Effect of Surfactants on Pressure Drop in Vertical Water-Air and Gas Condensate-Air Two-Phase Vertical Flow

Abstract

The influence of Sodium dodecyl sulfate and Triton X-100 surfactants on the two-phase pressure drop and two phase flow regime of water-air and gas condensate-air in upward vertical pipe were investigated for various gas/liquid flow rates. Sodium dodecyl sulfate and Triton X-100 reduced the pressure drop of single phase water flow by 11% and 29% compared with that of pure water single phase flow at water velocity of 13 m/s. For condensate single phase flow, Sodium dodecyl sulfate and Triton X-100 reduced the pressure drop by 9% and 17% compared with that of condensate single phase flow with no surfactant at gas condensate velocity of 13 m/s. The maximum efficiency of Sodium dodecyl sulfate and Triton X-100 in reducing the pressure drop of water-air system were 67.1% and 79.8%, respectively, compared with that of pure water-air two-phase flow. For gas condensate-air system, the maximum efficiency of Sodium dodecyl sulfate and Triton X-100 in reducing the pressure drop was 57.1% and 36.7%, respectively, compared to that of pure condensate-air two-phase flow.