Process Design for Optimizing Small Particle Diameter Light Hydrocarbon Recovery from Tight Gas Fields

To address the challenge of low separation efficiency for fine light hydrocarbons in tight gas fields, this study establishes a mathematical model correlating the structural parameters of a cyclonic coalescer with coalesced droplet size. The model was constructed using second-order polynomial basis functions through numerical simulation and response surface methodology. An optimized cyclonic coalescer configuration with enhanced fine droplet coalescence capability was subsequently designed. The performance of the optimized and original configurations was comparatively evaluated through numerical simulations and laboratory experiments. Simulation results indicated that with inlet droplet sizes ranging from 0.1 to 10 µm, the optimized configuration achieved a coalescence efficiency of 90.66% for outlet droplets larger than 100 µm. High-speed photographic analysis revealed that 5–10 µm inlet droplets were coalesced to 50–60 µm diameters, while 50–300 µm inlet droplets formed large-scale liquid flows of 300–500 µm. The optimized configuration exhibited significantly improved coalescence efficiency and operational applicability across varying inlet droplet sizes. This research provides practical insights for enhancing the recovery efficiency of fine light hydrocarbons in gas processing operations.