Virtual inflow monitoring for a three phase gravity separator

This paper presents a virtual monitoring approach for a gravity separator. It is used to separate the three phases oil, water and gas. The monitored variables are thereby the gaseous and liquid inflows as well as the effective split ratio of oil and water entering the continuous water phase. Measurements for these variables are either expensive, unreliable or even impossible to take (as for the split ratio). Therefore, an Extended Kalman Filter is designed, which can estimate the inflows and the split ratio based on a model of the dynamic system. The performance is shown in simulations, where the gravity separator's states are controlled by PI controllers.