RESEARCH ARTICLE

Depressurization System by Coiled Pipes Applied to a High Pressure Process: Experimental Results and Modeling

The Open Chemical Engineering Journal 28 July 2017 RESEARCH ARTICLE DOI: 10.2174/1874123101711010017

Abstract

Background:

The use of backpressure regulator valves is widespread in high-pressure processes both at laboratory and pilot plant scales, but being a single step for effluent depressurization, such valves may have some limitations at industrial scale. In an effort to improve the depressurization step, this work studies a system based on the pressure drop of a fluid that circulates through coiled pipes.

Method:

The equipment, based on three series of variable length coiled pipes, was installed to achieve depressurization of 240 bars in a SCWO pilot plant.

Results:

The experimental results were compared with those obtained by the modeling carried out using different friction factor correlations from the literature.

Conclusion:

Among all the correlations tested, the Lockhart–Martinelli correlation showed the best agreement with experimental data. However, it was necessary to obtain an appropriate C parameter to achieve a good agreement with experimental data.

Keywords: Coiled pipes, Depressurization step, Experimental tests, Modeling, Lockhart–Martinelli correlation, SCWO plants.
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