(153g) Interfacial Investigations of Gas Hydrates in Flow Assurance & Energy Applications

Ahmad A.A. Majid, Erika Brown, Vishal Srivastava, Jose Dapena, M. Naveed Khan, Thomas Charlton, Carolyn A. Koh

Colorado School of Mines, Center for Hydrate Research, Golden, CO 80401, USA

Abstract

Natural gas hydrates are crystalline guest-host structures that form in the presence of water and small gas molecules at high pressure and low temperatures. The formation of gas hydrates in deepwater flowlines can lead to blockages of the flowlines and hence significant potential safety and environmental risks. On the other hand hydrates have a number of interesting energy related technological applications, including energy transportation and storage. Understanding the interfacial interactions of gas hydrates in multiphase systems is critical to being able to control and tailor hydrate formation in flow assurance or energy applications. This paper presents the application of a micromechanical force apparatus to measure hydrate particle-particle interactions and rheological and flowloop tests to investigate the hydrate slurry properties. Reducing particle-particle interactions can lead to the production of a transportable hydrate slurry, which is an important factor when assessing hydrate blockage mitigation strategies for fully and partially dispersed systems, as well as the continuous production of hydrates for different energy applications.