Dynamic Simulation of a Gas and Oil Separation Plant with Focus on the Water Output Quality

Abstract

Gas and oil separation plants are the first main step in the production of hydrocarbon products. Depending on the properties of the recovered components from the well heads, and the physical properties in the underground rock reservoir, the plant design can vary in different ways. In mature oil and gas fields, secondary recovery methods are often used, which include the injection of large amounts of water into the underground reservoir, to induce the production flow of the wells. The handling of this water is of significant interest, in terms of production efficiency and pollution reduction, because the water comes into contact with the environment during and after recovery operations. In this work, a model of an exemplary gas and oil separation plant was created in Aspen HYSYS V10. A particular focus was placed on the modeling of oil residues in the water-bearing plant components. This model was then extended by the implementation of different process control schemes, to create a predictive model that could represent dynamic operating states in the plant components. Two different dynamic changes were then simulated using this model, to showcase the capabilities and capacities of the model.