First-stage separation on a gas plant inlet, handling surging liquid and solids without upsetting downstream.
The inlet facility takes whatever the pipeline delivers — gas, condensate, water, sand, and occasionally a large liquid slug when flow conditions change. Everything downstream depends on this vessel absorbing that variability.
The design case is rarely the average flow. It is the slug: how much liquid can arrive at once, and whether the vessel can take it without carrying over or shutting the plant down.
