Demonstration of a rotary separator for two-phase brine and steam flows. Final report

Technical Report · Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1978

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/6415377· OSTI ID:6415377

Cerini, D J

The application of a two-phase rotary separator for geothermal energy conversion was demonstrated. Laboratory tests were conducted with clean water and steam at Biphase Energy Systems, Inc., Santa Monica, California. Field tests were conducted at the Union Oil Co., Tow No. 1 wellsite near Brawley, California. The system tested consisted of the major components of a total flow rotary separator/turbine conversion system. A nozzle converted the brine wellhead enthalpy to two-phase flow kinetic by impinging the nozzle flow tangentially on the inside of the separator. The flow was therefore subjected to the high centrifugal force field in the separator. This caused the liquid phase to collect as a film on the separator drum with very little energy loss. The steam was allowed to flow radially inward to the central steam discharge. Potable water was obtained by condensing the steam exhaust. The brine collection system converted the liquid film kinetic energy to static pressure head. The system was operated for 116 hours in a high salinity environment (115,000 ppM TDS). The system operated properly with no adverse effects from solids precipitation or scale buildup. The rotary separator produced separate flows of pure liquid and steam of greater than 99.5% quality.

• Research Organization: Biphase Energy Systems, Santa Monica, CA (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: EY-76-C-03-1228
• OSTI ID: 6415377
• Report Number(s): TID-28519
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY
STEAM SEPARATORS
PERFORMANCE TESTING
TOTAL FLOW SYSTEMS
BENCH-SCALE EXPERIMENTS
BRINES
DATA
DESIGN
EFFICIENCY
FIELD TESTS
GEOTHERMAL ENERGY CONVERSION
NATURAL STEAM
NOZZLES
TURBINES
TWO-PHASE FLOW
CONVERSION
ENERGY CONVERSION
FLUID FLOW
FLUIDS
GEOTHERMAL FLUIDS
INFORMATION
STEAM
TESTING
TURBOMACHINERY
VAPOR SEPARATORS
Geothermal Legacy
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