A kinetic study of methane hydrate formation

The kinetics of methane hydrate formation, after commencement of nucleation, were studied using a semibatch stirred tank reactor. The temperatures studied in the experiments were from 274 to 284 K over a pressure range of 3–10 MPa. The results of the experiments revealed that the formation kinetics were dependent on the interfacial area, pressure, temperature and degree of supercooling. The history of water sample affected the induction delay times for nuclei formation, but it had no observable effects on the overall kinetics of hydrate formation after the nucleation had commenced. A consistent semi-empirical model was formulated to correlate the experimental kinetic data.