3D CFD Simulation for Black Powder-Natural Gas Cyclone Separator in Qom Compressor Station

In this work, 3D analysis of flow behavior through a cyclone for separation of black powder from natural gas has been performed using CFD techniques. Black powder is a solid contamination in natural gas pipelines. The effects of the particle diameter and gas inlet velocity on the performance parameters (collection efficiency and pressure drop) have been analyzed. The Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes equations has been simultaneously solved with Reynolds Stress Turbulence Model by use of the finite volume method. The SIMPLE algorithm has been used as a relationship between velocity and pressure corrections to enforce mass conservation and to obtain the pressure field. The Eulerian-Lagrangian computational procedure is used to predict particles trajectory through the cyclone. The CFD simulation results have been showed good agreement compared to the reported experimental data. Furthermore, the numerical results show that very the high inlet velocities result in excessive pressure drop and low inlet velocities cause the efficiency of gas solid separation to reduce.