(460d) Prediction of the INDUCTION Time of GAS Hydrate

PREDICTION OF THE INDUCTION TIME OF GAS HYDRATE

WITH Kinetic INhibitor

Seong-Pil Kang

Clean Fossil Energy Research Center, Korea Institute of Energy Research,

102 Gajeong-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-343

REPUBLIC OF KOREA

Huen Lee

Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, 291 Daehak-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-343

REPUBLIC OF KOREA

Jae W. Lee

Chemical Engineering Department, The City College of the City University of New York

Sangyong Lee*

Chemical & Natural Gas Engineering, Texas A&M University-Kingsville

ABSTRACT

In the upstream oil and gas industry, the heterogeneous nucleation of hydrates occurs instantly when multiphase fluid in pipeline enters the thermodynamic hydrate stability region. This has led to plugging problem during oil and gas transportation. To prevent the hydrate formation in pipeline, three different kinds of inhibitors are used: 1) thermodynamic inhibitors, 2) kinetic inhibitors, and 3) anti-agglomerants. Thermodynamic inhibitors would change the equilibrium condition of gas hydrates, while kinetic inhibitors and/or anti-agglomerants change the gas hydrate crystal formation rate (kinetic inhibitors would change the induction time and anti-agglomerants change the growth rate). In this work two kinetic inhibitors (PVP and PVCap) were tested and a kinetic model to predict the induction time with the inhibitor was developed based on the Langmuir isotherm. Currently, the model can be used in limited conditions – 1) specific gas composition, 2) temperature range between 274K and 284K, 3) two kinetic inhibitors (PVP and PVCap). However, the new model has a good potential to predict the minimum concentration of inhibitor to prevent hydrate plugging at various temperature and pressure conditions during transportation. The model is not limited to gas transportation but can be applied to oil and gas transportation with additional experimental data.