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Language: English

Conflict of Interest: In relation to this article, we declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Publication history: Received February 9, 2017
Accepted April 12, 2017

This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/bync/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Quantification of the risk for hydrate formation during cool down in a dispersed oil-water system

Gye-Hoon Kwak^{1 2} Kun-Hong Lee² Bo Ram Lee^{1 2†} Amadeu K. Sum^1†

¹Hydrates Energy Innovation Laboratory, Department of Chemical & Biological Engineering, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Colorado, 80401, U.S.A., USA ²Department of Chemical Engineering, Pohang University of Science & Technology, 77 Cheongam-ro, Nam-gu, Pohang, Gyeongbuk 37673, Korea

Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering, July 2017, 34(7), 2043-2048(6), 10.1007/s11814-017-0112-3

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Abstract

Gas hydrates are considered a nuisance in the flow assurance of oil and gas production since they can block the flowlines, consequently leading to significant losses in production. Hydrate avoidance has been the traditional approach, but recently, hydrate management is gaining acceptance because the practiceof hydrate avoidance has become more and more challenging. For better management of hydrate formation, we investigated the risk of hydrate formation based on the subcooling range in which hydrates form by associating low, medium, and high probability of formation for a gas+oil+water system. The results are based on batch experiments which were performed in an autoclave cell using a mixture gas (CH4 : C3H8=91.9 : 8.1mol%), total liquid volume (200 ml), mineral oil, watercut (30%), and mixing speed (300 rpm). From the measurements of survival curves showing the minimum subcooling required before hydrate can form and hydrate conversion rates for the initial 20 minutes, we developed a risk map for hydrate formation.

Keywords

Gas Hydrates Flow Assurance Risk Map Hydrate Risk Management

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