Chemical Engineering & Technology, Vol.31, No.1, 66-70, 2008
Solubility calculation of oil-contaminated drill cuttings in supercritical carbon dioxide using statistical associating fluid theory (PC-SAFT)
Supercritical fluid extraction is a new technology that could be effectively used to treat oil-contaminated drill cuttings generated during drilling for oil and gas. In this work, the solubility of oil-contaminated drill cuttings in supercritical carbon dioxide is obtained by an experimental flow type apparatus. The solubility was measured at 200 bar pressure, over a temperature range of 55-79.5 degrees C. The measured solubility and experimental data for oil in drill cuttings were correlated using the PC-SAFT, PR and SRK EOS models, without any adjustable parameters. Average absolute derivations of less than 15.1 %, 98.7 %, and 99.3 % are achieved between predicted and experimental values for the PC-SAFT, PR and SRK EOS models, respectively, over a wide range of temperatures.