INFOCHEM News
Spring 2009
Fluid Characterisation
One of Infochem’s long term aims has
been to develop a new model for res-
ervoir fluid characterisation which
would take the novel approach of
splitting the SCN distribution into sev-
eral generic distributions with fixed
physical properties. Any given fluid
could then be represented as a mixture
of these generic compounds. While
trying to find the time and data to
move this forward we have been incre-
mentally improving the fluid charac-
terisation already offered by Multi-
flash. The two most recent extensions
have been the additions of using True
boiling (TBP) and ASTM D86 data as
input to the characterisation procedure
and allowing blending of already char-
acterised fluids.
TBP and ASTM D86
The TBP distillation values are en-
tered against the cumulative amount
distilled as a volume percent. If avail-
able the molecular weight and spgrav-
ity may be entered or will be calcu-
lated if they are not. The characterisa-
tion then proceeds as for an analysis
by gas chromatography.
For D86 the cumulative volume dis-
tilled is entered in the table together
with the temperatures, but unlike TBP
curves, there is no option for entering
molecular weights or specific gravities
as these cannot be measured by the
D86 procedure.
Petroleum fluid blending
The blending option in Multiflash al-
lows mixing, or blending, of already
characterised petroleum fluids to pro-
vide a new fluid characterisation, for
example when two pipes intersect. The
facility allows up to four separate flu-
ids to be blended together in relative
amounts by mass, mole or volume, to
produce a new fluid described by its
own set of pseudo-components. The
properties and relative amounts of the
blend’s pseudo-components are auto-
matically calculated by the blending
procedure
The procedure has the advantage that:
• It is automatic and requires no user
intervention.
• It works for any type of fluid that
can be represented in Multiflash, al-
though it does work best if the fluids
and the pseudo-component distribu-
tions are similar.
• The properties of the blend change
smoothly with changing blend ratios.
• The method of averaging the proper-
ties of the blended pseudo-
components is exactly the same as
that used to create the pseudo-
components used to represent the
properties of the original petroleum
fluids.
• The method also handles waxy and
asphaltenic crudes thereby predicting
the likely wax or asphaltene forma-
tion from the fluid blend.
Linux
meets
Multiflash
Multiflash was launched as a Win-
dows program (MF2.3) 14 years ago.
Although Windows is still our main
development environment and the
working environment for most of out
customers the growing importance of
Linux has become evident.
The Linux operating system was ini-
tially created by a young student,
Linus Torvalds, at the University of
Helsinki in Finland. It’s a Unix-like
system and the ‘kernel’ (base system)
is developed by a group of workers
around the world. Linux is important
because it is generally well supported
and very robust and most versions are
freely available. It has relatively mod-
est hardware requirements but can
fully-exploit modern processors and
large amounts of memory.
Although Multiflash itself does not
need huge amounts of memory or ul-
tra-fast processors we have a number
of customers that use Multiflash
within large-scale simulation pro-
grams. Examples are Pipesim, a prod-
uct of Schlumberger Information Solu-
tions, and gPROMS, a product of
Process Systems Enterprise Ltd. Pipe-
sim provides steady-state, multiphase
flow simulation for oil and gas pro-
duction systems while gPROMS is an
advanced general-purpose modelling,
simulation and optimisation tool. The
increasing scale of these applications
means that there is a demand for very
large simulations. As a result we have
produced a Linux version of Multi-
flash in collaboration with both
Schlumberger and PSE for use along-
side the existing Windows technology.
We are always happy to discuss new
applications of Multiflash with our
customers. If you have a need for reli-
able advanced physical property mod-
elling please get in touch.

As, regrettably, we haven’t issued a
newsletter since 2006 we thought we
should bring you up to date on some
of the other updates to Multiflash not
mentioned in other items.
Scaling
In MF36 we exploited our electrolyte
model, part of our hydrate modelling
facility, in conjunction with our
freeze-out model to allow the predic-
tion of chloride scales. The scales con-
sidered were NaCl, NaCl.2H2O, KCl,
CaCL2, CaCl2.2H2O, CaCl2.4H2O
and CaCl2.6H2O. In MF 3.8 the elec-
trolyte model has been extended to
handle halide scales. The equivalent
ions supported by MF38 are now Na+,
K+, Ca++, Cl- and Br-, which allows
scaling predictions to be generalised to
halide scales including NaBr,
NaBr.2H2O, KBR or CaBr2.6H2O.
The introduction of formation of
scales ensures that hydrate inhibition
by salts is not over-estimated as salt
concentration increases.
40
35
30
Pressure / MPa
25
20
15
10
5
0
200
Expanding the area between 260 and
268K shows the formation of
NaCl.2H2O and the effect on the hy-
drate boundary. In this example, with
a high salt concentration NaCl and
KCl form at temperatures above the
scale of the graph and CaCl2.6H2O at
lower temperatures.
40
35
30
Pressure / MPa
25
20
15
10
5 D
0
260
The effects on salt solubility of other
hydrate inhibitors, such as methanol or
MEG, are also considered.
The CAPE-OPEN
The 2009 Review interface gets a
makeover
Models The CAPE-OPEN (CO) standard de-
We regularly review the models in fines rules and interfaces that allow
Multiflash and have made some CAPE (Computer-Aided Process En-
changes in MF37 and MF38. gineering) applications or components
to interoperate. Infochem has been
The high accuracy equation of state
involved with the CO project for over
package (CSMA) has been extended
nine years and is a member of the
to include equations for R245fa and
CAPE-OPEN Laboratories Network
R143a. The high accuracy transport
(CO-LaN), and part of the working
property models for CO2 have been
group set up to maintain and develop
added to supplement the reference
CO standards for physical properties.
equation for the thermodynamic prop-
erties and both have been made avail- We originally implemented version
able as a separate model option, simi- 1.0 of the CO Thermodynamics and
lar to that for water, IAPWS-95. The Physical Properties specification to
model for H2S has also been im- produce the Multiflash CO interface.
proved. This has allowed Multiflash to be used
with a number of process simulation
Changes have also been made for the
tools including Aspen Hysys, Aspen
cubic and non-cubic equations of
Plus, Cofe, gPROMS, PRO/II and
state. The LCVM model has been
Simulis Thermodynamics. More re-
removed, while the PSRK(NRTL) and
cently we have been active in support-
PR(78) models have been added. In
the former the excess Gibbs energy is ing version 1.1 of the CO standard
provided by the NRTL equation. The which allows the capabilities of Multi-
latter is a 1978 modification of the flash to model multiple liquid and
Peng-Robinson equation which pro- solid phases to be exploited.
Hydrate Boundaries vides an improved treatment of heavy With MF38 we have released a com-
No salt inhibition
Salt inhibition without
components. pletely new version of our CO inter-
scaling
Salt inhibition with scaling
face. We still support versions 1.0 and
Tables
The OLGA PVT table generation has 1.1 of the standard but have taken the
D
DD
D
been reviewed, updated and tested opportunity to improve performance
210 220 230 240
D
250
D
260 270
D
280 290 300 310
with the collaboration of Scandpower and facilities. Installation is simpler
Temperature / K
to ensure compatibility of the tables because all software components are
with the latest versions of OLGA. now packaged as a single Windows
Two new options have also been dll. Support for extra CO interfaces
added, the ability to generate a hydrate allows a Multiflash CO property pack-
boundary and/or a wax boundary age to be created, edited and saved by
the application that is using Multiflash.
Interoperability between different soft-
A new
ware components can sometimes be
problematic so we have added a con-
recruit venient logging mechanism that allows
Scaling the calls between Multiflash and the
This year we have expanded our team to client application to be recorded. New
HYDRATE2 l
NACL.2(H2O) five by recruiting Dr. Nuno Pedrosa. properties recently added by CO-LaN
Nuno obtained his PhD degree in chemi- are now supported, including the abil-
cal engineering at Aveiro University in ity to calculate enthalpy/entropy either
D
D Aveiro, Portugal in 2007. His main re- excluding or including the enthalpy/
262 264
D
266 268
search interests were polymer phase equi- entropy of formation. This makes it
Temperature / K
libria with non-cubic Equations of State. much simpler to model processes in-
He is currently testing our existing hy- volving chemical reactions. To com-
drate models against the most recent data plete the picture we have added flash
and reviewing surface tension models to calculations that accept the new en-
see where we can offer improvements. thalpy/entropy properties.
Contact Beryl Edmonds at
13 Swan Court, 9 Tanner Street, London SE1 3LE, UK
Tel: +44 (0)20 7357 0800 Fax: +44 (0)20 7407 3927
Email: info@infochemuk.com
Website: www.infochemuk.com