Importance

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Abstract

A rotary gas/liquid separator includes a housing having a free running rotor mounted to rotate about a vertical axis in the housing. The rotor has an inverted conical inside surface, and a plurality of turbine blades adjacent an upper end of the conical inside surface. A gas/liquid inlet mixture is forced under pressure through stator vanes for directing flow of the inlet mixture tangentially into the turbine blades for rotating the rotor. The turbine blades divert the inlet mixture radially outwardly and then axially downwardly toward the conical inside surface of the rotor, and centrifugal force exerted on the inlet mixture by the rotating turbine blades separates liquid from the gas in the inlet mixture. The separated liquid flows downwardly in a thin film along the inside surface of the rotor and drips from a free lip at the bottom of the rotor for collection. A plurality of fan blades on the rotor discharge separated gas from a first chamber below the rotor to a second chamber above the rotor. A substantial pressure drop and corresponding adiabatic cooling of the gas results from passage of the gas through the turbine blades, and the fan blades increase the pressure and temperature of the gas in the second chamber relative to gas pressure and temperature in the first chamber.

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First Claim