Treatment of water-CO2 mixtures including fluid flow and thermodynamic

This project is split in two phases. The first phase is a prolongation of the CLIMIT project no. 208553/E20 "Simulation of CO2 behaviour in flow and depressurization" (SolidCO2Sim) and will be carried out in 2014. The target of the 208553/E20 project was: "Predict behaviour of CO2 during flow and pressure changes under different conditions and applications. The aspect that additional effects might influence the behaviour of CO2 rich mixture, such as exposure or not exposure of heat (fire), shall be inclu ded. One of the key parameters is to be able to predict formation of solid CO2 and the influence on the flow in reservoir formations and 3-dimensional pipe network as well as in process facilities (vessels, distillation columns. etc.)." "The objective f or 2014 is to utilise the technology that has been developed during the SolidCO2Sim project to establish tools and services that shall be available for the sponsors of the project. The objective for 2014 is to fulfil the objective of the SolidCO2Sim proje ct." Following activities will be performed during 2014: * Implementation of the DB-SIMPLE method for multiphase simulation in Brilliant. Brilliant is a general purpose, multi-physic CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamic) system with seamless integration of a FEM (Finite Element) system for linear and nonlinear stress analyses. ThermoProp is integrated in Brilliant. Brilliant also includes flow in porous media. * Implementation of the DB-SIMPLE method for use in VessFire 2.0. VessFire 2.0 is a general syste m for simulation of blowdown of process segments. VessFire 2.0 will, by use of DB-SIMPLE, be able to handle multiphase flow including phase changes. For CO2, phase changes in the triple point, liquid-solid-gas, shall be included. The 2.0 version will be c ompared with experiments. * Development of specialised GUI for VessFire 2.0. To make VessFire available for industrial application a specialised user interface will be developed. Besides the ability to treat all phases of CO2 VessFire will be able to predict dynamic behaviour of flow and phase changes in a flare system during blowdown. That will contribute to better design of one of the most important safety system in process plants. The technical challenge is to create an efficient system that is s table and performs well within a reasonable simulation time. To get a correct picture of the fluid flow behaviour in the three dimensional pipe net, the connection between the process components, such as pipes and vessels, must be handled correctly and ef ficient. Present status is: Connections between components has been implemented and tested. The connection is based on "virtual connections" that gives a flexible and precise representation of the physics. 3D pipes and vessels in implemented and the p roject is well into the GUI development.

Behaviour of water mixed with CO2 is crucial for several processes, not at least for issues concerning storage of CO2 in reservoirs. During an accidental blowout from a reservoir, CO2 may mix with formation water and a gradual change from supercritical co nditions down to a situation of low pressure and low temperature will occur. This process might create different forms of phases, including water ice, hydrates and solid CO2. Also, the behaviour of a CO2 transportation or injection stream will be affected by the water content. Water and other impurities will alter the thermodynamic properties, including the different phase envelopes. Brilliant with ThermoProp (Brilliant is a CFD system and ThermoProp is a themodynamic pckage, both are Petrell proprietari es) provides a novel approach to coupling of multi-purpose CFD modelling and rigorous thermodynamic modelling. Withn Brilliant, ThermoProp provides a generic interface to continuous thermodynamic properties, regardless of which equation of state or thermo dynamic model is being used. Petrell has a unique fundament for tackling the inherent complexity in multi-component multi-phase situations, where N components and M phases interact mechanically, interact chemically and exchange energy. The novelty of thi s project lies in utilizing state of the art thermodynamic models for mixtures containing CO2 and water in real world simulation cases. Reservoir blowout or process segment depressurization is examples of processes that are multi-physical in nature. Fluid flow, heat transfer, thermodynamic property calculations, phase changes and gravity, are all examples of necessary ingredients of a complete simulation model. This project aims to develop technology to handle CO2-water mixtures in fluid flow and thermod ynamic. This imply that the thermodynaic must treat multiple phases within the same phase and both the fluid flow equations and the thermodynamic must work together.