A equation, Panhandle had given two equations Panhandle and modified Panhandle
equation. In Panhandle equation for the horizontal flow it is proposed the f is not just a function of
diameter it is a function of Reynolds number only.
414
In another terms Reynolds number include the diameter, so it includes the diameter but including
the roughness of the pipe, and if it assume in this manner putting the equation that we had, we are
going to get the resultant pipeline flow equation in this form this is little bit complex because
Reynolds number will impose all these parameter this system to be included.
And we will get this expression where all the terms are like 𝑝1 , 𝑝2 are the average temperature
average compressibility factor are there 𝛾𝑔 power got changed, and the power of d also got changed.
Here the numerical coefficient again depend on the unit system and here it is consider as q that is
the gas flow rate in cfd (cubic feet per day) measured at based temperature and based pressure
other terms are same as we already considered for the Weymouth equation.
In Panhandle as we already consider for the Weymouth equation in Panhandle B equation this is
modified form of Panhandle A equation where it is assumed the modification has been done in
terms of so the power of the Reynolds number and the numerator coefficient both are little bit
modified to propose more accurate equation to account the relationship between the and the other
parameter and the equation will take this form.
We are not going to put this value and reaching this equations it is an exercise you can do and
the important is you will get this expression of q in different for depend on how f is chosen and
𝜀
how f is related to one particular parameter like ⅆ and Reynolds number or it is just a diameter or
415
it is just a Reynolds number and with respective Reynolds number also it is in ex-form and the
biform as it is done in Panhandle A and Panhandle B model.
1
Let us understand what is this transmission factor,√𝑓, that appears in the mathematical equation
that we established for the flow through pipeline and that form dependence on system that we
chosen so for the smooth pipeline system we can say just it is a function of Reynolds number when
Weymouth equation consider on the diameter and handle consider Reynolds number with different
numerical coefficient then Panhandle equation.
For the rough pipe we can just ignore Reynolds number and can just include the 𝑒ⅆ , relative
roughness of the pipe to have the transmission factor and ultimately that transmission factor we
give us value of f friction factor.
416
Another thing that did not count in establishing the relationship is pipeline efficiency all pipeline
flow equation developed so far are based on the consideration that only gas is flowing through the
pipe this is single phase system. But in actual practice water condensate and sometime small
amount of the oil are also present if the junk gets accumulated in a pipeline and some part of the
pipeline miss if they reduce the effective diameter through which can gas can flow.
They create some more problems also we discussed later on but the presence of these liquid in
the pipeline reduce the efficiency of pipeline to transport the amount of the gas from one place to
other place that it important with respect to the transportation. There are often scale formation or
junk left in the line and to account all these things there should be terms that is should be multiply
with the expression obtained that says the correction in the flow rate that is actually transported
then the theoretical value.
So the equations based on certain assumption considering ideal gases are giving us the flow rate
that theoretical can be transported for calculating the actual value it can be multiplied by the
pipeline efficiency that comes in the range of 0.85 to 0.95 compared to clean line and the table
source for a type of line it is a dry gas you can use 0.92 if casing head gas where the a gas is having
all sort of the impurities as well as higher carbon number hydrocarbons then the efficiency will
reduce 0.77 only and the gas and condensate are present then the efficiency will further go down
to 0.6.
417
Depending on the liquid condense, that is how much liquid content in the system in gallon per
mmcf the efficiency factor should be multiplied by theoretical equation should get the actual value
of the gas that can be transported through the pipeline which has been designed to transport the
gas.
So in summary we can see in a horizontal flow system we are having the Weymouth equation,
Panhandle equation, Panhandle B equation and only difference is how the f is chosen we are going
to get the difference things. Here the q is mentioned in 𝑞ℎ that is why the different numerical
coefficient 18.062 is appearing here if it also transport to per day we will see this same value and
we are above the same value that is summarizes in this table also.
So if all these three equation can be represented in the empirical formula here this is a more
general way of expressing the flow through pipeline or flow through horizontal pipeline we can
say the 𝑎1 , 𝑎2 , 𝑎3 , 𝑎4 , 𝑎5 can be written for each equation Weymouth, Panhandle and Panhandle
B equation we can summarize from this table like for example Weymouth here it is 433.5 as I said
this is in hours if we convert this into days we will get the similar thing 433.5.
And others like here we got 16/3 if we divide this we are going to get this same value with respect to
the diameter 𝑞5 2.667. So this represent the general where the coefficient value 𝑎1 , 𝑎2 , 𝑎3 , 𝑎4 , 𝑎5
depends on which model equation is chosen and what are the unit area associated with each
418
parameters involved in this expression. These expression are certain under certain assumption no
mechanical work under steady state condition isothermal constant value compressibility factors
only the flow happening in one direction that is also with the horizontal flow and no kinetic energy
change is happening in the system.
If kinetic energy changes in the system we are having this system u du and if this is there we
know how to convert this u similar this u will also get converted and we have to include this in the
−4𝑞𝑠𝑐 𝑍𝑇 𝑝𝑠𝑐
expression and addition term we will be getting in our system that will like , standard
𝑝2 𝑇𝑠𝑐
temperature conditions so this will also become 𝑞𝑠𝑐 to the power 2dp/p to the power, and when we
are including this term in our energy balance equation ultimately we will get in the form of 𝑝1 2 −
𝑝
𝑝2 2 , additional term we will get because of the kinetic energy is ln (𝑝1) along with that terms here.
2
419
So for the horizontal flow there are some other equations also available in the literature, like the
Clinedinst equation that is account how the pressure changes happening in the system is going to
affect the behavior of the natural gas is the deviation of natural gas from the ideal gas can be
represented by this equation. So the compressibility factor is inside the integral sign and it is
integrated from 0 to first reduced pressure at condition one and 0 to reduce pressure at condition
two. Here we can get the expression, and this expression may give us more accurate result in terms
of the deviation of natural gas is more compared to ideal gas.
So the 𝑧𝑏 gas deviation factor is calculated at 𝑇𝑏 , 𝑝𝑏 normally accepted as 1.0 based on the pseudo
critical pressure. The value of integral function have been calculated for various gas in one of the
appendix there are several data have been compiled for this method. The expressions are usual
here q is Mcf per say pressure is in psia, D is in inch length and feet, P are pseudo reduce pressure
which is having no unit and 𝑇̅ is in Rankine and 𝛾𝑔 is gas specific gravity.
420
When we talk about Weymouth equation for non-horizontal flow we see the gas transmission
line for the non-horizontal flow are often appears when we talk about long distance natural gas
flow system and at several places the natural gas is not natural gas pipeline is not horizontal but it
is having certain inclination from the surface and depend on the terrain is going to cross this might
be appearing very frequently. For that case we have to account how the gravity term is going to
affect the relationship because in this kind of the system the gravity will also be important.
Considering that thing we have to establish the relationship again and that says this terms cannot
be ignored however kinetic energy can still be ignored if the constant diameter pipe is used. So
considering gas flow from one point to another point in a non-horizontal pipe the first law of
thermodynamics is for.
1
Here this is pressure so here this is specific volume that is 𝜌, 𝑑𝑧 is just the inclination, we can say
lz, which is similar to vertical elevation distance. This is dz and f is having usual meaning, u is
having usual meaning, d and dl again this can be used to describe the pressure drop is happening
in this dz length can be 𝜌𝑔 /144, 144 is because of the conversion factor like this gamma is ok we
know how to convert this density of the gas and the pressure and temperature term.
421
Again the velocity we already did this in WPR class, when we understand if we have the gravity
term, friction term, and pressure term altogether is in the separation of well after making certain
assumption. We can convert this in the form of pdp upon some constant + some p constant and
integrate this from 𝑝1 to 𝑝2 for length L and where we had taken this 𝑎 + 𝑏𝑝2 = 𝑥, and we could
integrate this by having in the very well of separation.
Finally we got the expression in the form of e to the power some value here if we do the same
thing we will get the same expression instead of repeating the expression what I can show you
the Weymouth equation for non-horizontal flow will be distinguish by this term compared to
422
what we had for the horizontal flow is 𝑒 𝑠 . While s is function of 𝛾𝑔 this elevation dz average
temperature average compressibility the del z is equal to outlet elevation – the inlet elevation del
z is positive when outlet is higher than inlet.
So the sign will depend on the elevation, it is upward or it is downward. If the flow is happening
at general and rigorous form of Weymouth equation with compensation for elevation cn be
represented like this, where the difference between the equations is the 𝐿𝑒 , and 𝐿 is the effective
length of the pipeline that means if the effective length of the pipeline is included here we can get
more general and rigorous form of the flow.
This expression is written for Weymouth equation similar can be written for the Panhandle A and
Panhandle B.
𝑒 𝑠−1
The effective length is 𝐿( ), and when there is a situation when multiple different elevations
𝑠
are appearing in the path way we can adjust again with the effective length le considering these
𝑒 𝑠−1 𝑒 𝑠−1
multiple inclination either upward or downward considering formula 𝐿1 + 𝐿2 + ⋯, and
𝑠 𝑠
𝑒 𝑠𝑛 −1
if we write the end term it will be 𝑒 𝑠1+𝑠2+..+𝑠𝑛 .
𝑠𝑛
423
So summation of each individual segment or in individual segment we can get the effective length
value here. Here s is having the same value, only the thing is 𝑑𝑧𝑖 for each segment the 𝑑𝑧 will be
different. So we can establish our relationship for horizontal as well as for non-horizontal flow
condition.
In the next class, we will understand using the Weymouth equation, how to establish the
relationship between q and other parameters. We will solve one problem on that, and how to layout
the pipeline design considering the concept of series pipeline, like here, where the pipeline
diameter changes, it is in the series and when we are establishing the parallels, or looped where
some part of the pipeline is series, and some part in the parallel mode.
We will consider all this with Weymouth equation, the colleague we can do with other form of
the equation because the equation differ in terms of how friction factor is included in the balance
equation. So with this I would like to end the today’s lecture and in tomorrow’s lecture, we will
discuss pipeline design, and other mode of natural gas transportation thank you very much.
424
Prof. Pankaj Tiwari
Module No # 04
Lecture No # 20
Transportation of Natural Gas – II
Hello everyone, today’s lecture is a continuation of previous lecture on transportation of natural gas.
So let us recap quickly the last lecture on transportation of natural gas.
When the natural gas is purified, it is ready to go to consumer in different forms like natural gas can
be transported through the pipeline in the form of LNG, CNG, GTL, and others. Based on the
amount of natural gas to be transported, and the distance or terrain it covers, the appropriate mode
of transportation has to be chosen. We discussed in detail about the pipeline, briefly on the LNG,
CNG and GTL, the infrastructure, and market available for the natural gas is also one of the major
factor that determines which mode of the transportation of natural gas should be chosen.
If there is an adequate infrastructure or LNG or CNG mode, and the demand at the user side is
significant at a local place or at a distant place appropriate mode can be chosen.
425
In the last lecture, we focussed on transportation through pipeline. The pipeline system can be
classified in three ways, gathering system where the natural gas from different sources is gathered
may be this is from different wells, different gas processing units, that is why this part should be
chosen at an appropriate place where it is able to cover large number of the gas wells in the same
reservoir pool.
Now this should also have the facilities to accommodate the gas that is imported from other places
or some other sources. Then it travels through the main trunk line, the big diameter pipeline reached
to a place from where it is distributed again through a small diameter pipeline to consumer.
Consumer can be individual houses in that case or others in between these two the gathering station
and consumer, it is not only the pipeline that plays a major role of transportation, other factors
associated with transportation of natural gas are the supply and demand that should also be
considered for the storage facilities either in the depleted well reservoir or in the LNG form.
In LNG, plant facilities should also be designed as a part of pipeline design system. There are
significant things to consider here like to maintain the pressure or to maintain the through port of
the natural gas from one place to another place should also be considered.
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To do that, in the last lecture we started setting up the mathematical equation using the first law of
thermodynamics for a case of steady state one dimensional flow in the Z direction from pressure 𝑝1
to 𝑝2 . We could setup the mathematical equation, and that says the pressure drop in this pipeline is
because of gravity, friction, kinetic, and there might be shaft work. Certain terms can be dropped,
we did this for the case when the pipeline is horizontal. This is not contributing to a constant area,
and constant diameter pipeline. So the kinetic energy also does not contribute, and the simplification
of this equation after considering, how to calculate f, we could establish the relationship that says
how the desired relationship that is q is a function of pressure difference like 𝑝1 and 𝑝2 . Both the
terms are appearing the expression along with dimension of the pipe and fluid properties.
1
So this is the standard equation depending on how we are substituting for the , this is the
√𝑓
transmission factor, where we can get different form of the equation.

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Considering that we could set up the equation like Weymouth equation, Panhandle equation,
Panhandle B equation. So with this background of the last lecture, let us solve a problem where it is
a given to design a pipeline to transport the natural gas from point 1 to point 2. The conditions are
given like the diameter of this pipeline is 10 inches and the length is 150 miles.
The pressure at one end is 𝑝1 = 500 𝑝𝑠𝑖𝑎, and it is delivering the natural gas to other point and the
point where we analyse the performance of this pipeline the pressure at point 2 is 200 psia. Tube of
10 inches diameter, 150 miles long is transporting natural gas from one end which is at 500 psia to
another end which is at 200 psia. We consider the equation derived in the last class considering no
kinetic energy, no shaft work is being applied on the system, and the constant diameter pipeline as
well as isothermal conditions are assumed.
The average temperature is also specified, and that is given is 80 degree Fahrenheit or 500 Rankine,
we also know the base pressure those are appearing in this equation. The 𝑇𝑏 , base temperature can
be chosen in the different units let us say degree Fahrenheit it is 60 and converting it in degree
ranking it becomes 520 R similar for the base pressure it is 14.7 psia.
So let us see, what information is given, and what we need. When we consider or predict the gas
flow rate in a unit of cubic feet per hour and the expression we have on the right hand side, big
expression are there and the units are made in such a manner, the 𝑞ℎ will give us cubic feet per hour
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or the desired unit of the q, that we want from this equation. Now what is not given to us is f , we
will talk about this. 𝑝1 and 𝑝2 are given, T is the average temperature, length of the tube is given,
and 𝛾𝑔 is not given. So we can say that, the gas that is getting transported from point 1 to point 2
has certain specific gravity. Now let us see, how to calculate compressibility?
To calculate the compressibility factor, we need to know the average temperature and average
pressure. Average temperature is given, we can assume the average pressure just taking it as 𝑝𝑎𝑣𝑔 =
𝑝1 + 𝑝2 , and when we get the value of average pressure as 350 psia. Now knowing the average
temperature, average pressure, specific gravity of the gas, by using the methods like the Bril and
Becks method, we can calculate the compressibility factor.
So let us assume, we got the value of compressibility factor as 0.9298. Now the f remains unknown,
and in this expression otherwise I can get the 𝑞ℎ by putting every value in this expression. Now
question comes, how to know the f from the last class or the WPR class. We understand the f,
depends on the roughness of the pipe. So nothing is mentioned so far about that.
Let us say this information is also given to us, that is 𝜀, the roughness of the pipe that is equal to
0.0006 or not given we can always assume this as the value. Next to know is f, to know this friction
factor we can go to literature and depending on the Reynolds number or the depending on the flow
regime, we can calculate either from the chart or from the expression given in the literature how to
calculate the f value.
To know the friction factor value we need to know the Reynolds number to read the Moody’s chart.
𝜀
We can calculate 𝑑, because 𝜀, 𝑑 the internal diameter of the tube are known. So we can calculate
𝜀/𝑑, Reynolds number, so let us see by the definition in the desired units that we discussed in the
0.48 𝛾𝑔 𝑞
last class, the Reynolds number expression appears like . We know 𝛾𝑔 , q is in cfh, 𝜇 is in
𝜇𝑑
centipoise, and d is in inch. So diameter is also given to us in inch, and based on that Reynolds
number expression we will get the numerical factor because of adjusting the units for parameters
appearing in this expression. Now question comes, 𝛾𝑔 is known to us, d is known to us, what about
q because we are supposed to calculate q. What about 𝜇 the Viscosity of the gas that is being
transported from 0.1 to 2, through the pipe which is having roughness 0.00006, and the pressure at
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one end is 500 pisa, and the other end is at 200 psi. We can calculate the viscosity of the gas knowing
the average temperature and average pressure of the system. So let us see if I use that method of the
CKB I got the value of viscosity as 1.34 centipoise.
So I know now viscosity, q is not known, and to know the Reynolds number, the next thing to know
is the f that is appearing in the expression. I need to know the Reynolds number that is where the
iteration is required because we are going to calculate the value of q with the help of Reynolds
number, and while Reynolds number depend on q for that we can do the iteration procedure?
Let us assume some value of q at first instance as 500000, the flow rate is in cfh. After assuming
this value we calculate now the Reynolds number value and when we are calculating the Reynolds
number we can put q in the expression in Gen 1976 which is recommended in most of the turbulent
flow conditions where how to calculate the f that is just depends on both roughness of the pipe or
𝜀
relative roughness of the pipe that is 𝑑 and Reynolds number.
So now we know the relative roughness of the pipe assuming the value of q, we know the Reynolds
𝜀
number after putting that, Reynolds number in this expression and they are 𝑑 value. I can calculate
the value of f using this expression and when it is done I get some value of f now this f should be
used in the expression of q , whatever the form we are taking like Weymouth equation other that
depends on this f.
So this is general equation when the expression for f is not included, it is just calculated separately.
We have chosen the Gen 1976 model to calculate the f , putting the f value along with other
parameters we can calculate the 𝜇, q value. Now match the q value which is assumed, with this
calculated value of q. If not then we can take this is the next assumption repeat the procedure,
calculate the Reynolds number.
So we can calculate again the new Reynolds number value, 𝜇, f value and q, 𝜇 value and we got this
improvement it is not 500000 it is 664000 + in the second round it got improved to some new value.
When we put this value in the third trial, perform the same calculation got the another new value
comparing this with the old one, and still there is a significant difference. we can go for one more
iteration. Now comparing these two values the different is only 9 cfh.
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So if this is okay, we can stop here, otherwise we can go for some more iterations, and to calculate
the value of q and that is where the iteration procedure is required. Because our f depends on
Reynolds number, and Reynolds number depend on q and we are calculating q. So after doing this
thing we came to know what is the flow rate, with that the gas passing through this tube came out
as 0.67 million cubic feet per hour.
Similar exercise can be done considering the other expression for f like Weymouth equation, we can
calculate the 𝑞ℎ value. In that Weymouth, consider only diameter as it is responsible for calculating
the f value not the Reynolds number or the relative roughness of the pipe. Some numerical
coefficient appearing in that expression account for the relative roughness of the pipe as well as for
the flow regime.
If we can calculate the value of 𝑞ℎ with the method of Weymouth, it is comes out as 0.6 million cfh.
So still there is a difference between the value which we calculated by iteration procedure or by
Weymouth equation but in a range of like 0.67 and 0.6, Weymouth equation is a good approximation
because we do not know this method is correct or not for that what we can do, we cannot go to
Moody’s Chart and see the Reynolds number is varying in the range of 1.7 × 106 .
𝜀
In that range, it depends on also, not on the Reynolds number so both the expressions, this
𝑑
expression consider the relative roughness that is why it may be as relatively more accurate
compared to Weymouth equation. We are getting, and that is why this Gen 1976 model is
recommended for the turbulent flow region because it predict how the f value is changing with
respect to effective roughness as well as Reynolds number.
With this example it is clear how to set up the equation, how to perform the iteration to get the
missing parameter in the problem it was 𝑞ℎ itself, which was supposed to be calculated when the
other conditions are given to us.
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In the last class we could set up the expression for different forms of pipeline equations, like the
Weymouth which consider how f is changing with respect to diameter only. Panhandle equation, it
is not diameter alone but it is in the form of Reynolds number, the expression is given which was
further modified and other expression given putting all these three f in the previous equation or in
the general equation, we can get this expression.
We could also write the empirical pipe line equation, that says in the general form we can write in
a manner where 𝑎1 , 𝑎2 , 𝑎3 , 𝑎4 , 𝑎5 could have some numerical value and the numerical value are
according to the equation that is Weymouth equation Panhandle equation and Panhandle B equation.
So with this background, let us understand how to set up the line or pipeline system in series,
parallel, and loop manner.
It is often required, the throughput should be increased. Previously for example a particular place is
having X demand, now the demand in that particular place is increased, how to modify the pipeline
system, what design system, or design approach should be chosen to meet that demand at consumer
end. For that either the entire pipeline system may be modified or just the modification can be done
in the existing pipeline system to meet to demand or the throughput that can be transported from the
existing pipeline system.
This requires the setup of parallel, series, or looped pipelines system. Not only to meet the
throughput but for the cleaning purpose also, or the pipeline may go through pressure de-rated
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condition, means those become old and they cannot handle certain amount of the pressure may be
that portion of the pipeline or the pipeline in that reason can be put in the loop or in series or in
parallel condition to meet the throughput at the other hand.
So a common economical solution is to place one or more lines in parallel either partially or
throughout the line. To replace a portion of the line with a larger one that can be done. So the setup
in this manner either partially or fully, we can go with the series parallel and series parallel that is
called the combination of, and it is named as a loop pipeline system. The general philosophy about
setup of the pipeline in series parallel or in a loop manner involved in deriving the special
relationship used in the solution of complex transmission system that express the barriers length and
diameter of pipe in the system as equivalent length of common diameter.
So the equivalent length of the common diameter or equivalent diameter of common length, their
equivalence means that both the lines have the same capacity with the same total pressure drop. So
when we are setting up the series, parallel, and loop pipeline system because of different reasons
meeting the throughput considering the cleaning option under the philosophy like the pressure at
both the point should be maintained as well as the capacity should also be maintained.
The equivalent length of common diameter or equivalent diameter of common length should be
considered in this case, what happens when we are changing certain part of the pipeline, we will see
how by changing that portion, how the total flow rate or the capacity of the gas that can be
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transported will get change. There could be N number of combinations that can be setup in precious
case. For example we have 150 miles long pipeline, we setup the mathematical equation to calculate
the 𝑞ℎ . Similarly between the 150 miles pipeline, between 0.1 and 0.2 certain portion may be put up
for the series, and parallel. Common option is series parallel combination, and increase in the
throughput. This is required to meet the demand at the other end.
So let us understand, how the series, parallel, and loop parallel are installed. So for example in this
series, this is what the series pipeline system, where initially we have the pipeline like this, which
has the diameter 𝐷1 , pressure 𝑝1 at the one end, and pressure 𝑝2 at the other end. Or if I say pressure
𝑝1 at the point 1 of interest, and the other point of interest 2 where the pressure was 𝑝4 .
So maintaining the pressure 𝑝1 to 𝑝4 , pipe line can be installed in a series manner where the part of
the total length L is divided into segments. Let us say in three segments 𝐿1 , 𝐿2 and 𝐿3 . So this 𝐿2
part is replaced with higher diameter say 𝐷2 , and we are going to have the larger diameter pipe for
this length segment.
So 𝐿1 remains as the original pipeline, 𝐿2 segment is replaced by 𝐷2 and because of the change in
the diameter, the pressure at the outlet of the 2 will change. Let us say it is 𝑝3 and similarly at this
point the another segment of this entire length L that we can say 𝐿3 , that segment is also replaced
with a little bit more larger diameter tube.
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So let us say it is 𝐷3 , and the pressure at this end is 𝑝4 , so when the single line was there pressure
was from 𝑝1 to 𝑝4 . Now the size has got changed, the diameter has been changed at two locations,
at two segments 𝐿2 and 𝐿3 . We have the pressure distribution like this, inside of it, this is a series
combination where the capacity can be increased. In parallel case, what happens we have this total
𝑞2 , that is flowing between pressure points 𝑝1 and 𝑝2 . Now the pipeline of diameter 𝐷1 , and 𝑞1 was
put under the parallel condition, between these two points another pipeline of diameter 𝐷2 with a
flow rate 𝑞2 has been setup, and because of that the flow rate in this pipe becomes 𝑞1 , and another
pipeline is also installed in parallel, 𝑞3 . So we have the 3 parallel pipelines system here, and
conditions are maintained in such a manner that 𝑝1, 𝑝2 are same.
You want to see the capacity increasing because of putting the pipelines in parallel, with two
different diameters not necessary the diameter of the new pipelines always higher than the previous.
They may be smaller diameter 𝐷2 , 𝐷3 may be the smaller diameter but in complete parallel pipeline,
we have the entire length L, has been put in the parallel mode with the pipe of different diameters
or the same diameter can also be there and with length L.
While in the looping system, it is 𝐷2 , and the other is 𝐷3 . So initially a pipeline of diameter 𝐷3 ,
certain segment of that let us say is 𝐿1 , segment has been transferred to parallel line option where
we have the two parallel branches of the different diameter 𝐷1 , and 𝐷2 . So for all these
combinations, we can say for the particular segment let us see in a series this segment, again it is
pipe with relative roughness with f value, the pressure difference is air, it has the diameter, non gas
is getting pass through this section. We know the 𝛾𝑔 of that, we can get the compressibility factor,
and the viscosity also.
So now we can set up the equation for each segment, that is appearing in all the combinations.
Example, here in series we can set up this equation for simplicity we had considered the Weymouth
equation, but similar problem solved with Panhandle equation either A or B or any other equation,
the difference is in the form of f is calculated.
So let us see, in series we can set up for this and this each section 𝐿1 , 𝐿2 , 𝐿3 . Similarly we can do for
this, we can do for parallel and loop line. Let us understand one by one how we can do that.
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So when the pipelines are in series, similar symmetric diagram is here the pipeline 𝐿1 , which is the
original pipeline we have, the 𝐿2 , and then we have 𝐿3 three segments. Different diameters, different
pressure drops but the common point is here, where both the different diameter pipes are getting
joined we have the common pressure 𝑝2 , similarly here 𝑝3 .
So for this case, first segment, second segment, third segment all the information is given to us. We
can set up, let us apply the Weymouth equation for each segment for this pressure drop 𝑝1 to 𝑝2 . We
can set up the equation, this is the same equation but we just converted that from q form to 𝑝1 2 −
𝑝2 2 form, just taking everything on the other side we can set up that thing. The advantage is for each
segment, we can set up in terms of pressure. So for segment 1 it is 𝑝1 to 𝑝2 everything is here, the
only difference is diameter 𝑑1 , and 𝐿1 others are same. This is because 𝑞ℎ is flowing from all, we
have the second segment where diameter is different from 𝐷2 , and length is different from 𝐿2 . The
pressure difference is 𝑝2 to 𝑝3 . So it is from 𝑝2 to 𝑝3 , we can setup the equation like this. Similarly
we can do for the third segment, now when we can do this for 1, 2, 3 segments, we can do it for N
number of segments it does not matter 2, 3, 4, 5. We understand how to set up the equation for each
segment of length 𝐿1 and diameter 𝐷1 , we can derive the expression.
Now when we sum all the three, 𝑝2 will cancel out similarly, 𝑝3 will cancel out. So this term will
cancel out, and we will left with 𝑝1 2 − 𝑝4 2 , on the left hand side, right hand side this is a common
part that come out separately. This is also common part, temperature, compressibility, 𝛾𝑔 that is not
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going to change with the diameter, length of the pipeline. This part will be different, then the single
segment equation that says the form of 𝐿/𝐷 in the Weymouth form. We are going to get the addition
𝐿1
of , similar for 𝐿2 , and 𝐿3 segments.
𝐷1 16/3
Now we can convert this back again to the form we want, that is 𝑞ℎ . After doing that, we are getting
this expression. This expression should also have PV in the denominator. So we have the 𝑞ℎ form,
when this segment of a pipeline or port in series, now we have the equation q also with us, that says
for example the entire pipeline it just has, 𝐷1 diameter, and spread for all length L. So originally this
was like this equation and the pressure 𝑝1 was here, 𝑝4 was here. That is still there 𝑝1 and 𝑝4 , we
can set up the equation for the same. Adjusting this equation is not required because we already
have in the form of 𝑞ℎ , now what we can do, we can divide 𝑞/𝑞ℎ , just to see how much gas capacity
got increased by changing certain segment of the pipeline with a larger diameter here. We have
chosen 𝐷2 , and 𝐷3 are larger than 𝐷1 , if we divide this Q then we can say 𝑞𝑡 , with this 𝑞1 , we are
going to get this expression. This expression says, on the numerator you has some L and D, and in
the denominator you has the L and D for all three segments. Now, just to know how much gas
capacity increases, we do not need all calculations did in the previous example, how to calculate
compressibility factor, f value, and other thing we can just know how much segment of original or
existing pipeline has been replaced by other diameter pipe? We can calculate the increase in the gas
capacity, we will solve one problem to do that.
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Let us go with the parallel mode, in parallel mode we have this again 𝑝1 , and 𝑝2 at 1 end, and 2 end.
We can set up the equation for this pipeline 𝑞1 , 𝑞2 and 𝑞3 for each pipeline, which has the different
diameters, different flow rates. We can calculate 𝑞1 , 𝑞2 and 𝑞3 . Now this q should be 𝑞𝑡 , that total
flow rate 𝑞𝑡 can be calculated by doing the summation of all three pipeline flow rates.
So this is 𝑞1 , 𝑞2 , 𝑞3 , if we sum up we get 𝑞𝑡 = 𝑞1 + 𝑞2 + 𝑞3 , and after doing this summation we see

the L is common in all three expressions. This is just the diameter that is different, so we are going
to get the diameter in this form, it is getting sum up because the different diameter pipelines are in
parallel, the total q should be depend on the diameter of the pipe installed, parallel to the existing
one.
Similarly, we can calculate how much increment is happening in terms of gas capacity, we can
divide this 𝑞2 considering this 𝑞1 is there, that is already we have this expression. If we do so, we
get this expression and in this expression we see even the length is cancelled out, because all the
three lines are occupying the entire length L of the existing pipe line, and it just a matter, what size
of the diameter pipeline in installed in parallel to the existing one that is going to decide the increase
in the q value.
Now when we have a system, where we are installing parallel as well as series pipelines, and
calculating the increment in the flow rate. We can apply the similar principle of series and parallel
here, so for example between these two points we have the parallel combination, and for that we
understand how to calculate the total flow rate that is 𝑞1 + 𝑞2 , will tell us the total flow rate between
pressure 𝑝1 , and 𝑝3 .
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So here total flow rate is 𝑞1 + 𝑞2 , and that is between 𝑝1, and 𝑝3 . Pressure is adjusting, this equation
will take this form, and in this form we have 𝐿1 , and that 𝐿1 here is 𝐷1 , 𝐷2 both are in parallel, will
go to denominator, and this is same mode as we did in the parallel line. Now this system is in series
with this 𝐿3 pipeline, here is the 𝐿3 segment. So we can setup again the Weymouth equation for the
third segment, and in this form we are going to get 𝑝3 − 𝑝2 equation.
Now we can replace this 𝑝3 2 , when we add up both the equations the relationship between 𝑝1 , and
𝑝2 . So between these two points 𝑝1 and 𝑝2 , we have the relationship which accounts for both series
as well as parallel combination. If it is considered the parallel mode was not chosen, it is just a single
diameter 𝐷3 pipeline, that was originally here. We got this expression, and when we divide 𝑞𝑡 with
the 𝑞3 , that is the original flow rate. If there is no pipeline is installed we will get this expression.
Again this expression will tell us how much increase can be expected or achieved when we do this
arrangement. Here this equation depends on both length as well as diameter, because it has the
combination of series and parallel.
So we can understand this, with the help of one example, that says a pipeline can be put in series,
parallel, and loop pipeline. Here could be N number of options that we will discuss in next slide,
but for example the pipeline is under consideration, and this pipeline has certain diameter. So I can
write the diameter that is 6 inches, and the length from here to here let us for simplicity, write it as
the small length that is 20 miles.
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Now this pipeline under the consideration, we are not going to put other details like, what is the 𝛾𝑔 ?
What is the relative roughness? Because those are not appearing, when we are talking about putting
the system under the calculation for calculating increase in gas capacity of the pipeline, while we
are installing series, parallel, or loop pipeline systems along with this one. So let us say this pipeline
of 20 miles with diameter 6 inches was subjected to consider series, parallel, and loop system.
We need to know the pressure at one end 𝑝1 , and at the other end 𝑝2 . Here we are assuming the 𝑝1
and 𝑝2 or little bit far from both the pressures and delivery point this is the segment which is not
getting affected by the compressor or delivery point, this is just a segment of the long pipeline which
we counted as the 20 miles in the length, and 6 inches in diameter. Knowing this pressure 𝑝1 and 𝑝2
the pipeline was subjected for series case. In this series consideration, the 5 miles of this pipeline let
us say 5 miles is taken out, and instead of that a pipeline of bigger size let us say this has diameter
of 10 inches is installed. So this is 5 miles, 6 inches diameter has been taken out, and the same length
5 mile large, diameter 10 inches is installed here. You want to see the increase in the q that is going
to be by doing this arrangement. So we have the expression 𝑞𝑞𝑡 , here and L original length. So that is
1
L = 20, diameter 𝐷1 that is the original diameter that is 6 inches, and this all is in the same units. We
do not need to worry about converting the unit system, this is 20 miles.
Now 𝐿1 , which remains after making the system under the series, we have the 𝐿1 after taking 5 miles,
it will be 15 miles, and 𝐿2 which is the next pipeline size, 5 miles. Now, what we can do, we need
to know the diameter 𝐷2 , we have this 𝐷2 = 10 inches. Now we have the expression there is no 𝐷3 ,
we have just the segment in 2 parts 𝐿1 and 𝐿2 , when we put everything in this expression this
expression came from Wey mouth expression. When we put in this expression we get the value of
this expression as 1.1423 that says after replacing the 5 miles pipeline of 6 inches diameter by the
same length pipeline of 10 inches diameter, the increase in gas capacity is 14%. There could be
another possibility where we are saying parallel to this pipeline of 20 miles, another pipeline of 10
inches diameter is installed parallel to this. In this case the length is same 20 and the diameter of
this parallel tube is 10 inches, so now let us look the parallel case the pipeline design in the parallel
mode 𝐷1 will be same 6 inches, 𝐷2 will be 10 inches. There is no 𝐷3 , and 𝐷1 is again 6 inches in the
denominator.
When we put in this expression, we can get the numerical value of this and that comes out as 490.
It means 390% increase in the gas capacity occurs, when we put 10 inches diameter pipeline of 20
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miles long with 6 inches diameter pipeline. So large increase in the capacity can be expected because
the diameter is large, it is more than 390%. Loop pipeline system, so instead of putting everything
in the parallel what we can do to this is original pipeline of 20 miles long and 6 inches entire.
We can say a part of it is put under the looping system or under the parallel mode, and in that case
let us take the same value it is 5 miles that was put under the looping of 10 inch diameter. We know
the expression for looping system where L is again 20, 𝐷3 is the original diameter that is, 𝐷3 = 6 inch
and 𝐷1 is equal to whatever the new pipeline has been installed that is 10 inch, 5 miles is considered
to put in the parallel mode. That is why it becomes the looping system, and when the calculation is
performed the numerical value comes out as 1.1467, it means 14.67% increase in the gas capacity
is calculated when we have this kind of the looping system.
So I think with this example it is clear, how we can perform the calculation, and calculate the change
in gas capacity when we have the series, parallel, and loop system. Not necessary we are always
going with bigger size, or always looking for higher diameter size, it might be possible we can
reduce the quantity that is transported by reducing the size of the diameter. But that is very rare case
mostly, we want to increase the gas capacity because day by day the demand at the other end of
natural gas is increasing.
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With this example, I would like to go with the general expression for looped pipeline system. The
general expression is required because every time if we are performing the calculation that can be
done with the help of a computer, but every time you have to choose the pipeline, the length, and
diameter of the pipe you are going to replace.
Instead of that the expression of the previous loop system can be put in a general form where you
can get different value of the length, different diameter, and we can have a system or a graph where
you has the understanding, if this segment of pipeline is replaced by this diameter, how much gas
capacity can be done. That could be a good exercise when you are given a task of designing the
pipeline, you can consider the several combinations of that and based on the economy involved or
the cost involved in replacing the pipeline, an appropriate decision can be made.
So let us consider this expression, which we had in the last slide for the loop pipeline system. Here
length is the original length, 𝐿1 is the segment that put in the looping system. The number of looping
system, we have to do it for each looping system. Let us go with the one of the simplest case where
we have the looping system just only certain length of the adjusting pipeline has been put in the
parallel with a different diameter 𝐷1 .
So the original, it has 𝐷3 , now it is put in parallel with a diameter 𝐷1 . So the length of this is 𝐿1 , and
this entire length is L and this length will be 𝐿3 . Let us say the same rotation we are going. Now this
𝑞𝑡
= 𝑞3 + 𝑖𝑛𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑞3 , 𝑞3 is the original without any doing modification in the pipeline. Now
𝑞3
whatever the modification is done, that is here divided by 𝑞3 , and that modification of the increment
is happening in the gas capacity it can be represented by a terms, and that terms let us say we have
some p term and this will be 1 + 𝑝/𝑞3 , it means this term represents the increase in the gas capacity.
We can denote this with the general term used for this, X we can say this 𝑞𝑞𝑡 = 1 + 𝑋. Similarly, with
3
the fraction of loop pipeline, how much pipeline segment has been put in the looping system, we
can define 𝑌 = 𝐿1 /𝐿, put under the looping system.
So 𝐿1 /𝐿 is Y, and similarly we have another segment here, that says what about 𝐿3 /𝐿, simply 𝐿3 = (𝐿 −
𝐿1 )/ 𝐿, so we can write this as 1 − 𝑌. Now if we put for this 𝑋, and we can take this in the denominator.
This term will not be there putting for, why we can go further with the expression or the desired
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expression we want here is another term appearing is 𝑅𝐷 , that is the ratio of the looping pipe diameter
to the original pipe so here we had done the looping with 𝐷1 divided by the original diameter is 𝐷3 ,
and this is represented by 𝑅𝐷 .
So when we are taking this in the denominator, L will get adjusted by ratio 𝐷𝐷1, will be adjusted by
3
𝑅𝐷 if we put everything here we are going to get this expression and in the explicitly form of the X
can be adjusted this equation, and we are going to get this expression in the form of X. I think it is
𝑄 2
clear, this can be written taking the square root out of here we will get (𝑄1 ) , and then we are going
3
to get (𝑋 + 1)2 that is appearing here and similarly.
I think this can be done as exercise, we will get first this expression after doing the adjustment. We
are going to get this expression in the form of X and with the help of this expression you will get
the relationship between X, Y and 𝑅𝐷 . X represent the increase that is going to be in the gas capacity,
Y what part of the adjusting pipeline should be put in the looping, and 𝑅𝐷 the ratio of the diameter
means that segment which is put under the looping, what diameter should be chosen we can put
different and can generate the result as done in the book, from which this plot is taken, and that says
the effect of loop line on the increase of gas flow rate for barriers type diameter ratio.
So where it is done, different diameter that says has been chosen. So see here, it is not always we
are choosing the higher diameter 𝑅𝐷 < 1, means smaller diameter has been chosen to understand the
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looping, 𝑅𝐷 value higher means larger diameter is chosen. The increase in flow rate is plotted on Y
axis while considering how much percentage of length is put under the consideration.
So let us consider the case where we have 𝑅𝐷 = 1, means same diameter was put in the looping, and
when we have this diameter of the existing pipeline, similar diameter was put for entire length.
Simple understanding is same diameter is put for the same length between this point to this point,
the capacity should be doubled and that we can see from here for 𝑅𝐷 = 1, when 100 % was put in
the consideration it is here where we have the 100% increase in the gas capacity.
When we have this parallel diameter at a lesser size, we are going to get the increment there but not
up to doubling the capacity. While diameter of large size is used for the loping, we will always get
higher and that has happen in the previous example. When we put 10 inches parallel to 6 inches
390% increase was obtained. This can also be done when different segments not necessary entire
thing put in the parallel line, some part of it 10%, 20%, 30 % is put under the looping system.
We understand by seeing the expression or by common understanding when the small part is put
under the looping the increment will be less as we are increasing the part of adjusting pipeline to be
looped the percent of gas capacity increase will be higher and it goes like beyond even 200, 300
previous example we had seen 390% also considering the other parameter the path line the material
of construction the gas capacity which is required to be increased the system can be chosen from
such kind of the designing and depend on the other factors the existing pipeline can be put in the
looping or based on this the new pipeline can be lay out with the series parallel combination.
With this understanding, I think it is clear how to use pipeline system to transport the natural gas
from one place to another place, how to understand the relationship between flow rate, pressure,
fluid properties, and the size of the pipe is used. Now further it is series. parallel, and loop pipeline
system. Other parameters should also be considered when we are designing appropriate pipeline
system. For example, material of construction is considered it is one of the mechanical properties
that designed, what type of material should be chosen, it depends on several factors like the pressure
that the pipeline is going to experience, the terrain it is going to face, the climate it is going to pass
through, the wall thickness, is not to consider again several factors, the collapse criteria, and other
things the material or construction, decide the wall thickness and the corrosion in a line is not
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considered, what we did is simply pipeline equation that gives us the flexibility to calculate the gas
capacity that can be increased to a desired level has been discussed in this class.
Other mode of the transportation is also there, other than the pipeline for example CNG and LNG
depend on the source form where the natural gas is being transported to destination means where it
is going to be used. The path line it is going to face, it is onshore. Offshore, it is having different
political reason to pass or other factors determine the mode of transportation other than considering
the technical part.
Pipeline design is still the first choice compared to others but the other modes are also getting
popular because of their own advantage.
For example CNG, and LNG area, so the mode of natural gas transportations where CNG stand for
Compressed Natural Gas in this state, the gas remains in the gas phase but under very high pressure
condition that varies up to 2000 to 3500 psi. In this pressure range the gas is still in the gaseous
mode, the temperature can be from 30 C to – 40 C, again reducing the temperature, the more volume
can be accommodated in the same vessels further reduction can be done in the temperature but not
up to the level where it is going to be converted into liquid form.
We can compress the gas by increasing the pressure to 2000 to 3000 psi, the compression ratio or
the volume of the gas occupied in a vessel compared to under standard condition is 200 to 250 ratio.
So 200 to 250 times the gas can be compressed, and it will be in the gaseous phase only there are
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several uses of compressed natural gas. So for this. C transportation system compress natural gas
has become a choice, because it can be transported in a tanker kind of the system those are less
costlier and compression ratio is not that high as compared to LNG. But the facilities required to
compress the natural gas is more economical compared to LNG.
If we reduce the temperature little bit more down even the compression ratio can be improved.
While in case of LNG, liquid natural gas the fluid is cooled down to certain temperature that is
around – 163 degree Celsius and the gas gets converted into liquid, it is not a chemical reaction
something it is a phase transformation happening. The gas is report under the refrigeration cycle,
and it is going to be chilled and de-chilled where it is going to in the liquid form.
The pressure is ambient pressure, or around 14.7 psi, temperature is -163 Celsius, and under that
condition when it is going to be liquefied. The compression ratio is very high 600.So the 600 times
natural gas can be stored in the same volume which is considered at standard temperature and
pressure condition. That is the advantage of LNG, the technology proven and safe but both the
processes have their own features.
For example the compressed natural gas can deliver or can be chosen and option to deliver the
natural gas, when the small volume for the short distance is supposed to be transported while the
LNG is considered for a longer distance, and large quantity is getting transported CNG also need a
special type of the tankers. Sometime they called the C transportation mode is called the floating
pipeline, while LNG the terminals are required the places are required where the natural gas can be
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liquefied so this LNG facilities are required, and then it needs a very special type of the tanker
through which it can be transported by maintaining the temperature – 163 degree Celsius, and at
both the places i.e., from where it is getting transported to the place of receiving end, the facilities
or the terminal facilities should be available to accommodate the natural gas transportation. So both
the modes of transportation like CNG, LNG depends on several other factors like the facilities
infrastructure available, the quantity supposed to be transported, how many rounds can be made the
loading and unloading facilities are available or not.
Compared to CNG, LNG is still having a higher significant share in transportation. Actually after
the pipeline, LNG is second choice but because of the use of CNG in different fields or in different
sectors like for the vehicles, for the local transportation, the CNG form is being considered very
significant option or prominent option. Another mode of natural gas transport could be converting
natural gas to liquid, the process is called GTL, in this process the natural gas that is mostly methane
is gone through this theme reforming process or just a reforming process depending on the oxygen
source provided to this reforming process happen it may be the steam reforming the oxygen source
may be just 𝑂2 can be steamed can be 𝐶𝑂2 or can be here the product of natural gas reforming or
𝐶𝑂 and 𝑆2 that is called the thin gas.
The 𝐶𝑂, and 𝑆2 can further go through the chemical process that is Fischer-Tropsch synthesis and
can go through the polymerization reaction and can produce higher hydro carbon compounds. Those
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higher hydro carbon compounds are liquid at the ambient temperature, and pressure condition and
along with those 𝐶𝑋 𝐻𝑌 compounds, 𝐻2 𝑂 or 𝐶𝑂2 or the source of oxygen gets released.
The product 𝐶𝑋 𝐻𝑌 can be upgraded further to have the desired product, that could be hexane
Naphtha grade, Diesel grade or Waxes. There are other forms of the liquid those also be produced
from the natural gas like DME (de-methyl ether), any additives that is used in the crude oil. So the
difference in the LNG, and GTL is in the LNG low chemical reaction happening just because of the
temperature, the gas is going to change its phase from gas to liquid.
While in GTL process it is a chemical synthesis process or chemical conversion process with the
help of catalyst and appropriate operating condition like temperature and pressure in particular type
of the reactor source of oxygen we can convert this through reforming and further applying Fischer-
Tropsch synthesis process into the desired liquid compound.
Research is still going on to make this process more viable more economical because it depends on
the type of the reactor several reactor configuration like if it is shown here when we have several
channels one of the channel is shown like this and within this channel we have this catalyst packing.
Several type of the catalyst can be used nickel is considered as low cost catalyst compared to other.
But better activity is observed with Ru and Rh, so the catalyst plays major role in this type of
conversion and lot of research is going on towards this direction to make GTL more economical and
feasible. Other mode of the transportation can be converting gas to power, it is called the indirect
mode where electricity is generated using natural gas, and natural gas is contributing to with the
energy demand.
Even in the GTL process there could be two ways, direct and indirect way. The direct conversion,
we get low selectivity and low conversion that is why it is not economical or it is not in practice
much but in the indirect mode this is the mode which discuss three steps involved in reforming
Fischer – Tropsch Synthesis. So this is reforming Fischer - Tropsch Synthesis and this is upgrading,
so the direct mode is different and the indirect mode is getting the liquid.
It is not direct conversion, we are getting the liquid, and it is not direct conversion to liquid. We
have to perform some chemical reaction to get the conversion of gas to liquid. Other mode, gas to
power converting natural gas to electricity, gas to solid crystalline form, and gas to commodity
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converting this in to some commodity material, then transporting them by a local transportation
mode like the truck, rail, and other mode.
So with this brief discussion of CNG, LNG and GTL, I would like to conclude the discussion on
transportation of natural gas by different modes. We had more emphasis on pipeline design system,
with this I would like to thank you very much for watching the video, we will meet in the next
lecture.
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Prof. Pankaj Tiwari
Module No # 05
Lecture No # 21
Unconventional production of Natural Gas
Hello everyone. Welcome to the class of natural gas engineering. Earlier we discussed several
aspects of natural gas engineering, and most of them are about conventional natural gas production.
So today’s lecture is about unconventional production of natural gas.
If we look back at the first week lecture, we discussed about the energy need and the share of
natural gas in meeting the global energy need. We have discussed the energy need country wise and
in that need how much percentage is shared by the natural gas and how natural gas contribution is
increasing over the years and what is expected after 10, 15 years, i.e., it will be second largest energy
contributor.
In the above slide, the energy need in 1975 is shown. It is in terms of percentage total need of the
energy across the globe. It is mostly shared by the OECD, Organization for Economic Corporation
and Development India, China, Middle east, and rest by the non-OECD are classified and the share
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of global energy in terms of percentage is shown here. It is very clear that the energy need is keep
going up from 75 to 2010, and it is almost double and it is expected to increase in 2035.
Whatever the energy need in 2010 it is going to increase around, one third more energy will be
required in 2035. Meeting this energy need, we have to depend on fossil energy sources like natural
gas, coal and oil that significantly contribute to meet the global energy demand.
If we look at the United States, its oil and gas production, we can see in million barrel oil equivalent
per day on the Y axis, on the X axis how the energy of the United States is going to change with
respect to oil and gas is shown. Here in this slide the data are compiled in the manner of conventional
and unconventional oil. Similarly, we can see from here the conventional gas share was too much
in 1980 and it is getting reduced while unconventional natural gas share is going to increase as we
go further.
So it is very clear from this forecasted data, natural gas is going to share the energy market.
Similarly unconventional natural gas is going to dominate over the conventional natural gas
production system in the future. The search in unconventional oil and gas production has implication
well beyond the United States, it is not only the United States where the natural gas, both in
conventional and unconventional manner going to replace other fossil energy sources or the hydro
carbon energy sources. Rest of the world is also looking towards developing the infrastructure and
the facilities to have this share of natural gas to meet their own energy demand.
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If we look in a broader prospective of natural gas resources that comes under the category of hydro
carbon energy, we discussed the similar content in our first week lecture also. So when we talk about
conventional versus unconventional energy sources for natural gas, oil and coal in terms of the
natural gas it comes to shale gas, tight gas, gas hydrate, coal bed methane and other forms. Compared
to conventional natural gas these are the other resources which can be utilized to produce the natural
gas. Briefly we will discuss about some of them in today’s lecture. Depending on the geological
setting and the rock type rather than the gas itself, the classification has been done. Most of them
producing the natural gas that is dominated by methane again depends on the geological setting and
the rock type.
If we define what is tight gas it is relatively impermeable rock which produces the gas and mostly
that rock is lime stone or sand stone. The major classification for tight gas, it is produced from the
rock which is having very low or impermeable structure less than 1 milli Darcy. Shale gas where
the gas is trapped in fine grind sedimentary rock shell, in coal bed methane domain the gas is trapped
specifically in the solid matrix of the coal.
Another form of the unconventional natural gas is gas hydrate. It is crystallize case like structure
where the water molecules are stabilized by small gas molecules. We will discuss little bit more
details in the further slides. Important point here is the organic matter which is consitered to be
underneath, over the geological time scale it has gone through the slow heating and high pressure
condition. The organic matter got converted to first kerogen kind of the things then bitumen then
coal, oil and then finally natural gas.
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We will be discussing in little bit more detail about these unconventional source of natural gas.
Total unconventional gas production in 2014 by producing countries are listed in the table. You can
see coal-bed, methane, shale gas and tight gas are used to compile this data for US, Canada, China
and other countries. India is at bottom part of this table, we can see US is dominating in most of the
unconventional natural gas production, and that could be coal bed methane could be shale gas or
tight gas. In total you can see the difference between US and the second one Canada in the
production of the unconventional natural gas. The shale gas and tight gas are different than the
conventional gas. In conventional gas reservoir the large and well-connected pores are there and the
gas molecules that form over the geological time scale will have the well connectivity. Travelling
from a small pore regions to a region where they are getting accumulated from where the
conventionally natural gas can be produced.
While in case of tight gas pores are small and poorly connected and the permeability is also low
and the reservoir rock is not having enough permeability. So the gas or just trapped in small pockets
kind of structure while shale gas it is very tightly formed where the permeability is further lower
and pores size is also very small and hardly connected pores in permeability very low means the
pores are not connected at all. In both the cases when we have the tight gas and shale gas the gas
can be liberated from this kind of tightly formation by creating the fracture and the massive fracture
either using the explosive material or the hydraulic pumping can be used to create the fracture at
creating the fracture. It will allow to improve the porosity as well as permeability of the domain and
from where the natural gas can be produced and it will travel from that source to production well
and we can produce.
If we look in terms of the gas how it is trapped in this kind of the formation we can say in the tight
gas sense the gas is mostly the free gas. While in the gas shell it is a mixed free gas or adsorb gas.
So gas is adsorbed on the rock surface while in the coal bed methane another aspects of natural gas
production that is listed in this table also where we have the coal bed where the methane is just
adsorbed on the surface of the coal.
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(Refer Slide Time: 10:11
This similar kind of the data again plotted here in terms of the countries, they have the source of
all conventional and unconventional natural gas production. We can see here that the conventional
natural gas is dominated by the Russia and then followed by the United States. In fact Saudi Arabia
is also having a good share in conventional natural gas production.
While when we talk about the unconventional natural gas production as we had seen in the last
slide in the table form we can see either it is tight gas, shale gas or coal bed methane this segment
is dominated by United States. We can see here, the China is having shale gas higher than the United
States. But altogether this part of unconventional natural gas sources is dominated by United States.
India is not appearing in this place it is having either unexplored region where the natural gas in
the unconventional manner either it is a gas hydrate or a shale gas are not explored at a potential
level where we can say with a confidence that this much amount of unconventional natural gas is
available in this kind of the domain. We can see the chart here, the tempered chart shows the quantity
of the gas produced or available in different form. We can see here it is shown that the gas hydrate,
if it can be explored economically the gas hydrate results is the most abundant reserve available to
produce the natural gas followed by the shale gas followed by the coal bed methane then the tight
gas and on top we have the conventional gas. So compare to conventional unconventional resources
to produce the natural gas are massive so the unconventional resources are bigger than the
conventional. North America as a much bigger portion of unconventional resources, unconventional
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resources will change significantly with the data available from the other countries where the
government or the agencies are still in the process of exploring the sites or the places where the
unconventional source of the natural gas can be present in a potential quantity.
Here in this chart or the data shown below we can see the share of the unconventional natural gas
compared to conventional in United States and Canada we can see the data are shown for Untied
State in the year of 2008 and 2014. Shale gas contribution has been increased almost five times
compared to what it was in 2008 tight gas contribution little bit low compared to 2008 all together
we can see the unconventional natural gas production is 52.2 Bcf per day compared to conventional
that is just 17.6.
So almost three times unconventional natural gas is being produced compared to conventional in
the United States and similarly we can see here also for the Canada the unconventional production
is almost two times of the conventional production that is just 5.5 and these data are just for 2013
and 2014. The share of tight gas is increased. shale gas almost remained constant, coal bed also
remained constant and conventional gas contribution reduced from 5.8 to 5.5.
In summary the unconventional sources are producing more natural gas compared to conventional
natural gas that shows how these leading countries in the energy sectors, USA and Canada are going
to use massively the unconventional production of natural gas. In this list, gas hydrates are not
included. If gas hydrates are included the unconventional part will be too much compared to the
conventional and it is believed that gas hydrate resources are 50 times the reserve of unconventional
natural gas that the world is having.
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When we talk about four countries that need the energy more in the near future, US, Canada, China
and India. In this list we can see the use of natural gas in both conventional and unconventional
manner we can see Unites State in 2010, 2020, 2035 data the unconventional natural gas here is
keep increasing in this direction. Similarly for the India also it is increasing and in fact it is
increasing for China and Canada also, the share of unconventional slightly stagnant in 2020 at the
projected 2035.
But compared to conventional, the unconventional share is more in each country listed in this plot.
If we look at India’s scenario in 2006, 2010 and 2024, data shown in this chart says coal, oil, gas,
hydro and nuclear are consiter as the energy contributor to meet the India’s energy need. We can
see the coal is still dominating and oil is the second largest. But when we look at the gas data
compared to 2024 it is expected that the share of natural gas will increase tremendously compared
to other sources of the energy that are being used. This is in terms of the percentage we have, so the
natural gas will be sharing 20% of energy need of the country that is just 14% in the year of 2010.
When we see the energy, demand and supply for the country we can see in 2001, 2006, 2011 and
2024 data are compiled here, and the need is increasing as well as the supply and demand both are
increasing.
So the supply demand plot says both are increasing year by year and it is expected in 2024 the
supply and demand will be having the 260 number for the supply thus unlocking the domestic
conventional gas potential could help India meets it growing energy demand. We had seen in the
previous slide, the position of India in one of the charts is missing. The primary reason is the
exploration or finding the site for India is not that significant and if we can explore the site from
where the unconventional natural gas can be produced it will help India to meet its growing energy
demand. However it needs to be developed profitably and in an environmental acceptable manner
those are the regulation from the environmental site as well as the technology that is going to be
used to recover the natural gas from unconventional sources either it is coal bed methane, shale gas,
tight gas, gas hydrate it must be economical. Significant sources of unconventional gas can be
achieved from all this unconventional sources.
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They can play important role in bridging the short fall that is appearing in the chart. Currently
India is expecting only 52% of its coal bed methane resources and 20% of its shale gas resources,
tight gas and shale gas hydrates are yet to find a place in the countries energy basket. This data are
collected from 2011 energy outlook book as well as some of the data are collected from the
information published by DGH director general of hydrocarbon India.
The unconventional sources in India: the major sites for shale are in Cambay Basin, Krishna
Godavari Basin, Cauvery Basin, Damodar Basin, Assam and Indo- Gangentic basin. Some of the
places the resources are quantify for example Cambay Basin is 20 Trillion Cubic feet, 27 in the
Krishna Godavari, 9 in the Cauvery and 7 in the Damodar, while for the others the quantification is
not yet reported.
Similarly, there might be some other sites where the possibility of the shale should be included.
When we talk about the coal bed methane the coal sites are distributed across various states in India
it is in Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan where the area is more than 2500 square kilometer
that is designated as coal site from where the natural gas can be produces using the coal bed methane
extraction technique.
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So let us discuss about these term those we just discuss about this term those we just discuss about
the unconventional natural gas production sources those could be gas hydrate, shale gas, tight gas,
coal bed methane and another one is pyrolysis or thermal treatment of carbonaceous solid material.
The first one is gas hydrate so the gas hydrate are crystalizing case like structure the case is water
molecules stabilize by small gas molecules trapped in the cavities under high pressure and low
temperature conditions.
Most commonly the small guest molecules are light hydro carbons like methane, ethane, propane
and other inorganic gases, present in the natural gas or present in the site those could be 𝐻2 𝑆, 𝐶𝑂2
and 𝑁2 . Natural gas hydrates are formed when the natural gas is going to meet two conditions first
one is it is having the presence of the liquid water second one is the system is at low temperature
and high pressure condition.
This chart shows, under what temperature and pressure the hydrate will get formed. It will depend
on composition of the natural gas. In terms of gravity it is shown here like if it is a pure methane,
very high pressure and low temperature is required to form the gas hydrate but as we are seeing here
the gas gravity is increasing 0.6, 0.7 and further even at a low pressure related to methane the
hydrates or the gas hydrates will get formed at a low temperature conditions.
In this type of the arrangement what happens the water molecules are going to surround a gas
molecules and going to create a case like a structure and this phenomena happens well before the
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freezing point of the water and the solid kind of the ice like structure we get those are less than the
ice and number of molecules those are going to surround one gas molecules that gas could be either
the methane could be higher hydro carbon or could be inorganic gases or characterize by a number
called hydrate number.
But there is no fixed number for a particular gas molecules for example methane here the structure
is shown one methane molecule is surrounded by 7 water molecule but it may vary most commonly
it is 6 water molecules those around one methane molecule. Either it is shown 8 propane 18 and
carbon dioxide 7 but there is no specific structure the structures are classified in two parts structure
1 and structure 2.
Structure 1 is formed by the smaller molecules such as methane, ethane, hydrogen sulfite and the
structure 2 it is mostly formed by the bigger molecules like the propane and isobutene as the natural
gas is the mixture of all the sort of the gases. So the both structure 1 and structure 2 are present when
we are talking about the hydrate forms with the natural gas. So whenever the natural gas is going to
meet this low temperature and low pressure condition gas hydrate will get formed they can be
formed in the sedimentary region they can be formed in the oceanic region also.
So the gas hydrates are going to form whenever the gas has water molecules and it is going to hit
high pressure and low temperature region and that is happened when we had seen in our previous
classes where we had discuss the choke performance relationship where the sudden change in the
pressure and temperature because of the choke device the possibility of hydrate formation is there
and it is very much required to understand what level the temperature is going to be change when
the fluid is passing through the choke and avoiding the formation of the hydrate.
The hydrate may get found when the natural gas pipeline is passing through the region where the
low temperature and high pressure is present that is why it is required to dehydrate the natural gas
before it is going through the pipeline system. So the case like structure found because of the hydrate
formation can be broken to get the hydro carbon molecules liberated out and that can be done by
depressurizing the system ultimate aim is changing this condition where the hydrates are getting
formed.
It means the low temperature and the high pressure system so the mechanism that can be used will
release the hydro carbon and non-hydro carbon gas molecules out of this case like structure. It could
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be done by thermal injection so we are injecting hot brine or gas in the formation zone where the
gas hydrates are formed because of the change in the temperature the condition of the hydrate
formation will get change and the gas molecules will come out of this gas structure and we will get
the gas out at the production site or it could be done by injecting some innovator some chemicals
chose are going to change the conditions of gas hydrate formation domain and because of that
changes the gas molecules will change come out from this gas structure. So by any of this mean or
other means also the gas trapped in the gas hydrates can be produce at if it is producing in a
significant quantity it can be used as the energy source.
Other things those affect the formation of the gas hydrate as well as the liberation of the gas hydrate
or the high velocity of the hesitation when we are talking about the pipeline system presence of seed
crystal of hydrates if they are already there because the first step is water molecules is there and then
second is crystallization happen because of that that gas hydrates got formed.
So it is seed crystal of hydrate is already present in the possibility of gas hydrate will be high and
presence of highly soluble gas in water such as H2S and CO2 they will form the gas hydrate easily.
Another source of unconventional source is coal, bed, methane in this type of the arrangement the
gas is trapped in coal seems in the adsorption mode on the solid matrix of the coal. So the knowledge
of the methane occurring with coal bed as old as coal mining so from the beginning of the coal uses
the gas associate with the coal was experience and it was also named as town gas, syngas or other.
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So numerous disaster underground mines occurred due to methane explosion and that is why when
the coal was mine it was in usual practice or a conventional practice to let the gas release before the
coal is getting mine to the surface. Conventional method was just the ventilation of natural gas pure
methane is produced from the coal bed methane because it is just a methane molecule or very light
hydro carbon molecules those are adsorb on the surface of the coals, and this methane molecules
have more energy compared to conventional natural gas which is having some inorganic gases also
present along with the methane gas and that is why the energy content is less than what we get the
methane from the coal bed seams. Large quantity of methane it is 3 times at the same pressure and
same depth if we are comparing the amount of the natural gas that is present in a conventional
reservoir or in a coal if we compare at the same pressure and at the same depth the quantity of the
natural is three times in the coal bed seams compared to conventional natural gas reserve.
And this is because the natural gas is present in the coal seams is produced in two manners thermo
genic coal bed methane process or the biogenic coal bed methane process. Thermo genic coal bed
methane process is simply over the geological time scale the natural gas got produced by the
conversion of organic material to methane to biogenic it is because of the biological activities over
the time the methane get methane gas got produced.
In both the manners either the thermo genic or biogenic they produce methane is either going get
diffuse in this surrounding area that could be upper layer and underneath layer or it is going to be
absorb in a small pores those are present in the coal seams. Because of this small micro pores present
in the coal seams the surface area of the coal seams is larger compared to conventional reservoir and
the amount of the natural gas that can be stored in the coal seams is higher and that is come out as a
almost three times methane can be stored or present in the coal seams.
The factor those affect the recovery of this coal bed methane from the coal seams are the porosity
adsorption capacity of the coal seams fracture permeability how much fracture is available because
the natural gas those are trapped in the micro pores we need to take it out from the micro pores to
some cleats and from where it is travelling all the way to well bore. The important factor those are
going to affect the adsorption capacity or the amount of the methane adsorb on the coal bed.
So these factors are coal density the rank of the coal pressure difference and the thickness of
formation. So at what depth the coal seams is there and how much pressure is there what is the
pressure difference between the production well and the coal seams what is the quality of the coal
461
because for example the biogenic coal bed methane is producing the low rank system and the quality
or the rank of the coal also one of the factor that decides the amount of the methane adsorb on the
surface.
Similar times the amount of the methane that can be recovered from this coal bed methane so this
factor are going to affect are listed here we can see the process how it happens. So the desertion of
the gas from the coal surface insite the micro porous so the pressure desaturation should be done in
such a manner the gas is coming out from this micro pores. Diffusion of the gas through the micro
porous is happening and because of the Darcy law from this porous permeable region through the
fracture and cleats the gas is traveling to well bore.
Here it is shown in the systematic manner stage 1, stage 2 and stage 3 all three are listed here the
stage 1 is kind of the structure here where the gas in this micro porous domain of the coal seams.
When we are creating the pressure what will happens the water and gas will get produce from this
coal seams we can collect the gas from here water from the other source and this can be done be just
creating some pressure difference in the coal seams that allows the gas adsorb on the surface to get
liberated.
The recovery rate is low and unpredictable because the gas is deposited or stored or adsorb in
those micro porous and the recovery compared to the conventional is low.
462
Unconventional production of natural gas can also be achieved by thermal treatment of some
natural material or the material based on those are also called carbonaceous material and the
technology comes under energy conversion technology where the feedstock that could be the oil
shale, coal, bio mass, waste or any other like the plastic or other things those have the hydrogen
and carbon combination.
And when we are doing the thermal treatment of these feedstock the products are fuel, oil, gases
and chemicals. So it does not matter whatever the feedstock we have or whatever the process of
thermal treatment we are adopting the gas will also get produced and that gas can be used or can be
consitered as the natural gas it depends on the composition the purification is required or not.
In most of such kind of processes when we have this thermal treatment of carbonaceous material
the produce gas is locally used to meet the energy need and to understand this process several aspect
should be understood what is the conversation of this feedstock to particular targeted product
efficiency of the process is upgrading a required or not that is mostly required for the oil or chemical
those are getting produce from the thermal treatment process and several other aspects.
We can distinguish the feedstock like the oil shale and coal and others depend on the composition.
So the oil shale is the material where the kerogen is the organic material and rest is mineral content
those are not going to contribute to produce the hydro carbon gases. So the oil shale which is just
content 10 to 15% kerogen and that kerogen under the heating condition got converted into bitumen
and then it goes to product that product could be oil, gas and char.
Coal is different than the oil shale because coal is having more organic content than the oil shale.
Coal is almost having 80% or more than 80% organic content further the coal is classified in several
sub category like the anthracite, bituminous, sub bituminous coal. Bio mass is a material that is
having cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin constituent base plastic that is mostly made of the organic
material and when we are doing the thermal treatment oil shale will reject lot of solid material coal
relatively less oil bio mass and plastic will not.
Biomass will also gives some solid material base plastic will end up mostly getting converted into
gas or the oil substances so the thermal process that is going to use this feedstock material to convert
into product depends on several factor. We can take example of oil shale to understand some of the
aspects of pyrolysis of carbonaceous material.
463
So what is oil shale it is a organic matter which content 10 to 12% kerogen again depends on the
origin or geological setting the percent of organic matter and mineral content may vary. Small
amount of free and ground water is also present along with this the picture shown here is a massive
deposit of oil shale type of the rock in the United State. If we see on this chart United State is
dominating the percent of oil shale compared to rest of the world the percent or the quantity in
United State is massive.
From this type of the rock which is having the organic material kerogen actually the organic
material kerogen present in this is a premature hydro carbon. And when we heat this kerogen it got
converted to bituminous type of the substance and further paralyzing or heating it gets converted
into oil, gas and solid materials that solid material is called the char. So the thermal treatment could
be done by the pyrolysis combustion and others.
Synthetic crude oil liquid gases and residual solid are the product this is temperature and time
history over the time, less temperature is required to get converted this kerogen into the gas liquid
and solid substance. So that is actually happens over the geological time scale the kerogen substance
got converted into several fraction of fossil energy like oil, gas and coal depending on the location
and geological time scale the organic material was exposed.
If we can heat that organic material at a higher temperature less time is required to convert the
organic material into oil, gas, and char. And that is the oil shale process or that is the
464
utilization of oil shale to produce the liquid substance or petroleum like liquid substance
bituminous goes to oil, gas and chart and gas is a bi-product of this process that can either be used
as a natural as or other sources or it can be internally used as a source of energy.
Oil shale resources and importance are shown in several literature where it also consitered that the
United States is going to meet its energy need by producing the oil from oil shale. When we talk
about the process or the oil shale paralysis process.
So the oil shale is going to result in the shale oil gaseous and spent shale when it is heated depends
on several factor like the porosity permeability present in the sample. The organic material and
inorganic material of the oil shale or the raw oil shale so the oil shale retorting under high
temperature and high pressure can be performed compositional analysis will give us the amount of
oil and gas and the type of the oil and gas it is going to be produced.
Several factors influence any pyrolysis process those could be the heat transfer reaction
multiphase, phase change, the mineral alteration and interaction happening in the system and
physical process changes as the material is exposed to high temperature and high pressure condition
that will be the case of oil shale, coal, biomass, waste plastic and any other carbonaceous material
where the system that is getting heated going to produce oil and gas and multiphase flow will happen
in the process.
465
Specifically for oil shale several industrial processes are developed by big giant companies like
the shale develop the ICP process In-situ conversion process, Exxonmobil developed Electrofrac
process, AMSO develop conduction, convection and reflux process and a Red leaf and a company
called Red Leaf developed Eco shale process. In this Eco shale process the oil shale is mined and
ex-situ pyrolysis was performed.
Another difference in the biomass and waste plastic pyrolysis compared to oil, Shale and coal
pyrolysis. The oil shale and coal can be pyrolysis or thermally treated in both In-situ and Ex-situ
condition. So some of the processes is listed here are In-situ process some are Ex-situ like these
three processes are In- Situ process where the oil shale material is thermally treated and it is original
point while in the Red leaf eco shale process the material is mined to ground under large (()) (43:02)
kind of the structure was established where the material or the oil shale is heated to get the oil and
gas production.
Several reaction happens those are listed here so when the material is heated to get the oil and gas
production several reaction happens those are listed here. So when the material is heated the kerogen
goes to heavy oil, light oil, gas char and methane. So the classification of the oil is done in heavy
oil and light oil similarly the gas is classified into two parts gas and methane gas separately and the
char is the product.
466
The product of the first reaction can go to the second reaction, second reaction can go to further reaction
and it is shown here if the material that is kerogen is thermally treated that can be done either consitering
the thermal treatment from the outsite or from the insite. So the heat is propagating in both the types
heat is propagating in a different manner and the quality of the product is going to be different because
of this second reaction network system.
In the first case the gas or the product of the primary reaction are going to face different path
compared to the second type of the arrangement they are going to face and the picture shown here
clearly shows how the products are going to be different in terms of quality and quantity when we
are choosing a particular process to thermally treat the carbonaceous material. It depends on reactor
configuration depend on the raw material depend on the operating condition ultimately what we are
going to get.
If the material is left in the heated zone the longer time the ultimate fake will be gas and coke that
is why it is very important to optimize the process condition of the thermal treatment where the
targeted product that could be the oil could be gas is achieved and we are getting the desired product.
In this type of with thermal treatment process heat transfer happens the species transport happens
and the reaction happens simultaneously.
So all these processes are happen because of this reaction network chosen for the oil shale different
compounds got formed those compound travelled the multi-phase manner flow and gets produce
out of this heated zone. Depend on the heating system is chosen or the scheme for the heating system
is chosen or other way the configuration of the system is chosen the quality and quantity of the
product will be different.
But we can get significant amount of the gas that is methane from such kind of the process that
can be also utilized. Other sources of the natural like the bio-gas, mass gas are not discussed.
467
In conclusion of unconventional natural gas production this slide which is taken from some sources
says of the volume of shale gas and shale oil resources of the world is massive. Advance in
economically bio well sustainable extraction technology will enable these resources to provide a
platform for a new age of hydro carbon both oil and gas and when we talk about the shale gas is
present in various part of the globe and if can be economically and environmentally exploited we
are going to have a massive reserves of the gas.
Similarly for the gas hydrate a massive reserve is available and if future unconventional natural
gas resources are going to contribute significantly to meet the energy of the world thank you very
much for watching the video.
468
Prof. Pankaj Tiwari
Module No # 05
Lecture No # 22
Review: Concluding Remarks
Hello everyone and welcome to the class of natural gas engineering again this is the final class of
20 hours lectures schedule.
In this class we are going to review the aspects of natural gas production. We started our
understanding of natural gas by understanding what is natural gas, the composition of natural gas
and, how natural gas properties can be estimated. We also understood how to estimate the reservoir
properties, and the properties of the reservoir those are important and appear in the discussion of
natural gas engineering, we understood how to estimate them, e.g., porosity, permeability,
saturation and others.
Similarly the properties of natural gas like the density, viscosity, critical temperature, critical
pressure and others also discussed during the course. So in the first week we understood about the
natural gas, its importance and in second we understood about properties of natural
469
gas and the reservoir. We can review it quickly, so the natural gas that is available underneath of
the surface is supposed to be produced by drilling the well to that formation.
Once we drill the well the natural gas produces through this reservoir domain to well bore, and
from well bore to surface. At the surface we have several units to process the natural gas. Once
the natural gas gets processed it produces oil remove the water some impurities like 𝑆2 𝑆, 𝐶𝑂2 and
𝑁2 and some rare gases also can be separated out from this natural gas and ultimately what we get
is a dry residue gas or the dry gas that is sent to pipeline.
We understood several terminology involved like dry gas, wet gas, residue gas, and all those
terminology have their own meaning at a specific location. After meeting the pipeline requirement
like the BTU content, natural gas should contain that much energy the dew point temperature. So
the natural gas should flow through the pipeline without any problem removal of the foreign
compounds no particulate matter and sufficiently dehydrated natural gas is sent to transportation
we discuss several aspects of transportation also like the pipeline CNG, LNG, GTL and how to
choose appropriate one.
We discussed in detail about the pipeline transportation we also discussed unconventional source
of natural gas like the tight gas, shale gas, coal bed methane pyrolysis of shale oil in detail with
the aim of understanding the pyrolysis of carbonaceous material. The recovery of hydro carbon
condensable water vapor and undesirable products are important because they ultimately going to
affect several aspects of natural gas business.
What is the value of natural gas, what is energy content of natural gas, how efficiently the
transportation scheme can be adopted, how much wear and tear happen in the system all will be
regulated by this processing system. How well we are going to refine the natural gas, how well we
are able to recover the valuable compounds those can be sold out separately. We also discussed
here like at the well head condition we can calculate this gas to oil ratio and knowing this GOR
the processing unit can be adjusted accordingly.
470
Specifically separator, the separator should be designed to handle more oil or more gas. Similarly
the other unit, how much load is going to be on the process unit when we are producing specific
GOR fluid from a particular reservoir.
If we see in more detail, what we did, we classified the natural gas production system into three
segments, in week 3 and week 4 we discuss several aspects of natural gas production from the
conventional reservoir. We classified that entire production zone in three parts IPR, TPR and CPR
where in the IPR we could develop the relationship how natural gas is getting produced through a
porous media where we have the pressure difference as the driving force.
The relationship established for Q versus pressure drop have the properties of both reservoir as
well as fluid and the other two parameters are also discussed in detail like skin factor, and non-
Darcy coefficient. When we were establishing the relationship we made certain assumptions, the
assumptions were like gas is flowing through the system, gas is compressible by the natural and
pseudo steady state was discussed in more detail compared to steady state and transient condition.
Because most of the time, a gas reservoir is producing under pseudo steady state condition, and
we also assumed that the flow is happening under the radial condition. In TPR the flow through a
vertical pipeline was discussed, we had chosen and inclined the system and as the actual condition
is the 𝜃 value can be adjusted to represent the vertical or horizontal pipeline system. In
471
most of the cases it is always vertical system through which the gas is being produced from
𝑝𝑤𝑓 to 𝑝ℎ𝑓 .
In this system also we could solve the equation by making certain assumptions, in CPR, the choke
performance relationship, we discussed about the sonic flow and subsonic flow conditions and
further the relationship has been established how pressure drop across the restriction is going to
control the production rate. We discussed critical pressure, how critical pressure ratio can help us
to choose appropriate set of critical equation to represent sonic flow or sub sonic flow condition.
After establishing this three segments, we also performed nodal analysis and in that nodal analysis
we understood how at a particular node the information can be obtained by eliminating some of
the information. More complex systems could be there like the flow is happening through
horizontal pipeline system or the reservoir is drilled not only in vertical direction but also in the
horizontal direction.
In that case, effective well bore radius can be chosen and that is represented by the complex
formula that says if we are replacing the radius by the effective well bore radius we will be able to
get the similar expression. The radial flow of gas may happen in a parallel bed so the well is drilled
and perforation is done in several zones and the flow of the natural gas is happening from several
sectors.
472
Those several sectors have different heights ℎ1 , ℎ2 , ℎ3 for simplicity just three beds were assumed.
They are of different height ℎ1 , ℎ2 , ℎ3 , and they have their own permeability 𝑘1 , 𝑘2 , 𝑘3 and the
flow from individual bed is happening like 𝑞1 , 𝑞2 , 𝑞3 . So the overall production from such kind of
the system can be obtained just for summing the flow rate on the right hand side we will see 𝑞1 ℎ1 +
𝑞2 ℎ2 + 𝑞3 ℎ3 are added up.
We can do this for any number of the beds those are responsible for the production, perforation.
It should be carefully maintained by understanding the IPR curve or the other expression involved
in the production of natural gas system performance analysis should be performed because the
system performance analysis allow to predict the performance under existing condition.
So when a well is done, we are able to set up the mathematical equation we are producing the gas
from a particular gas well we can predict the performance by using those set up mathematical
equations also under the existing condition. If there is a mismatch between the condition either at
the initial time or in the future we have to find out the bottle necks or the problems those are
responsible for such kind of the changes.
For example, for the permeability we assume certain value to perform the mathematical analysis
to prediction or the assumption of permeability may not be accurate enough we have to play around
the variable to adjust our mathematical equations. After identifying those key factors that could be
either the permeability as I mentioned could be the skin deposition happened over the time or could
be Darcy flow, while it is a non-Darcy flow in the near well bore region.
It may be because of the liquid loading happening in the system or may be some other reasons we
have to find out those bottle necks and after knowing those we can perform the sensitivity analysis
about those parameter and can optimize our system and that can be done by performing the system
analysis. The parameter could be the tubing diameter could be the permeability could be any
variable or parameter is appearing in the mathematical expression of IPR, TPR and WPR.
473
Another method of understanding the system for future forecasting is decline curve analysis. It is
a traditional method for identifying well production problems and prediction well performance
and it is life based in real production data. So such kind of analysis the production data are recorded
and the rate data are plotted in systematic manner to understand how the production rate is
declining it is happening in the exponential manner, harmonic manner or hyperbolic manner.
Understanding this behaviour will tell us how the natural gas reservoir or particular well is going
to behave or perform in future accordingly the business can be setup.
In the second part we had considered natural gas processing starting from the first unit itself that
is the separator. We discussed why separator is important, how separator does work, how many
types of separator are there, and the design of the separator for both horizontal and vertical. We
considered only the gravity separator in detail and understood the working principle including the
flash calculation.
Further going out in the processing units we had discussed briefly about the other units but in detail
about the dehydration and sweetening process. So in dehydration, we discussed the processes like
cooling, compression followed by cooling absorption and adsorption processes to remove the
water similarly in the case of sweetening processes also we discussed the processes based on the
absorption, adsorption or direct conversion of 𝐻2 𝑆 to elemental sulfur.
474
For the compressor stations we had discussion in detail about how compressor does work, in which
mode it should be operated to get the most work done on the transportation or transporting the
natural gas. We had discussed how to calculate the work done under the isentropic condition,
isothermal condition and under actual conditions. We also discuss Mollier diagram, how it can be
useful to calculate the work or energy required to operate or compress from particular pressure 𝑝1
to 𝑝2 .
In the next volumetric measurement we had discussed several ways of volumetric measurement in
detail. We had discussed about the head measurement devices or specifically the orifice meter the
several correction factors those should be implemented in the orifice meter equation to have the
accuracy in the measurement. We also discussed some old methods like the chart method where
we can predict the flow rate of the natural gas using chart.
In transportation we discussed some of the aspects of the natural gas transportation but in detail
we had set up the mathematical equation for transportation of natural gas through the pipeline and
in that design concept we started from the first law of thermodynamics and based on how we are
going to calculate the value of friction factor either by the Moody chart or how this friction factor
is related to Reynolds number as well as on the roughness of the pipe.
We had discussed in detail three set of the equations Weymouth equation, Panhandle A equation,
Panhandle B equation and the generalize formula for representing the these three equations. We
also established the processes where a quick calculation is done in terms of how pipeline is laid
out in a series or loop manner.
So if a particular pipeline is given to us and to increase the throw port or the transportation rate
through that pipeline we can install either the series with the bigger diameter or a parallel or in a
loop manner that we were discussed in detail. Then we also discuss about other forms of the
transportation of natural gas like LNG, CNG and GTL.
475
So when we are dealing with the natural gas from its identification to its transportation. Several
issues comes. Specifically during the production and transportation when the natural gas flows
through a pipeline because of other component like the water, higher hydro carbons, inert gases,
non-hydro carbon gases, several problems appears in this system and the problems are under the
head of flow assurance in the oil and gas industry.
The problem could be less flow, it is a liquid loading when we have two phase system depending
on the superficial velocity of the gas phase and liquid phase there might be different patterns. Ss
we discussed in previous classes there could be slug flow, there could be endless flow, there could
be other type of the flow depend on the inclination the pipeline is having it is a vertical it is
horizontal it is at a particular angle.
But the slug flow liquid loading happens, when the gas doesn’t have enough energy to transport
the liquid or to remove the liquid from the pipeline or to carry over the liquid or to the next
destination. How to avoid the liquid loading issue? Similarly how to prevent hydrate formation in
the system were discussed briefly. There could be other method also to prevent these issues like
using the chemical solutions.
In oil and gas industries several chemicals are used to specific problem, so for example for hydrate
formation, hydrate Inhibitors are used for mineral deposition the scale inhibitor are used chemical
corrosion, corrosion inhibitors are used and similarly for the others. This happens because
whatever the level of treatment of processing performed, there is always small amount of the water
476
and light hydro carbons in the natural gas and that is where we have to either use chemical solutions
or some means to clean the pipeline.
To clean the pipeline a device called PIG, PIG stands for pipeline inspection gauge is used and
that has its role initially, it was used just to clean the pipeline later on. It has been modified to use
not only to clean the pipeline but also act as a monitor gauge where we can understand what is
happening in the pipeline like the wall thickness is getting reduced, anything getting deposited, so
we can just put some sensor on it and when the pigging is being done.
We are also able to understand the situation of the pipeline in broadly, the PIG units are divided in
three parts utility pigs. These are used to perform cleaning separation and dewatering. Inline
inspection tool to monitor pipeline and to the extent and location of any problem that is going to
be in the pipeline or that is happening in the pipeline. Gel pigs using conjunction with conventional
pig to optimize pipeline dewatering and cleaning.
So we can see from the pictures, the hydrate formation is happening, it is blocking entire pipeline
and this is no more useful. We have to take it out cut it and replace it or we can do with a very
specialize pigging or periodically pigging it and we are able maintain the dewatering cleaning and
the pipeline for it is effective uses.
477
So with this I would like to thank you all for watching the videos of natural gas engineering course
and I say good luck for the exam. I hope you enjoyed the content and the structure of the course
design for 20 hours lecture schedule. My contact details are on the slide, you can contact me
regarding any issue of this subject specifically assignment problems and the exams. Thank you
very much.
478
THIS BOOK
IS NOT FOR
SALE
NOR COMMERCIAL USE
(044) 2257 5905/08

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NATURAL GAS ENGINEERING

S.No Topics Page No.

12 Nodal Analysis 229

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These three things, composition, reservoir temperature-pressure, and surface temperature-

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We understand cricondenbar and cricondentherm. We also understand how to classify the

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We will do a numerical calculations to understand this, so I already mentioned, yi is the mole

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So another important property of natural gas is compressibility of natural gas, it is not

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So after substituting c1 we got d m(p) / d r – pq 𝑟 2 / 𝜋𝑟𝑒2 k h z) + pq /( 𝜋 k h z), integrating this

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term that is appearing in our material balance equation is a function of pressure.

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So 𝐶2 = 𝐶1 multiplied by the viscosity compressibility factor in the numerator and Condition 1,

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