This paper will review the current understanding and challenges of managing gas hydrates in flow assurance applications. The paper will be based largely on the developments performed over the last decade in the Colorado School of Mines, Center for Hydrate Research, and will also draw on the reported field and industry needs, challenges, and developments. The mechanisms of gas hydrate plug formation in different pipeline scenarios, including oil, water, and gas-dominated systems will be reviewed. This mechanistic understanding is based on extensive multi-scale experimental measurements, including flow loops, bench scale stirred cells, and interfacial and particle-level apparatuses. The different hydrate blockage mitigation strategies of hydrate avoidance with thermodynamic inhibitors, low dosage hydrate inhibitors, and exploiting the knowledge of hydrate kinetics will be assessed. This fundamental understanding is being incorporated into engineering tools that can enable the flow assurance engineer to predict if, when, and where hydrates will form and to formulate possible mitigation strategies.
Acknowledgements: Funding and support is acknowledged from the CSM Hydrate Center Industry Consortium and Coors Foundation (cak). Special thanks to the CSM Hydrate Busters, the talented students, postdocs and staff in the Hydrate Center.
