Energy Analysis and Phase Inversion Modeling of Two-Phase Flow with Different Additives

Abstract

Liquid-liquid flow in the pipeline transportation system can consume large energy due to high frictional drop which can be decreased by adding some chemical additives. The effect of these additives is different from type to type and most of them used only for single phase flow. This work focuses on reducing the pump energy requirements of two-phase flow (oil–water) by using three types of additives, anionic surfactant (sodium lignosulfonate (SLS)), cationic surfactant (hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB)) and titanium nanoparticles. An energy analysis in case of varying the type of additives, mixture velocity, and oil fraction are presented.The results showed that the power consumption is reduced significantly and maximum reduction (84%) was gained by using CTAB. The results also confirm that less value of oil fraction is required to phase inversion point after using CTAB, while SLS and nanoparticle cause an increase in the required value of oil fraction.

Keywords

• Oil-water flow
• Power consumption
• Phase inversion
• Surfactant and nanoparticles