Influence of Operating Condition on Asphaltene Separation from Heavy Crude Oil by Hydrocyclone with CFD Simulation

In this work, a Colman-Thew hydrocyclone type has been simulated by CFD method for asphaltene separation from heavy crude oil. In CFD simulations, the Reynolds Stress Turbulence Model (RSM) and mixture model for multiphase simulation have been used and thirty micron is considered for diameter of asphaltene particles. The CFD simulation results have been compared with the experimental data. The CFD model can predict the hydrocyclone efficiency with ten percent average error. Effect of inlet flow rate, diameter of asphaltene particles, viscosity of continuous phase and hydrocyclone split ratio as operating conditions have been studied by CFD simulation. The results show that the performance of hydrocyclone could be improved with increasing of inlet flow rate and decreasing of continuous phase viscosity. Also 133% improvement on overall efficiency is observed with increasing the diameter of asphaltene particles to 50 micron. Changing the split ratio has the dual effect on performance of hydrocyclone. With increasing the split ratio, the overall efficiency of hydrocyclone is increased but the overflow (product) is reduced, so the optimization is needed.