A water droplet size distribution dependent modeling of hydrate formation in water/oil emulsion |
| |
| Authors: | Yi‐Ning Lv Chang‐Yu Sun Bei Liu Guang‐Jin Chen Jing Gong |
| |
| Affiliation: | 1. National Engineering Laboratory for Pipeline Safety/MOE Key Laboratory of Petroleum Engineering/Beijing Key Laboratory of Urban Oil and Gas Distribution Technology, China University of Petroleum (Beijing), Beijing 102249, P. R. China;2. State Key Laboratory of Heavy Oil Processing, China University of Petroleum (Beijing), Beijing 102249, P. R. China |
| |
| Abstract: | Experimental data on chord length distributions and growth rate during methane hydrate formation in water‐in‐oil emulsions were obtained in a high pressure stirring reactor using focused beam reflectance measurement and particle video microscope. The experiments were carried out at 274.2 K for 10–30% water cuts and agitation rates ranging from 200 to 500 rpm initially at 7.72 MPa. Rapid growth was accompanied by gradually decrease in rate. Free water was observed to become depleted during rapid growth while some water remained encapsulated inside hydrate layers constituting a mass transfer barrier. The apparent kinetic constants of methane hydrate formation and free‐water fractions were determined using a newly developed kinetic model independent of the dissolution rate at the gas–oil interface. It was illustrated that continued growth depends on distribution and transfer of water in oil‐dominated systems. This perception accords with observations of hydrate film growth on suspended water droplet in oil and clarifies transfer limits in kinetics. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 63: 1010–1023, 2017 |
| |
| Keywords: | hydrates mass transfer particle measurements mathematical modeling reaction kinetics |
|
