Application of the Cubic-Plus-Association (CPA) Equation of State to Cross-Associating Systems

Multipolar SAFT-VR Mie Equation of State: Predictions of Phase Equilibria in Refrigerant Systems with No Binary Interaction Parameter

An extension of the SAFT-VR Mie equation of state is proposed to predict the properties of multipolar fluids. The new model, referred to as multipolar M-SAFT-VR Mie, incorporates the general multipolar term developed by Gubbins and co-workers, which accounts for dipole-dipole, quadrupole-quadrupole, and dipole-quadrupole interactions. A modification of the third order terms in the perturbation theory results in an accurate description of the simulation data for multipolar Lennard-Jones fluids. Both the M-SAFT-VR Mie and polar soft-SAFT models are extended to account for polarizability, and a good agreement is obtained with molecular simulation data. The M-SAFT-VR Mie model is applied to refrigerant systems, and it is found that including both dipole and quadrupole moments in molecular models leads to more accurate results than using only a dipole moment. The new model provides excellent predictions of the vapor-liquid equilibria of zeotropic and azeotropic refrigerant mixtures without the need for binary interaction parameters, making it a valuable tool for formulating low-GWP working fluids.

Economic leverage affords post-combustion capture of 43% of carbon emissions: Supersonic separators for methanol hydrate inhibitor recovery from raw natural gas and CO2 drying

Offshore oil/gas productions are power intensive and CO₂ emitters from gas-fired power generation. This work investigates supersonic separator as a strategy for affording post-combustion capture backed up by cost reductions. Conventional offshore gas processing usually loses thermodynamic hydrate inhibitor methanol in processing and exported gas. This work analyses a supersonic separator variant gas processing simultaneously reducing methanol losses. Such process dramatically improves gas-plant profitability via cost-reduction of methanol make-up and power-consumption, simultaneously increasing revenues from liquefied-petroleum-gas by-product. This economic leverage affords post-combustion carbon capture, including subsequent CO₂ dehydration and compression for exportation of high-pressure liquid CO₂. This corresponds to abate 43% of CO₂ emissions boosting revenues via enhanced oil recovery. Moreover, CO₂ is dehydrated via another supersonic separator operating with minimum head-loss, minimizing compression costs. Despite its much higher investment, the new process with carbon capture presents higher net value (865.63 MMUSD) than the conventional processing without carbon capture (829.31 MMUSD), being economically feasible and more environmentally adequate with cleaner natural gas production and successful CO₂ management. The new process is superior in several scenarios and particularly favored by oil prices above 55 USD/bbl. Rising oil price from 40 to 100 USD/bbl, the new process net value rises 29%, whereas the conventional counterpart rises only 7.5%. In addition, as a plausible future scenario, CO₂ taxation favors the new process, which always has superior economic performance, even without CO₂ taxation. In summary, implementing supersonic separators in offshore natural gas processing aiming at anti-hydrate recovery and CO₂ dehydration for enhanced oil recovery creates economic leverage sustaining Carbon Capture & Storage without loss of competitiveness. This result, backed up by rigorous thermodynamic simulations and economic-environmental assessments, configure an original achievement to the literature.

Solubility of Carbon Dioxide in Secondary Butyl Alcohol at High Pressures: Experimental and Modeling with CPA

Mixtures of carbon dioxide and secondary butyl alcohol at high pressures are interesting for a range of industrial applications. Therefore, it is important to have trustworthy experimental data on the high-pressure phase behavior of this mixture over a wide range of temperatures. In addition, an accurate thermodynamic model is necessary for the optimal design and operation of processes. In this study, bubble points of binary mixtures of CO₂ + secondary butyl alcohol were measured using a synthetic method. Measurements covered a CO₂ molar concentration range of (0.10–0.57) % and temperatures from (293 to 370) K, with pressures reaching up to 11 MPa. The experimental data were modelled by the cubic plus association (CPA) equation of state (EoS), as well as the more simple Soave–Redlich–Kwong (SRK) EoS. Predictive and correlative modes were considered for both models. In the predictive mode, the CPA performs better than the SRK because it also considers associations.