Experimental design and manufacturing of a smart control system for horizontal separator based on PID controller and integrated production model

Abstract During oil production, the reservoir pressure declines, causing changes in the hydrocarbon components. To ensure better separation of produced phases, separator dimensions should also be adjusted. It is not possible to change the dimensions of the separator during production. Therefore, to improve the separation of the phases, the level of the separator needs to be adjusted. An intelligent system is required to ensure that the liquid level is maintained at the desired level for optimal phase separation during changes in reservoir pressure. In this study, a novel correlation is presented to measure the desired liquid level using new separator pressures. For this purpose, an intelligent system was built in the laboratory and tested in different operational conditions. The intelligent system effectively maintained the desired liquid level of the separator through a new correlation technique. The system accomplished this by acquiring new separator pressure readings collected by installed sensors. This approach helped mitigate the negative effects of the slug flow regime and minimized issues such as foam formation and over-flushing of the separator. It could achieve a 99.1% separation efficiency between gas and liquid phases. This was possible during liquid and gas flow rates ranging from 0 to 2.35 and 8–17 m 3 /h, respectively. The system could operate under bubble, stratified, plug, and slug flow regimes. Then the intelligent model obtained from lab experiments was integrated into the production model for the southern Iranian oil field. The smart model increased oil production by 13% and prevented the separator from over-flushing in 840 days.