نوع مقاله : مقاله پژوهشی
عنوان مقاله English
نویسندگان English
Elemental sulfur deposition represents a major operational challenge in sour gas reservoirs and in gas production, transportation, and processing facilities. A decrease in sulfur solubility under operating conditions can lead to flowline blockage, production losses, intensified corrosion, and serious flow-assurance problems. Therefore, accurately predicting sulfur solubility across varying temperatures, pressures, and gas compositions is of substantial industrial relevance. In this study, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were employed using the LAMMPS package to predict the solubility of elemental sulfur in eight sour-gas mixtures, including six binary and two ternary systems. The molecular modeling framework utilized validated force fields: the Ballone potential for S₈, a three-center model for CO₂, and Lennard-Jones and OPLS-AA models for the remaining gas components. Simulations were carried out in the NPT ensemble for 21 ns, and equilibrium states were identified after removing the transient region based on potential energy, kinetic energy, and the number of free S₈ molecules. Sulfur solubility was quantified by determining the number of S₈ molecules dissociated from the solid phase and dispersed into the gas phase using cluster-analysis techniques, followed by conversion into engineering units. The predicted values were compared against reliable experimental data for all gas mixtures. The results demonstrated that the MD approach accurately reproduced sulfur solubility, with an overall relative error below 1%. Sensitivity analysis indicated that selecting an appropriate cutoff radius significantly enhances numerical stability and model accuracy. Overall, the findings demonstrate that molecular dynamics is capable of reliably predicting the equilibrium solubility behavior of elemental sulfur in binary and ternary sour-gas mixtures. This computational approach provides a robust tool for analyzing sulfur deposition in sour-gas reservoirs and for optimizing the design and operational conditions of processing and transportation systems.
کلیدواژهها English