Metastable state of gas hydrate during decomposition: A novel phenomenon

Natural gas hydrates are solid compounds with cage-like structures formed by gas and water. An intriguing phenomenon that gas hydrates can dissociate at a low rate below the ice freezing point has been viewed as the metastability of hydrate. The mechanisms of hydrate metastability have been widely studied, and many mechanisms were proposed involving the self-preservation effect, supercooled water-gas-hydrate metastable equilibrium, and supersaturated liquid–gas-hydrate system etc. The metastable state of hydrate could be of crucial significance in the kinetics of hydrate formation and decomposition, heat and mass transfer during gas production processes, and the application of hydrate-based technique involving desalination, energy storage and transportation, and gas separation and sequestration. Few researches have systematically considered this phenomenon, and its mechanism remains unclear.In this work, various mechanisms and hypothesis explaining the metastable state of gas hydrates were introduced and discussed. Further studies are still required to reveal the intrinsic nature of this metastable state of gas hydrate,and this work could give some implications on the existing theory and current status of relevant efforts.     

STUDY FOR NATURAL GAS HYDRATE CONVERSED FROM ICE

Natural gas hydrates are crystalline clathrate compounds composed of water and gases of small molecular diameters that can be used for storage and transport of natural gas as a novel method. In the paper a series of experiments of aspects and kinetics for hydrate formed from natural gas and ice were carried out on the industrial small scale production apparatus. The experimental results show that formation conditions of hydrate conversed from ice are independent of induction time, and bigger degrees of supersaturation and supercooling improved the driving force and advanced the hydrate formation. Superpressure is also favorable for ice particle conversion to hydrate. In addition, it was found there have an optimal reaction time during hydrate formation.     

SCHEMES OF GAS PRODUCTION FROM NATURAL GAS HYDRATES

Natural gas hydrates are a kind of nonpolluting and high quality energy resources for future, the reserves of which are about twice of the carbon of the current fossil energy (petroleum, natural gas and coal) on the earth. And it will be the most important energy for the 21st century. The energy balance and numerical simulation are applied to study the schemes of the natural gas hydrates production in this paper, and it is considered that both depressurization and thermal stimulation are effective methods for exploiting natural gas hydrates, and that the gas production of the thermal stimulation is higher than that of the depressurization. But thermal stimulation is non-economic because it requires large amounts of energy. Therefore the combination of the two methods is a preferable method for the current development of the natural gas hydrates. The main factors which influence the production of natural gas hydrates are: the temperature of injected water, the injection rate, the initial saturation of the hydrates and the initial temperature of the reservoir which is the most important factor. 1 Lei Huaiyan, Wang Xianbin. Current Situation of Gas Hydrates Research and Challenges for Future. Acta Sedimentological Sinica, 1999, 17 (3)2 Shi Dou, Zheng Junwei. The Status and Prospects of Research and Exploitation of Natural Gas Hydrate in the World. Advance in Earth Sciences, 1999, 14 (4)3 Chen Huifan4g. Prediction of the Conditions for the Forming of Natural Gas Hydrate. Journal of Xi'an Petroleum Institute, 1994, 9 (1)4 Yao Yucheng, Yin Fushan. Progressin Study of Natural Gas Hydrates. Progress in Chemistry, 1997, 9 (3)5 Zhao Shengeai. Current Situation of Gas Hydrate and Our ??Country's Policy. Advancein Earth Sciences, 2002, 17 (3)6 Zhou Huaiyang, Peng Xiaotong. Development in Technology of Prospecting and Exploitation for Gas Hydrates. Geology and Prospecting, 2001, 38 (1)7 Zhu Yuenian, Shi Buqing. Control Effects of Natural Gas Hydrates on Oil and Gas Accumulation and Reservoir Preservation. Natural Gas Industry, 2000, 20 (3)8 Wim J A M Swinkels, Rik J J Drenth. Thermal Reservoir Simulation Model of Production from Naturally Occurring Gas Hydrate Accumulations. SPE 565509 Moridis G J, Collett T S, Dallimore S R, Tohru Satoh. Numerical Studies of Gas Production from Several CH_4-Hydrate Zones at the Mallik Site. LBNL 50257. Mackenzie Delta, Canada     

EQUATION OF STATE BASED HYDRATE MODEL FOR NATURAL GAS SYSTEMS CONTAINING BRINE AND POLAR INHIBITOR

1 INTRODUCTIONIn the past two decades,as large reserves of hydrocarbons were discovered in the formof natural gas hydrates stored in deep oceans and permafrost regions such reserves mayturn out to become a tremendous energy source in the future.Among the challengingproblems emerged from offshore oil/gas exploration and production,hydrate research re-ceived new impetus.     

SEISMIC STUDIES OF MARINE GAS HYDRATES

We give a brief introduction of developments of seismic methods in the studies of marine gas hydrates. Then we give an example of seismic data processing for BSRs in western Nankai accretionary prism, a typical gas hydrate distribution region. Seismic data processing is proved to be important to obtain better images of BSRs distribution. Studies of velocity structure of hydrated sediments are useful for better understanding the distribution of gas hydrates. Using full waveform inversion, we successfully derived high-resolution velocity model of a double BSR in eastern Nankai Trough area. Recent survey and research show that gas hydrates occur in the marine sediments of the South China Sea and East China Sea. But we would like to say seismic researches on gas hydrate in China are very preliminary.     

环戊烷水合物平衡数据

In the oil and gas industry, it is important to determine hydrate phase boundary for avoiding hydrate formation. In general n-butane is regarded as the heaviest hydrocarbon hydrate. But for oil and gas condensate systems, it has been found that some hydrocarbons heavier than n-butane could enter the large cavity of structure-II hydrate due to their effective van der Waal's diameter. The hydrate formation characteristics of benzene[1], cyclohexane[2], and cyclopentane and neopentane in their binaries/tern-aries with methane or/and nitrogen have been reported[3]. Ripmeester et al[4] pointed out that cyclopentane could form gas hydrates without a help gas. However there are no further experimental data to support it.     

孔隙尺寸、盐度和气体组分对水合物相平衡的影响(英文)

An experimental device was set up to study the hydrate formation conditions. Effects of pore size, salinity, and gas composition on the formation and dissociation of hydrates were investigated. The result indicates that the induction time for the formation of hydrates in porous media is shorter than that in pure water. The decrease in pore size, by decreasing the size of glass beads, increases the equilibrium pressure when the salinity and temperature are kept constant. In addition, higher salinity causes higher equilibrium pressure when the pore size and temperature are kept constant. It is found that the effects of pore size and salinity on the hydrate equilibrium are quite different. At lower methane concentration, the hydrate equilibrium is achieved at lower pressure and higher temperature.     

天然气水合物生成焓的实验研究

This paper reports the measurements of enthalpies of natural gas hydrates in typical natural gas mixture containing methane, ethane, propane and iso-butane at pressure in the vicinity of 2000 kPa (300 psi) and 6900 kPa(1000psi). The measurements were made in a multi-cell differential scanning calorimeter using modified high pressure cells. The enthalpy of water and the enthalpy of dissociation of the gas hydrate were determined from the calorimeter response during slow temperature scanning at constant pressure. The amount of gas released from the dissociation of hydrate was determined from the pumped volume of the high pressure pump. The occupation ratio (mole ratio) of the water to gas and the enthalpy of hydrate formation are subject to uncertainty of 1.5%.The results show that the enthalpy of hydrate formation and the occupation ratio are essentially independent of pressure.     

EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF HFC-134a GAS HYDRATE FORMATION PROCESS

Refrigerant gas hydrates have brilliant prospects as cool storage material of air-conditioning system. In this paper, when the ratio of the weight of HFC-134a to that of water is 2.17%, systematic experiments have been carried out on the formation process of the HFC-134a gas hydrate including of the phase equilibrium, the influence of supercooling degree, and the influence of agitation. The results indicate that the critical decomposition temperature and the critical decomposition pressure of R134a hydrate is 283.4K and 414K respectively, the formation of gas hydrate was promoted with increasing the supercooling degree and the agitation. However, it is desired that the supercooling degree is smaller. Therefore, it is important problem that the study of optimum of supercooling degree for cool storage system.     

RECENT ADVANCES IN HYDRATE-BASED TECHNOLOGIES FOR NATURAL GAS STORAGE——A REVIEW

Interest in the possibility of storing and transporting natural gas in the form of clathrate hydrates has been increasing in recent years, particularly in some gas-importing and exporting countries. The technologies necessary for realizing this possibility may be classified into those relevant to the four serial processes——(a) the formation of a hydrate, (b) the processing (dewatering, pelletizing, etc.) of the formed hydrate, (c) the storage and transportation of the processed hydrate, and (d) the regasification (dissociation) of the hydrate. The technological development of any of these processes is still at an early stage. For hydrate formation, for example, various rival operations have been proposed. However, many of them have never been subjected to actual tests for practical use. More efforts are required for examining the different hydrate-formation technologies and for rating them by comparison. The general design of the processing of the formed hydrate inevitably depends on both the hydrate-ormation process and the storage/transportation process, hence it has a wide variability. The major uncertainty in the storage-process design lies in the as-yet unclarified utility of the "self-preservation" effect of the naturalgas hydrates. The process design as well as the relevant cost evaluation should strongly depend on whether the hydrates are well preserved at atmospheric pressure in large-scale storage facilities. The regasification process has been studied less extensively than the former processes. The state of the art of the technological development in each of the serial processes is reviewed, placing emphasis on the hydrate formation process.     

Experimental and Theoretical Investigation of Double Gas Hydrate Formation in the Presence or Absence of Kinetic Inhibitors in a Flow Mini‐Loop Apparatus

Double gas hydrate formation in the presence or absence of kinetic inhibitors in a flow mini‐loop apparatus was investigated. For the prediction of the gas consumption rate during hydrate formation in this system, the rate equation based on the Kashchiev and Firoozabadi model for simple gas hydrate formation in a batch system was developed for double gas hydrate formation in a flow mini‐loop apparatus. To complete the theoretical evaluation of gas hydrate formation through the mini‐loop apparatus in the presence or absence of kinetic hydrate inhibitors (KHI), a laboratory flow mini‐loop apparatus was set up to measure the induction time for hydrate formation and the uptake rate when a gaseous mixture (such as 75 % C1/25 % C3, 25 % C1/75 % C3, 75 % C1/25 % i‐C4, and 25 % C1/75 % i‐C4) is contacted with water containing or not containing dissolved inhibitor under suitable temperature and pressure conditions. In each experiment, a water blend saturated with gas mixture was circulated up to the required pressure. The pressure was maintained at a constant value during the experimental runs by means of a required gas mixture make‐up. The effect of pressure on gas consumption during hydrate formation was investigated in the presence or absence of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) and L ‐tyrosine as kinetic inhibitors at various concentrations. A good agreement was found between the predicted and experimental data in the presence or absence of KHI. The total average absolute deviation percents between the experimental and predicted values of gas consumption were found to be 16.4 and 17.5 % for the double gas hydrate formation in the presence or absence of the kinetic inhibitors, respectively.     

Prediction of induction time for natural gas components during gas hydrate formation in the presence of kinetic hydrate inhibitors in a flow mini‐loop apparatus

The objective of this work is the prediction of induction time (t_i) for simple gas hydrate formation in the presence or absence of kinetic hydrate inhibitors at various conditions based on the Kashchiev and Firoozabadi model in a flow mini‐loop apparatus. For this purpose, the t_i model is developed for simple gas hydrate formation in batch system for natural gas components during hydrate formation in a flow mini‐loop apparatus. A laboratory flow mini‐loop apparatus is designed and built up to measure the t_i for simple gas hydrate formation when a hydrate former (such as C₁, C₃, CO₂ and i‐C₄) is contacted with water in the absence or presence of dissolved inhibitor, such as poly vinylpyrrolidone, PVCap and L ‐tyrosine. In each experiment, a water blend saturated with pure gas is circulated up to a required pressure. Pressure is maintained at a constant value during experimental runs by means of the required gas make‐up. The average absolute deviation (AAD) of the predicted t_i values from the corresponding experimental data are found to be about 11% and 9.4% for gas hydrate formation t_i in the presence or absence of kinetic hydrate inhibitors, respectively. © 2012 Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering     

Structural phase transitions of methane+ethane mixed-gas hydrate induced by 1,1-dimethylcyclohexane

Methane+ethane+1,1-dimethylcyclohexane+water system was investigated by using Raman spectroscopy and isothermal phase equilibrium measurements under four-phase (gas+aqueous+large guest species+hydrate phases) equilibrium conditions at 288.15 K. The results suggest that three kinds of hydrate structures emerge at 288.15 K in the methane+ethane+1,1-dimethylcyclohexane+water system. The hydrate structure for this system changed from structure-H to structure-I via structure-II with increase in the mole ratio of ethane to methane.     

Metastable boundary conditions of water‐in‐oil emulsions in the hydrate formation region

A stepwise pressurization method was proposed for determining the metastable boundary conditions of water‐in‐oil emulsions in the hydrate formation region. The metastable boundary pressures of four water‐in‐n‐octane emulsions in the presence of methane gas were determined at four specified temperatures. The experimental results show that the metastable boundary pressures increase with decreasing water droplet sizes. A thermodynamic model was developed for calculating the metastable boundary conditions of a water‐in‐oil emulsion in which assuming that the collapse of a metastable emulsion requires the formation of a stable hydrate film with a critical thickness on the surfaces of water droplets. The model was used to correlate the experimental data and determine the critical thickness of the hydrate film. It was demonstrated that the calculated results were in good agreement with the experimental data. The determined critical thickness is at nanoscale, ranging from 14 to 40 nm, which decreases with decreasing water droplet sizes. © 2011 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 2012     

Thermodynamic consistency test for experimental data of water content of methane

Accurate knowledge of the water content of natural gases is an important factor to estimate the gas hydrate, ice, and condensed water formation conditions. However, the experimental data regarding the water content of gases in equilibrium with the gas hydrate, ice, or liquid water (near gas hydrate or ice formation region) are limited. This is partly because of the fact that concentration of water in the gaseous phase in equilibrium with gas hydrate, ice or liquid water (near gas hydrate or ice formation region) is very low considering that reaching the equilibrium conditions near and inside gas hydrate or ice formation region is time consuming process. The measurement difficulties may consequently result in generating unreliable experimental data. This work aims at performing a thermodynamic consistency test based on area approach to study the reliability of some experimental data reported in the literature on the water content of methane (the main component of natural gases) in equilibrium with the gas hydrate, ice, or liquid water (near gas hydrate or ice formation region). A discussion is made on the studied experimental data according to the performed consistency test. © 2010 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 2011     

泡状流中水合物生成预测模型及实验

针对可燃冰钻采井筒内易发生水合物生成和堵塞的工程问题,本文开展了泡状流条件下甲烷水合物生成实验,发现流速增加会提高水合物生成速率,黄原胶质量分数的增加会降低水合物生成速率。基于传质理论,构建了适用于可燃冰钻采井筒内泡状流条件下水合物生成预测模型,模型考虑了连续相流体流变性、气泡破裂、聚并和形变等因素对泡状流中气液界面分布和气液间传质规律的影响,并耦合实验数据,提出了气泡群间的综合传质系数经验公式,用于描述气泡间相互作用对气液间传质速率的影响。对比实验结果,所建立模型对水合物生成量和水合物生成速率的预测误差分别在±5%和±15%以内,满足工程计算需求。该模型的构建有助于精准预测油气和可燃冰钻采井筒内水合物风险,为建立经济、高效的井筒水合物防治方案奠定理论基础。     

Gas hydration of trans-1,2-dimethylcyclohexane with cooperative assistance of methane and cis-1,2-dimethylcyclohexane

It has been regarded that the limit of the largest cage occupancy for the structure-H hydrate is between the 1,2-dimethylcyclohexane stereo-isomers, because the cis-isomer is able to generate the structure-H hydrate in the presence of methane while the trans-isomer is not. In the present study, gas hydration of trans-1,2-dimethylcyclohexane in the presence of methane and cis-1,2-dimethylcyclohexane is found from stability boundaries for the structure-H hydrate system.     

Kinetics of methane hydrate formation in aqueous electrolyte solutions

Experimental data on the kinetics of methane hydrate formation in aqueous electrolyte solutions are reported. The experiments were carried out in a semi-batch stirred tank reactor in three NaCl and two KCl solutions as well as in a solution containing a mixture of NaCl and KCl at three different nominal temperatures from 270 to 274 K and at pressures ranging from 3.78 to 7.08 MPa. The kinetic model developed by Englezos et al. (1987a) was adapted to predict the growth of hydrates. The model is based on the crystallisation theory coupled with the two-film theory for gas absorption in the liquid phase. The kinetic rate constant which appears in the model was that obtained earlier for methane hydrate formation in pure water. The effect of the electrolytes was taken into account through the computation of the three-phase equilibrium conditions and the corresponding fugacities. Overall, the model predictions match the experimental data very well with the largest prediction error being less than 10%.     

气体水合物平衡生成条件的测定及预测

建立了一套气体水合物实验测定装置，采用该装置在温度２６２．６－２８５．２Ｋ范围内分别测定了甲烷，二氧化碳和一种合成天然气在纯水、电解质水溶液以甲醇水溶液中水合物的平衡生成压力，共计９个体系，７８个数据点。