Fig. 2a Fig. 2b

Shell SMS™ SCHOEPENTOETER-MISTMAT-SWIRLDECK SEPARATOR Shell SVS™ SCHOEPENTOETER-VANE PACK-SWIRLDECK SEPARATOR Shell SMSM™ SCHOEPENTOETER-MISTMAT-SWIRLDECK-MISTMAT SEPARATOR Shell SMMSM™ SCHOEPENTOETER-MISTMAT-MISTMAT-SWIRLDECK-MISTMAT SEPARATOR

More than 600 gas/liquid separators are successfully operated worldwide with Shell’s separation technology.

Working Principle

The Schoepentoeter™ separates the bulk liquid and solids from the gas. The resulting entrained small liquid droplets in the gas are coalesced by an Agglomerator, which is comprised of a knitted wire mesh or vane pack, and forms larger droplets. Finally the gas with larger liquid droplets passes through the Swirldeck (Fig. 2a/b) removing almost all remaining droplets from the gas. A Swirldeck consists of an array of Swirltubes™ in which the gas is brought into a strong rotation.

Fig. 3

The droplets are separated by the subsequent centrifugal action and are coalesced into a liquid film on the Swirltube™ inner wall (Fig. 3). This liquid film is purged out of the element by a combination of the rotating flow and the secondary gas flow. The separated liquid is collected in a protected trough and flows by gravity into the column sump through drain pipes.If maximum separation efficiency is required, the SMSM™ separator is used. A wire mesh mist eliminator is installed downstream of the Swirldeck and separates the residual liquid droplets entrained in the secondary gas.

Fig. 4 Fig. 5

Characteristics of Shell Separators Recently, the new High Performance Separation Swirltube™ (HPST) has been developed which has an improved separation performance (removes all mist droplets >3µm at atmospheric conditions) and requires less building/installation height (Fig. 4). Compact High gas handling capacity up to 2.5 times more gas throughput than conventional mesh demisters. SMS and SMSM: high overall liquid removal efficiency (>98 % and >99 % respectively) very high turndown ratio (factor 10). SVS: Less sensitive to fouling high turndown ratio (factor 4) SMMSM: - high performance even in very critical separation processes with the presence of different fluids, such as condensate and glycol (e.g. in cold separators) - offers the best performing gas/liquid separation technology on the market

Recommended use:

• because of compactness, suitable for offshore industry or in general for high pressure conditions (Fig. 5). Leads to considerable vessel cost and weight savings.
• for debottlenecking of existing separators
• for high turndowns
• SVS attractive for slightly fouling service and may be used where wire mesh mist eliminators may become plugged (i.e. waxy crudes).
• for glycol contactors equipped with high capa-city Sulzer MellapakPlus® packing in order to limit the loss of glycol through entrainment even at high gas load factors.