Safety Moment #53: Slug Catchers
The fluids flowing through many pipelines are two phase, i.e., a mixture of liquid and gas. Ideally the two phases separate out with the liquid at the bottom section of the pipe. The two phases flow together to a processing facility that separates the two phases. In practice, however, the two phases often travel at different rates which means that they can form slugs whereby the composition of the stream at different sections is almost all liquid or almost all vapor.