Evaluation of a Jet-Pump for the Improvement of Oil-Water Flow in Pipeline Loops Using CFD Tools

¹ Simón Bolívar University, USB, Energy Conversion Deparment, Valle de Sartenejas, 89000, Caracas, Venezuela
² Frontera Energy, Operations Technology Department, Calle 110 # 9 – 25, Bogota, Colombia
³ École Nationale Supérieure d'Arts et Métiers, LIFSE - Arts et Métiers, Paris, 75103, France

^* Corresponding author: asuajem@usb.ve

Abstract

Despite their low efficiency compared with centrifugal pumps, jet pumps are highly reliable, robust equipment with modest maintenance, ideal for many applications, mainly in the oil & gas industry. Jet pumps are conventionally used to draw fluid from a storage tank in the petrochemical industry or as an artificial lift system to produce oil from a reservoir using energy from the primary fluid. The trunk lines in oil production systems can experience an unfavourable phenomenon due to the fluid's low velocities. In the case of transporting a heavy oil-water mixture with low flow velocities, it could promote oil and water stratification. Due to high viscosity, the stratified oil stick on the pipe,| causing a diameter reduction, resulting in a drop in fluids production and increased energy consumption. Given the virtue of jet pumps, this paper proposes using this equipment as an oil-water transfer pump as an alternative to expensive conventional multiphase pump systems. The jet pump will add fluid into the line, increase the fluid velocities, and promote the homogenous mixture of oil and water. Using ANSYS CFX, the effect of installing a jet pump in a conventional trunkline loop was analysed. Three jet pump configurations were simulated for different driving fluid pressures and compared against a traditional pipeline loop's performance. The first configuration shows a poor performance increasing only until 10% of handling fluids. Conversely, with the improved jet pump configurations rise of the fluid production by 30% has been obtained.