Evaluation of hydrate formation and inhibition using equations of state Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • The study of gas hydrates is of particular interest to the natural gas and petroleum industry because they may block transmission lines, plug blow out preventers, jeopardize the foundation of deepwater platforms and pipelines, cause tubing and casing collapse and foul process heat exchangers, valve and expander. Hydrates can be prevented by reducing the water content of the hydrocarbon mixture or by heating or insulating the pipelines. However, a more common alternative is to add a water soluble inhibitor to lower the hydrate forming temperature. Methanol, ethanol, ethylene glycol (EG), diethylene glycol (DEG), and salts are examples of good inhibitors. The information given in this work is just a set of guidelines to illustrate how equations of state, when properly calibrated to selected experimental data, can help the processing engineer to find the optimum inhibition scheme to avoid natural gas hydrate formation.

author list (cited authors)

  • Barrufet, M.A. [Texas A and M Univ., College Station, TX (United States). Dept. of Petroleum Engineering], .., & Morales, G.

complete list of authors

  • Morales, GUOSCED

publication date

  • January 1999