Objective
VASPS Stage II project (OG./00114/91/UK) demonstrated the viability of the VASPS as a liquid gas separator. The overall objective of the present Stage is to make a further step towards the marinization by testing a VASPS unit that would be similar to the subsea one from a functional point of view. A VASPS prototype will be integrated with a pump and extensive functional tests will be performed in Trecate to prove the operability of the whole system.
Furthermore, according to Stage II results and taking advantage of the modifications necessary to integrate a pump, the internals and the overall length of the unit will be revised and a Modified VASPS will be tested to verify the possibility to enhance its performances and to verify the applicability of the unit in a wider range of conditions.
Tests on VASPS as separator performed in Trecate have demonstrated that VASPS separation performances are improved reaching high separation efficiency with a liquid flowrate of 65-75 m3/h.
Tests on VASPS pumping system in Trecate has demonstrated a very high operability of the unit and of the relevant control system, confirming the viability of the VASPS as subsea pumping system. From these tests it was also possible to obtain useful information to the design of a subsea unit.
Tests on level sensors indicate that it is possible to control the level with "off the shelf" instrumentation.
VASPS is an innovative two phase separation system designed for subsea application and integrated an Electric Submerisble Pump. One of the peculiarities of the VASPS is the mechanical arrangement which is composed of a standard casings and wellhead components installed in a dummy well using established drilling-completion procedures and equipment. In this arrangement a conventional submersible pump is installed inside the casings to deliver the liquid phase into a dedicated pipeline. VASPS belongs to the category of "Subsea Boosting Systems". Among various potential applications, which are field dependent, VASPS results very interesting for deepwaters fields where the back pressure on the well dictated by the liquid column in the risers/flowlines is significant. Similarly VASPS can be conveniently used in the exploitation of heavy oil fields where the capabilities of gas lift are very limited either by the limited amount of gas available or by the surface facilities. Similar considerations apply for gas-condensate fields where problems associated with transportation are significant.
VASPS finds also interesting applications in extending the field life. Indeed it is quite frequent that approaching the end of the field life two intrafield pipelines, previously needed at full capacity, become underused. In this case the oil production can be diverted to just one of them and the redundant pipeline can be re-used as gas intrafield pipeline. Following the successful completion of VASPS Stage II in June 95, the new programme started in July 1995 with the primary objective to make a further step towards the final subsea application. In particular, the new project phase has two main goals :
* verify the operability of the VASPS now integrated with a pumping system and relevant control system
* verify the possibility to enhance the VASPS separation performances by using different internals and a longer unit. To achieve these targets the project has been organised inthe following steps:
A. Additional Tests : after having introduced some minor modifications to the helix design based on Stage II results, some additional tests will be performed in Trecate to verify the significance of indications obtained from Stage II.
B. VASPS Design Review based on Stage II and "Additional Tests" results, the VASPS process will be reviewed to incorporate the latest achievements. As consequence of this review, and considering that however the present VASPS prototype should be modified to allow the integration of a pumping system, a Modified VASPS unit will be fabricated. In particular the VASPS unit will be extended of about 4 m and two different helixes will be fabricated.
C. Tests on a Modified VASPS unit: the Modified VASPS unit with two different helixes will be tested to verify its operability and efficiency before its integration with the pump.
D. Tests with the pump: the VASPS will be integrated with a conventional centrifugal pump installed externallyto the VASPS.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- engineering and technology electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering electronic engineering control systems
- engineering and technology electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering electronic engineering sensors
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Coordinator
AB14JG Aberdeen
United Kingdom
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