The choke valve can handle severe operating conditions, it can be used for pressure drops up to 500 bars. These valves can be used with erosive fluid mixtures of hydrocarbon liquid, hydrocarbon gases. Choke valves are widely used in oil and gas reserves. These valves are inevitable in the oil and gas field, these valves can be seen in the oil and gas production wells so that the flow of the well liquid or oil can be controlled. The choke valve can remove the pressure from the reservoir and also it can regulate the downstream pressure in a pipeline.
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How to select a choke valve for our application?
While selecting a choke valve we must consider certain factors such as size, trim design, and material. So that the selected valve will be suitable for our application and it would operate with less maintenance. These valves must be selected according to the correct sizing.
- We must consider the cavitation index
- Inlet and outlet velocities must be considered, if not then it could cause valve body erosion and also could cause vibration
- We must consider the sound pressure level
- We must also consider the pressure drop limitation
What is the need for choke valve?
The need for a choke valve in the oil and gas production industries is very high, there are certain factors that have increased the need for a choke valve and they are. The increasing operating pressure, safety, and reliability. Many oil and gas production plants require the choke valve for the safe and profitable production of the oil and gas reserves.
How does a choke valve works
The major purpose of the choke valve is to give the desired flow rate. The choke valve restricts the flow through the valve and this is done by reducing the flow area through the valve body so that we could get the required flow rate. The adjustable choke valves use stem and seat combination to control the flow rate. In order to get the required flow rate, the handwheel can be turned so that we could set the orifice size and flow coefficient. There are positive choke valves that can provide a fixed flow rate through the use of a choke bean.
What are the types of choke valve?
We can see two choke valves in the oil and gas production field and they are non-regulating choke valve and regulating choke valve
Non-regulating choke valve
This type of choke valve would act as an ON-OFF valve and it can remove the pressure of the reservoir to a required level in the flow-line. The choke valve opening is designed in a way that it can remove the pressure when the valve is fully open. These valves aren’t used to do the flow regulation because it is not designed or sized to control the flow. The reservoir pressure drops in an oil production well during times when the fluids are depleted from the reservoirs. So in order to keep the good production levels while the reservoir pressure drops the non-regulating choke valves need to be removed. So during the time in an oil production well, the non-regulating choke valves can be interchanged with valves that have larger flow openings.
Regulating choke valves
This type of choke valve is a flow control valve, this valves can maintain the steady production levels in the flow-lines and also in the production header. The regulating choke valve is an automatic valve and the opening of the valve can be done by using the electric signal from the control panel so that the flow in the downstream flow-lines can be controlled.
What are the advantages of the choke valve?
- It has good reliability and the erosion is controlled
- There would be less noise because of the less pressure recovery
- It can do the pressure balancing
- Complete system guidance can be achieved, the piston is guided over the complete length of the stroke
- High rangeability
- Safety
What are the applications of choke valve?
- Oil & gas reserves
- Drilling mud lines
- It is also used in well service lines for cementing, and acidizing
- It can be used at flow lines that operate at high pressure
