Aspen Air Cooled Exchanger V7.

3 VLL Enhancements

New in Aspen Air Cooled Exchanger V7.3.2 - Handling Systems with Two Liquid Phases
Introduction
Design of heat exchangers handling complex fluids, such as streams with discrete liquid phases or emulsions, requires care in characterization of properties. Streams with aqueous and organic liquid phases are common in chemical processes as well as in oil production and refining. There is an increasing trend towards extraction of crude from mature assets and in many cases this results in processing of crude with very high water cuts. In this study we look at an exchanger that has been designed using a traditional approach to characterising the properties of a crude-water mixture. We use the latest method for estimating the effective viscosity of the stream and estimate the effect on production that will be experienced.

Tutorial High Level Outline:

Here we will look at a crude oil production cooler which is not able to operate at design capacity We load a simulation case for Air Cooled Exchanger where the process stream consists of an oil/water mixture (with a small amount of vapour also present) This unit has been designed to handle the process using the traditional method of characterizing the viscosity as the higher of either liquid phase We review the geometry and the performance using the original design approach We then use the new Aspen HTFS default method and evaluate the performance again If pumping capacity was limited to the design allowance what would be the shortfall in flow rate we could process

Script:
Review Input Data
Open the starter case: EDR_ACE_VLL_Design_Basis.EDR You should find the Process Data provided correspond to that listed in Table 1.

Air Cooled VLL Design

Page 1

Aspen Air Cooled Exchanger V7.3 VLL Enhancements

Fluid Total Flow Rate Temperature (In / Out) Inlet Pressure Allowable Pressure Drop Fouling Resistance Table 1 Process Data Your completed Process Data screen for the Tube Side Stream should appear as shown in the figure below: Process Stream 160 80 / 42.5 10 1 0.0005 Air Side 930 24 / 0.002 0 Units kg/s C bar (abs) bar m2*K/W

Figure 1Tube Side Stream Process Data

The air-side data should appear as follows:

Air Cooled VLL Design

Page 2

Aspen Air Cooled Exchanger V7.3 VLL Enhancements

Figure 2 Outside Stream Process Data The entry for Tube Stream Composition has been set to User specified properties and the property values entered will correspond to the following:

Figure 3 Stream Properties

Air Cooled VLL Design

Page 3

Aspen Air Cooled Exchanger V7.3 VLL Enhancements

Data for the First liquid in the above table corresponds to that of water. The Liquid 2 data (highlighted) correspond to the properties of the crude oil which is significantly more viscous than water. Note there is a small mass fraction of vapor present in the process stream. Here the oil corresponds to about 60% of the total mass flow. Look at the geometry of the unit as designed and specified here. It consists of 5 bays with two bundles per bay and 2 fans per bay. The tube length is 10m. Each bundle has 308 tubes arranged in 7 rows with 6 tubeside passes.

Figure 4 Geometry Summary

Review Results for Base Design

Lets run the simulation case by clicking on the Run button (
select Run | Run AirCooled. The performance screen confirms that the exchanger should perform our required duty. ) on the toolbar or from the menu,

Air Cooled VLL Design

Page 4

Aspen Air Cooled Exchanger V7.3 VLL Enhancements

Figure 5 Performance Base Design This shows that it appears the cooler can cool the process to 42.16C (the process requirement was 42.5C), the calculated pressure drop is 0.959bar, just under the allowable value of 1 bar, and the resulting duty is 18.55MW. If you look at the API-style Specification sheet:

Figure 6 Specification Sheet Results Air Cooled VLL Design Page 5

Aspen Air Cooled Exchanger V7.3 VLL Enhancements

You will see, on row 22 that the viscosity range from inlet to outlet corresponds closely to that of the crude oil phase in our process stream. This traditional approach was the basis of the original design. You can also check these inlet and outlet viscosity values on Results | Results Summary | Overall Summary. Latest research suggests a better method for handling the two liquid phases. This has been incorporated in the optional methods for handling these systems and is the program default in the absence of a user selection.

Re-evaluate with New VLL Methods

Click on Input | Program Options | Methods/Correlations and use the drop-down for Viscosity Method for two Liquid Phases to select HTFS Selected Method.

Figure 7 Select HTFS VLL Viscosity Method Re-run the Simulation by clicking on the Run button ( ).

Air Cooled VLL Design

Page 6

Aspen Air Cooled Exchanger V7.3 VLL Enhancements

Figure 8 Performance with Recommended Method If you look at the performance screen you will see that the recommended methods suggest that: We cannot cool to the required temperature of 42.5C but can only achieve 43.8C The pressure drop required for the design process flow is 1.157 bar, some 16% higher than our design allowance

If you look at the case: EDR_ACE_VLL_HTFS_Sim.EDR you should be able to confirm these data

What Will the Unit Actually Do?

It is likely that we will be limited in the pumping capacity on our processing system. If we have available the design allowance of 1 bar how much oil-water could we process? Reduce the tubeside process flowrate in steps until the calculated tube-side pressure drop is just below the allowable pressure drop. You can use the Recap feature to do a simple case study of this type. You will have to Customize your Recap display to add Flow Total, TS (tube side) to your variable list. The original specified process flow was 160 kg/s. It appears that if we reduce the process flow to 138 kg/s our pumping capacity will be sufficient. Note also that the process outlet temperature will be cool enough at 42.3C.

Air Cooled VLL Design

Page 7

Aspen Air Cooled Exchanger V7.3 VLL Enhancements

Figure 9 Recap Case Study to Find Maximum Achievable Flow Rate The case file: EDR_ACE_VLL_HTFS_Sim_Max_Flow.EDR, corresponds to the maximum achievable flow rate. You might like to look at the effective viscosity at inlet and outlet calculated by the new V7.3.2 methods. Look at the API-style specification sheet or at the overall summary sheet:

Figure 10 Effective Viscosity Figures HTFS Recommended Method

Air Cooled VLL Design

Page 8

Aspen Air Cooled Exchanger V7.3 VLL Enhancements

The crude oil constitutes about 60% of the total mass flow. The loss in crude production that we have calculated amounts to approximately 7,300 barrels per day. At a crude price of $120 per barrel we can estimate a loss income of $800k per day. You may like to explore how the design could be modified to achieve the full process cooling capacity for the original flow within the allowable design pressure drop. The sample file: EDR_ACE_VLL_HTFS_Sim_Re-design.EDR shows one possible solution that will allow processing of the full flow

Help on the New Liquid-liquid and Vapor-liquid-liquid Methods

Go back to Input |Program Options |Methods/Correlations, click on the Whats This ( ) icon on the Tool Bar, drag your cursor into the input field for Viscosity Method for two Liquid Phases and click again. You will then see the Help write-up the program provides on background information on the various viscosity methods the Aspen EDR program has available. In addition, there is a more detailed white paper on the subject that can be obtained from the Aspen EDR web page: http://www.aspentech.com/core/aspen-edr.aspx

Air Cooled VLL Design

Page 9