Prediction of drop size of natural gas condensates using molecular simulation and Young growth model

This paper describes the development and implementation of a molecular simulation model to predict the nucleation process during the condensation of heavy components of the gas natural mixtures of linear alkane (C1 - C6 and C9) at transport conditions (10-40 bar). Specifically, it was used the Monte Carlo method with configurational-bias, the united-atom force field known as “Transferable Potentials for Phase Equilibria (TraPPE-UA)," and the Umbrella sampling technique. The growth of the droplets was evaluated with the model of Young considering numbers of Knudsen below 0.1. The simulation results obtained for the droplet nucleation and growth were compared with experimental data reported in the literature with the aim of validating the implemented models. The simulations predict a droplets size of 2.09 μm which is in good agreement with the experimental results.