An in situ method on kinetics of gas hydrates
Abstract
Gas hydrate formation is a high-risk and common flow assurance problem in subsea oil production plants. The modern strategies to mitigate hydrate formation have switched from thermodynamic inhibition to risk management. In this new mitigation strategy, hydrate formation is allowed as long as it does not lead to plugging of pipelines. Thus, understanding the growth kinetics of gas hydrates plays a critical role in risk management strategies. Here, we report a new accurate and in situ approach to probe the kinetics of gas hydrate formation. This approach is based on the hot-wire method, which probes the thermal properties of the medium surrounding the hot-wire. As the thermal properties of gas hydrate and its initial constituents are different, variation in these properties is used to probe kinetics of hydrate growth front. Through this in situ method, we determine kinetics of cyclopentane hydrate formation in both mixing and flow conditions. The findings show that at ambient pressure and a temperature of 1-2 °C, the hydrate formation rate under mixing condition varies between 1.9 × 10−5 and 3.9 × 10−5 kg m−2 s−1, while in flow condition, this growth rate drops to 4.5 × 10−6 kg m−2 s−1. To our knowledge, this is the first reported growth rate of cyclopentane hydrate. This in situ approach allows us to probe kinetics of hydrate formation where there is no optical access and provides a tool to rationally design risk management strategies for subsea infrastructures.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Mar 01, 2019
- Source ID
- 10.1063/1.5082333
Entities
People
- Ali Masoudi
- Bahareh Eslami
- Hadi Ghasemi
- Masoumeh Nazari
- Parham Jafari
- Peyman Irajizad
- Varun Kashyap
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- National Science Foundation
- Office of Naval Research
- University of Houston