Twister - Innovations In Gas Processing

Twister BV offers innovative technology and services for a wide range of natural gas processing applications.

Twister SWIRL Valve

The Twister SWIRL valve improves the separation of two-phase flow across a pressure reduction valve, such as a choke valve, Joule Thomson (JT) valve or control valve. Tangential slots in the cage valve trim forces the choking flow into a strong rotational motion, causing small droplets to concentrate and agglomerate along the perimeter of the pipe wall. This in turn significantly improves the separation efficiency of downstream separators.

SWIRL valve technology can be applied for flow debottlenecking of existing separator trains, whilst also minimising liquid carry-over, reducing chemical losses and enabling significantly higher liquid recovery. SWIRL valves can also be applied for all JT expansion gas flows.

Currently our principal capabilities and expertise include:

Twister™ Supersonic Gas Technologies:

• Dehydration
• Dewpointing
• NGL recovery

Twister BV Services:

• Conceptual engineering
• Process engineering (HYSYS)
• Project management
• Commissioning and operations support
• Flow solutions (CFD - multi-phase flow modelling)

We are an engineering company with headquarters in the Netherlands. Through contracting arrangements and strategic partnerships with leading design and fabrication companies, we have established a global network offering cost effective, quick delivery gas processing systems.

Twister Supersonic Gas Processing

Twister™ is an innovative, safe and environmentally friendly gas conditioning technology which uses condensation and separation at supersonic velocity to achieve some unique benefits. The residence time inside Twister is only milliseconds, allowing hydrates no time to form and avoiding the need for hydrate inhibition chemicals. The elimination of the associated chemical regeneration systems prevent harmful BTX emissions to the environment. The simplicity and reliability of a static device with no rotating parts, operating without chemicals, ensures a simple facility with high availability. The compact and low weight Twister system can be installed on a minimum facilities platform, and is suitable for unmanned operation in remote and / or offshore environments.

Benefits

• Substantial reduction of life-cycle cost due to low maintenance
• Low cost revenue generator for C3+ recovery applications
• Clean and green - no chemicals / emissions
• Safe - no rotating parts
• Proven - over 60,000 system operating hours

Improved Performance Twister

• Dehydration - better performance but with a lower pressure drop than the earlier design (that is from 35% to 25%)
• Dew-pointing / NGL recovery - by using a pressure drop of up to 45% Twister can achieve an equal or even better performance than other expansion technologies, including turbo-expanders

Operating Experience

After extensive Twister testing at five onshore gas plants in the Netherlands, Nigeria and Norway, Petronas and Sarawak Shell Berhad (SSB) purchased two 300 MMscfd Twister dehydration trains which started up on the B11 platform offshore Malaysia in December 2003. The Twister system on B11 has operated continuously since start up achieving the guaranteed 98% availability.

Going Commercial

Shell Nigeria ordered an onshore Twister gas conditioning skid in 2006 to treat gas for supply to a power station. At the same time, Petrobras ordered a Twister system to condition gas onshore in Brazil, with a view to applying the technology in future subsea developments. Both of these plants will be started up during 2009.

A further Twister system contract has now been awarded by Ecopetrol for their onshore Gibraltar gas processing plant in Colombia. This plant is expected to start up in early 2010. Further Twister equipment contracts are expected to be secured during 2009. In addition, Twister has technology development agreements with leading European companies who are active in the oil and gas industry.

C3+ Recovery

Due to the current high price of oil, there is an increased interest in C3+ recovery applications. Twister offers not only improved performance but also has the operating advantages of no rotating parts and no chemical usage. Third party interest has led to studies that demonstrate that Twister can out-perform both Joule-Thompson expansion and turbo-expanders.

The Future Is Sour

Simulations demonstrate that, when expanded through a Twister tube, H2S and CO2 gases condense and can be removed in the liquid phase. Twister can therefore be considered for pre-treatment of high concentration sour gases prior to conventional amine-based sweetening processes, freeing up capacity and reducing size and cost. Twister is currently involved in various strategic co-operations for developing new sour gas treatment technologies. The era of easily recoverable sweet gas is closing, and Twister may become the technology differentiator, enabling new ways for processing sour gas.