Universal Vortex Products

1. If Quebec separates, you will float off to sea.

2. If you do something stupid, you have a built-in excuse.

3. The workday is about two hours long.

4. It is socially acceptable to wear your hip waders to your wedding.

Summary:

VPRS - Vortex Pressure Regulating Station (an installation using vortex pressure reducers for pressure reduction with pressure control using conventional pressure regulators or control valves. Typical installations use dual stream outlet vortex pressure reducers and a heat exchanger for warming the VPR cold outlet to achieve the gas required temperatures at the Station discharge. The VPRS as well may include installation of single stream outlet vortex pressure reducers with or without a heat exchanger. )

VLTS - Vortex Low Temperature separation ( a natural gas processing refrigerating technology to enhance NGL (natural gas liquid) recovery at plants that currently use a Joule-Thomson (JT) cooling with external refrigeration)

VGTC - Vortex Gas Thermal Conditioning ( the installation of an Energy and Mass separating vortex tube to provide thermal conditioning of a gas flow and separation of liquids. Typically this is done at a wellhead in place of a choke valve. )

UVI’s products are based on proprietary (USA and Foreign Patents) vortex designs:

VPGH-SP - Vortex Pilot Gas Heater, Single Path - Single Path (VPGH-SP) with a single heating chamber to serve one pilot. See Video!!

VPGH-DP - Vortex Pilot Gas Heater, Dual Path - Dual Path (VPGH-DP) with two heating chambers to simultaneously serve two pilots. See Video!!

VPR - Vortex Pressure Reducer ( a vortex tube product that provides pressure reduction as well as mass and energy separation. VPRs are available in various configurations optimized for specific applications such as pressure reduction, heating, thermal conditioning of a gas stream or natural gas liquids separation.)

• VPR.SH-SS - Vortex Pressure Reducer, Self Heating, Single Stream Outlet
• VPR.SH-SS.CNG - Vortex Pressure Reducer, Self Heating, Single Stream Outlet, Compressed Natural Gas Applications
• VPR.SH-DS - Vortex Pressure Reducer, Self Heating, Dual Stream Outlet

OFV - One Flow Vortex Tube where the processed hydrocarbon feed is chilled under combined JT and vortex cooling i.e. to temperatures well below those in the Joule-Thomson valve.

VSGH - Vortex Sample Gas Heater is a portable device for gas heating at spot sampling locations, thus to prevent sampling vapor from condensing.

VVT - Vacuum Vortex Tube provides an energy division of the atmospheric air or any other gaseous medium that feeds the VVT under atmospheric pressure.UVI can design and fabricate its products to any size to suit the application. The Vortex Tubes can also be used in series or parallel as the process dictates.

VSC - Vortex Spot Cooling can be used for industrial cooling applications using nothing but compressed air. Ideal for hazardous environments and suitable for cooling equipment or electronics Vortex Spot Cooling also has the potential to be very portable. Competitors vortex tube products for this typically require dried compressed air, which can be expensive to produce, however UVI's vortex tube products have proprietary self heating so can be used with un-dried compressed air. Ask us how we provide spot heating as well!!!!

Overview:

Introduction

A Vortex Tube (VT) is a specially designed cylindrical device used to reduce the pressure of (expand) pressurized gas. During pressure reduction in a VT, and requiring no external energy source, the expanded gas undergoes energy and mass segregation (Vortex Phenomenon) forming ‘cold’ and ‘hot’ flows.

The VT energy and mass segregation provides the opportunity for using the gas streams to capture or dissipate heat:

• Due to the very low temperatures the cold stream can capture heat from ambient air, or from waste or low grade heat sources, warming the gas stream thus reducing or eliminating the need for gas fired line heaters in pressure reducing stations or pressure to power applications.
• Alternatively, where the gas stream is has excess heat, as on the suction side of NGV compressor or for NGL recovery, the hot stream can be used dissipate heat energy to ambient air or other heat sinks.

The application examples above are indicative of the potential however there are innumerable natural gas processing and industrial applications. We are unaware of any other product that, without external energy (eg a heat pump uses electricity), that offers similar heat recovery from waste or low grade heat sources.

UVI’s Innovations

UVI products and technology are proprietary and patented. These products and technology were developed and are manufactured without any external (eg government, federal, provincial or state) support. As such, to date, no externally funded studies have been completed and published.However testimonials and in-house studies by customers are available.

UVI’s innovations provide increase the VT thermal efficiency as well as the range of its applicability resulting in a broad range of applications for its products. UVI’s self-heating design allows for use of the VT as a primary non-freeze pressure reducer thus eliminating the need in the upstream gas pre-heat even for high dew point gases. Additional to the thermal benefits UVI’s products are extremely low noise.

Products

UVI’s vortex tube products are based on proprietary (USA and Foreign Patents) vortex designs:

Vortex Pilot Gas Heater (VPGH)

Vortex Pilot Gas Heater prevents pilot regulator gas from freezing at natural gas transmission and distribution pressure regulation stations (PRS).

• VPGH-SP - Vortex Pilot Gas Heater, Single Path - a single heating chamber to serve one pilot.

• VPGH-DP - Vortex Pilot Gas Heater, Dual Path - two heating chambers to simultaneously serve two pilots.

Vortex Pressure Reducer (VPR)

Vortex Pressure Reducer ( a vortex tube product that provides pressure reduction as well as mass and energy separation. VPRs are available in various configurations optimized for specific applications such as pressure reduction, heating, thermal conditioning of a gas stream or natural gas liquids separation.)

• VPR.SH-SS - Vortex Pressure Reducer, Self Heating, Single Stream Outlet
• VPR.SH-SS.CNG - Vortex Pressure Reducer, Self Heating, Single Stream Outlet, Compressed Natural Gas Applications

• VPR.SH-DS - Vortex Pressure Reducer, Self Heating, Dual Stream Outlet

One Flow Vortex Tube (OFV)

One Flow Vortex Tube where the processed hydrocarbon feed is chilled under combined JT and vortex cooling i.e. to temperatures well below those in the Joule-Thomson valve.

Vortex Sample Gas Heater (VSGH)

Vortex Sample Gas Heater is a portable device for gas heating at spot sampling locations, thus to prevent sampling vapor from condensing.

Vacuum Vortex Tube (VVT)

Vacuum Vortex Tube provides an energy division of the atmospheric air or any other gaseous medium that feeds the VVT under atmospheric pressure.

Applications

UVI’s products and technology are suitable for use at each step of gas delivery from production well to the end user:

Power Generation:

Typical installations use dual stream outlet vortex pressure reducers (VPR.SH-DS) and a heat exchanger for warming the VPR cold outlet to achieve the gas required temperatures at the discharge:

• Turbine Fuel Gas Thermal Conditioning Technology to eliminate the need for fuel gas up-stream pre-heat, simultaneously meeting the fuel gas thermal requirements
• Vortex Pressure To Power Technology to reduce or eliminate energy consumption to pre-heat gas upstream of a pressure to power device (eg turbo expander, gas let-down power generator, expansion engine, etc)

Compressed Natural Gas for Distribution (eg Peak Shaving or Emergency Gas Supply):

• Vortex Self-Heating Pressure Reducer (VPR.SH.SS-CNG) eliminates gas preheat during pressure reduction for compressed (eg 3600 psig) natural gas delivered via tankers or cylinders for peak shaving or emergency supplies.
• Recommended for use as a thermal solution for CNG pressure reduction. Using innovative non-freeze vortex pressure reduction it is possible to reduce or eliminate the requirement for an external fuel to pre-heat CNG prior to expansion. Further it is also possible to take advantage of the vortex tubes unique mass & energy separation to add heat to the pressure reduced gas via a simple heat exchanger using heat typically from the ambient air. This is proven technology and in commercial use by customers today.

Gas Transmission & Distribution:

• Vortex pilot gas heating is achieved using a Vortex Pilot Gas Heater (VPGH) to heat pilot gas to prevent ice formation in pilot gas lines or pilot regulators
• Vortex Pressure Regulating Station (VPRS) is an installation using vortex pressure reducers for pressure reduction with pressure control using conventional pressure regulators or control valves operating as the VPR monitor. Typical installations use dual stream outlet vortex pressure reducers (VPR.SH-DS) and a heat exchanger for warming the VPR cold outlet to achieve the gas required temperatures at the Station discharge. Other VPRS use single stream outlet vortex pressure reducers (VPR.SH-SS) with or without a heat exchanger.

Gas Production & Gathering

• Non-freeze choke of gas flow is provided using a single stream, self-heating vortex pressure reducer (VPR.SH-SS) to replace a choke valve.
• At a wellhead Vortex Gas Thermal Conditioning (VGTC) can prevent hydrocarbon vapor condensation in gas gathering lines. The installation of a dual stream self-heating vortex pressure reducer (VPR.SH-DS) and air source heat exchanger(s) uses the energy and mass separation in the vortex tube to provide thermal conditioning (ie warm) the gas flow and prevent separation of liquids. Typically this is done at a wellhead with a VPR.SH-DS installed in place of a choke valve.

CASE STUDY: The raw wellhead gas at 2,300 to 3,700 psi with flow rate of up to 600,000 scfd undergoes non-freeze pressure drop (down to some 250 psi) in the Self-Heating Vortex Tube. The VT cold outlet (some 50% of the VT inlet flow) at the temperature of - 76⁰F is directed to the gas-ambient air heat exchanger with defroster where the cold gas is warmed (depends on the ambient temperatures) to, at least, 14⁰F. The warmed vortex cold outlet and the vortex hot outlet at some 65⁰F are combined; the combined flow is directed into the gas gathering manifold.

There are two gas-ambient heat exchangers on the site, each operating in 12 hr. cycle.

Gas Processing

• Vortex Natural Gas Liquid Recovery or Vortex Low Temperature Separation (VLTS) is achieved using a One Flow Vortex (OFV) pressure reducer to replace a Joule-Thomson valve at a JT based gas processing facility. Using the OFV achieves lower temperatures and enhances natural gas liquid (NGL) recovery achieving up to 15% in NGL output increase.

Environmental Benefits

Energy and cost savings resulting from installation of use of vortex tubes for applications that would otherwise require a conventional heat source will result from elimination or reduction in the requirement for a fuel or electricity to pre-heat the natural gas prior to pressure reduction. Reduction in production of pollutants include:

• Nitrous Oxides
• Carbon Dioxide
• Sulphur Dioxide
• Particulates

Vortex tubes typically provide thermal conditioning using directly heat transfer or ambient air heat exchangers. Therefore where conventional line heaters that would use a liquid as a heat transfer medium are eliminated additional savings may include:

• Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC)
• Ethylene Glycol Handling and HSE Risks

Actual savings will depend on the specific installation, capacity, inlet gas temperature and current ambient air temperatures.

Market Penetration

Vortex Pilot Gas Heater (VPGH):

• Used in Canada by the following companies: Gas Metro PR facilities (30+ Single Path units), Enbridge, SaskEnergy, Atco Gas, Alta Gas and either ATCO transmission or TransCanada pipeline Co.
• There are by now some 2,000+ VPGH installations throughout the world (North and South America, Australia, Europe, China etc). Most of the VPGH units are in the USA.
• A large amount of the VPGH operating in a relatively small area can be seen in Midwest USA and at East Coast - Washington Gas facilities (some 120 simultaneously running VPGH).

Vortex Pressure Reducer (VPR)

• The most common application to date has been for compressed natural gas non-preheated non-freeze pressure reduction. For this application the largest number (some 30 installations) of VPR operating simultaneously is at Questar facilities where depressurized (200 bar to 4 bar) gas is used for peak shaving and emergency in gas distribution network. Also in use are a number of self heating vortex pressure reducers however these are limited to smaller facilities with a single stream VT outlet and no heat exchanger.
• To date there are no vortex pressure reducing stations in Canada with larger dual stream outlet vortex pressure reducers that facilitate use of a heat exchanger (ambient air, waste or low grade heat source) to reduce or eliminate the requirement for pre-heat using a gas fired line heater.

Performance Record

• These 2,000 VPGH installations cover all conceivable combinations of PRS operational parameters (pressure, flow rate, temperature, gas quality etc) thus demonstrating the unit universal applicability.
• Since there is no single failure of the VPGH has ever been reported, the unit is extremely reliable.
• VPGH evaluation has been completed by Gaz De France confirming that performance met or exceeded UVI claims.

Summary

The applications for UVI’s products and technology are energy saving and thus environmentally friendly and green. UVI and its representatives provide customer support including of selection and sizing of the vortex tubes for both products and technology. For technology applications a conceptual design is provided. Contact UVI or its representatives for more information info@universal-vortex.com ( www.universal-vortex.com )