基于量子化学计算方法的天然气水合物稳定性研究进展

天然气水合物以资源丰富、优质、洁净等特点,被视为21世纪新能源。天然气水合物稳定性的研究对天然气水合物资源勘探开发具有重要意义。本文简述了微观、介观、宏观、矿藏四个尺度天然气水合物稳定性的研究,重点从微观量子尺度介绍了量子化学计算方法对水合物晶体结构及其稳定性以及水合物宏观物理特性微观表征的计算研究。应用量子化学计算方法可以对天然气水合物的晶体结构、电子轨道分布、振动光谱、成键特性及主客体相互作用进行计算研究,其结果能够为天然气水合物在油气储运、水合物成藏、开采及其综合利用等方面的研究提供理论支持。目前,量子化学计算方法的优化与分子动力学模拟、分子力学模拟等方法的结合将有助于水合物形成和分解微观机理研究的发展,提升计算精度和扩大研究体系,为矿场尺度的天然气水合物资源开采利用提供理论支持。     

多元气-液-固复杂体系相平衡

石油流体中含有气相、液相及可能遇到的固相包括水合物、石蜡和沥青质等,涉及多元气-液-固复杂体系的相平衡问题.为防止这些沉积物堵塞造成安全隐患,需要确定水合物、石蜡、沥青质沉积起始条件以及沉积量.本文针对化学热力学理论在含水合物、石蜡和沥青质的多元-多相平衡研究中的应用进行了综述.水合物相平衡模型较为成熟,主要有两类,其一为基于等温吸附理论的van der Waals-Platteeuw型热力学模型;其二为基于双过程水合物生成机理的Chen-Guo水合物热力学模型.石蜡沉积一般采用活度系数法、状态方程法及多固相模型描述.沥青质絮凝、沉积则可采用溶解度参数模型、状态方程法、胶体模型和标度理论模型进行计算.同时对多元气-液-固复杂体系的相平衡研究发展方向进行了展望.     

天然气水合物降压分解微观实验设计*

为了解决天然气水合物降压分解过程中孔隙尺度精细描述的难题,开展了天然气水合物微观可视模型实验设计。实验装置设计从具备可视功能、实时监测功能、数据处理功能和临界状态判断功能入手,开展了设备初始化调试、生成与分解模拟和产气效率分析等共3个层次实验内容。实验结果表明,学生不但能够定性描述水合物微观孔隙水合物生成与分解过程,而且实现了定量计算不同时刻水合物产气效率,这为学生对水合物微观生成与降压分解规律的理解奠定了基础。实验加深了学生对海洋油气工程专业知识的理解,提升了学生解决复杂工程问题的实践能力。     

天然气水合物合成与分解模拟实验研究与设计

针对大学化学中有关天然气水合物的内容,设计了天然气水合物的教学实验和模拟实验装置,实现了天然气水合物在不同实验条件下的合成与分解等多个实验。仪器操作简单,实验可重复性高,可通过多种方式判断水合物是否生成或分解。     

一个考虑沉积物孔径分布特征的水合物相平衡模型

天然气水合物的相平衡条件一直是水合物相关研究的重点和难点. 本文探讨了沉积物孔隙大小及其分布特征对水合物相平衡条件的影响机理, 提出了有效孔隙半径的概念, 并利用沉积物孔隙大小分布特征, 假设孔径分布呈正态分布, 建立了水合物饱和度和有效孔隙半径之间的定量关系; 与传统的van der Waals-Platteeuw相平衡模型相结合, 提出了一个考虑沉积物孔隙大小及其分布特征的相平衡模型. 相对于传统模型, 本模型所表达的相平衡条件不再是二维平面的p-T曲线, 而是温度、压力以及水合物饱和度之间的三维定量关系. 这一特征使得所建模型既能较为真实地反映水合物形成与分解机理, 又能有效地考虑孔隙大小分布对水合物相平衡条件的影响. 通过与实验数据对比, 证明了所建模型的预测结果优于其他模型. 本模型在温度和压力条件确定的情况下还可以预测沉积物中水合物的饱和度, 因此, 可用于地层中水合物储量计算.     

鼓泡浆液反应器的应用开发研究Ⅰ.气含率和固相浓度分布特性

研究了以粉体氧化铝水合物为固相的鼓泡浆液反应器的平均气含率和固体浓度分布特性。考察了表观气速、体系温度、静液高度、固相浓度及气体分布板的开孔率等对气含率的影响和不同性质氧化铝水合物在塔中的悬浮和轴向浓度分布情况。结果表明气速增大或开孔率较大时气含率增大，但固相浓度大小对气含率没有影响。水合氧化铝固体粉末在鼓泡塔中的浓度分布特性与固体的堆积密度和吸水性能有关，吸水率大堆积密度小的拟薄水铝石在低气速条件下就可完全均匀悬浮。以上结果为用气液固三相鼓泡反应器制备晶粒大小均匀的拟薄水铝石提供了可能性。     

气—固流化床反应器内双流体力学模型及其验证：Ⅳ.单组分两维射流床内气泡特性

模拟了不同操作条件下,单组分两维射流床内射流崩塌后所形成气泡的形状、运动机理、初始尺寸和上升速度。集合前文（Ⅰ、Ⅱ和Ⅲ）研究结果表明,在湍流两相流理论基础上建立的“气－固流化床反应器内双流体力学模型”可以很好地分析气固射流床内流体动力学特性,诸如：基本流场变量（气、固相速度场、压力场和空隙率）瞬态变化情况、射流特性（射流发展、射流穿透深度确定方法、射流区气体速度分布和操作条件对射流穿透深度、射流频率的影响等）、时均空隙率分布、时均轴向气体速度分布和气泡特性。由此可见,该方法和思路可以为灰熔聚流化床粉煤气化工艺和其他与流态化技术相关的设计提供必要的信息和有益的建议     

微波场中乙烷及丙烷气体水合物的分解特性

研究了2.45GHz微波场中I型乙烷水合物及II型丙烷水合物的热激分解过程,基于晶体表面两步分解机制的动力学模型,结合传热传质分析了其分解特性.结果表明:水合物在微波场中的加热分解是一个与实际微波电磁场相互耦合的过程,微波体积加热的特点强化了水合物颗粒表层的传热传质过程,时间累积的热效应增大了水合物晶体破解速率;在120至540W入射功率下,乙烷、丙烷水合物气化速率分别达到0.109-0.400mol·min-·1L-1及0.090-0.222mol·min-1·L-1.在一定范围内增大微波功率可显著提高水合物分解速率,其中乙烷水合物一直处于功率主控区,丙烷水合物更早进入功率和分解动力机制共同控制区.     

液固流化床内床层动态特性的CFD模拟

在对液固流化床内流动特性进行理论分析的基础上，采用多相流CFD方法模拟了二维矩形流化床内水和玻璃球体系的流体动力学特性。实验结果表明，流体速度突变后，液固流化床从一个平衡状态向另一个平衡状态过渡。当液体速度减小时，床层表面及分隔界面的变化与理论模型预测一致；由于重力不稳定性的影响，当液体速度增大时，床层表面稳定上升但与时间不呈线性关系，且分隔界面难以分辨。进而膨胀后停留时间的长短对收缩过程的影响也可以忽略。尽管床层收缩时间明显小于实际膨胀时间，但是与预报的理想膨胀时间比较接近。模拟结果与前人的实验研究和理论分析相吻合，表明多相流CFD模拟可以很好地预测液固流化床的床层动态行为。     

多孔介质中气体水合物降压分解的分形理论研究

通过将水合物的分解过程看作是无固态产物层生成的气固反应过程, 结合粒径缩小的收缩核反应模型和分形理论, 建立了多孔介质中水合物降压分解的分数维动力学模型, 提出了基于水合物分解实验数据计算多孔介质分形维数的方法. 分别利用前人的甲烷水合物和CO2水合物降压分解实验数据, 对上述分数维动力学模型进行了验证. 计算结果表明, 用提出的方法所计算得到的多孔介质分形维数与前人的测定结果基本符合; 对甲烷水合物和CO2水合物的降压分解过程, 提出的分数维动力学分解模型得出了和实验结果基本一致的预测, 绝对平均误差(AAD)小于10%.     

Experimental study on flow characteristics of tetrahydrofuran hydrate slurry in pipelines

Tetrahydrofuran (THF) was selected as the substitute to study the flow behaviors and the mechanism of the hydrates blockage in pipelines. The slurrylike hydrates and slushlike hydrates are observed with the formation of hydrates in pipeline. There is a critical hydrate volume concentration of 50.6% for THF slurries and pipeline will be free of hydrate blockage while the hydrate volume concentration is lower than the critical volume concentration; otherwise, pipeline will be easy to be blocked. Fully turbulent flow occurs and friction factors tend to be constant when the velocity reaches 1.5 m/s. And then, constant values of friction factors that depend on the volume concentrations in the slurry were regressed to estimate the pressure drops of THF hydrate slurry at large mean velocity. Finally, a safe region, defined according to the critical hydrate volume concentration, was proposed for THF hydrate slurry, which may provide some insight for further studying the natural gas hydrate slurries and judge whether the pipeline can be run safely or not.     

Natural gas hydrate shell model in gas-slurry pipeline flow

A hydrate shell model coupled with one-dimensional two-fluid pipe flow model was established to study the flow characteristics of gas-hydrate slurry flow system. The hydrate shell model was developed with kinetic limitations and mass transfer limitations, and it was solved by Euler method. The analysis of influence factors was performed. It was found that the diffusion coefficient was a key parameter in hydrate forming process. Considering the hydrate kinetics model and the contacting area between gas and water, the hydrate shell model was more close to its practical situations.     

R12 hydrate formation kinetics based on laser light scattering technique

Gas hydrates are non-stoichiometric crystalline compounds of water with gas at a certain temperature and pressure. Compared to the thermodynamics of hydrate formation, our knowledge on the kinetics aspect is rather immature. It is well known that the kinetics of hydrate formation/dissociation plays an important role in many industrial cases, such as the exploitation of methane hydrate underground, the storage and transportation of natural gas in solid hydrate state, the inhibition of hydrate i…     

A computer model of the nonstationary gas flow in a long multilayer-insulated high-pressure subsea gas pipeline

For the non-stationary gas flow in a long multilayer-insulated high-pressure subsea gas pipeline, an original computer model was developed that takes into account transient heat-transfer processes in the long multilayer wall of the pipeline. These processes may influence the energy balance of the flowing gas, leading to a change in the gas temperature down to negative values, which may cause frosting of the pipe and reduction of its strength characteristics up to rupture. The adequacy of the model was checked on an industrial subsea pipeline more than 300 km long. Computational experiments on the developed computer model under essentially unsteady boundary conditions for pressure, mass flow rate, and temperature showed that the developed model gives more accurate values of flow velocity, pressure, and temperature throughout the pipeline.     

A model for estimating flow assurance of hydrate slurry in pipelines

The problem of hydrate blockage of pipelines in offshore production is becoming ever-increasing severe because oil fields in ever-increasing unusual environments have been brought in production.HCFC-141b and THF were selected as the substitutes to study the flow assurance of the hydrates in pipelines.There are critical hydrate volume concentrations for these two slurries.Hydrate slurries behave like Bingham fluids and have high agglomerating tendency when the hydrate volume concentrations are larger than the critical ones.Based on theological behaviors of these two hydrates,a non-dimensional parameter is proposed through studying the driving forces of agglomeration among hydrate particles,which shows the agglomerating probability of hydrate particles in pipeline and can be used to judge the safety of the pipeline.Moreover,a safe model to judge the safely flow hydrate slurries was presented and verified with the experimental data,which demonstrates that the model is effective to judge whether the pipeline can be run safely or not.     

Numerical studies of hydrate dissociation and gas production behavior in porous media during depressurization process

In this study,a numerical model is developed to investigate the hydrate dissociation and gas production in porous media by depressurization.A series of simulation runs are conducted to study the impacts of permeability characteristics,including permeability reduction exponent,absolute permeability,hydrate accumulation habits and hydrate saturation,sand average grain size and irreducible water saturation.The effects of the distribution of hydrate in porous media are examined by adapting conceptual models of hydrate accumulation habits into simulations to govern the evolution of permeability with hydrate decomposition,which is also compared with the conventional reservoir permeability model,i.e.Corey model.The simulations show that the hydrate dissociation rate increases with the decrease of permeability reduction exponent,hydrate saturation and the sand average grain size.Compared with the conceptual models of hydrate accumulation habits,our simulations indicate that Corey model overpredicts the gas production and the performance of hydrate coating models is superior to that of hydrate filling models in gas production,which behavior does follow by the order of capillary coating>pore coating>pore filling>capillary filling.From the analysis of t1/2,some interesting results are suggested as follows:(1) there is a "switch" value(the"switch"absolute permeability) for laboratory-scale hydrate dissociation in porous media,the absolute permeability has almost no influence on the gas production behavior when the permeability exceeds the "switch" value.In this study,the "switch" value of absolute permeability can be estimated to be between 10 and 50 md.(2) An optimum value of initial effective water saturation Sw,e exists where hydrate dissociation rate reaches the maximum and the optimum value largely coincides with the value of irreducible water saturation S wr,e.For the case of Sw,Swr,e,there are different control mechanisms dominating the process of hydrate dissociation and gas production.     

Pipeline transport of biomass

The cost of transporting wood chips by truck and by pipeline as a water slurry was determined. In a practical application of field delivery by truck of biomass to a pipeline inlet, the pipeline will only be economical at large capacity (>0.5 million dry t/yr for a one-way pipeline, and >1.25 million dry t/yr for a two-way pipeline that returns the carrier fluid to the pipeline inlet), and at medium to long distances (>75 km [one-way] and >470 km [two-way] at a capacity of 2 million dry t/yr). Mixed hardwood and softwood chips in western Canada rise in moisture level from about 50% to 67% when transported in water; the loss in lower heating value (LHV) would preclude the use of water slurry pipelines for direct combustion applications. The same chips, when transported in a heavy gas oil, take up as much as 50% oil by weight and result in a fuel that is >30% oil on mass basis and is about two-thirds oil on a thermal basis. Uptake of water by straw during slurry transport is so extreme that it has effectively no LHV. Pipeline-delivered biomass could be used in processes that do not produce contained water as a vapor, such as supercritical water gasification.     

Hydrate film growth on the surface of a gas bubble suspended in water

The lateral film growth rate of CH4, C2H4, CO2, CH4 + C2H4, and CH4 + C3H8 hydrates in pure water were measured at four fixed temperatures of 273.4, 275.4, 277.4, and 279.4 K by means of suspending a single gas bubble in water. The results showed that the lateral growth rates of mixed-gas CH4 + C2H4 hydrate films were slower than that of pure gas (CH4 or C2H4) for the same driving force and that of mixed-gas CH4 + C3H8 hydrate film growth was the slowest. The dependence of the thickness of hydrate film on the driving force was investigated, and it was demonstrated that the thickness of hydrate film was inversely proportional to the driving force. It was found that the convective heat transfer control model reported in the literature could be used to formulate the lateral film growth rate v(f) with the driving force DeltaT perfectly for all systems after introduction of the assumption that the thickness of hydrate films is inversely proportional to the driving force DeltaT; i.e., v(f) = psiDeltaT(5/2) is correct and independent of the composition of gas and the type of hydrate. The thicknesses of different gas hydrate films were estimated, and it is demonstrated that the thicknesses of mixed-gas hydrate films were thicker than those of pure gases, which was qualitatively consistent with the experimental result.     

Method for calculating the parameters of formation of hydrates from multicomponent gases

A model of hydrate formation in multicomponent gas–liquid water or ice systems including the exo- and endothermic processes has been suggested. Based on this model, a method for calculating the molecular and energy parameters such as the hydration number, amount of moles of hydrate, amount of gas and water in it, its density and molar mass, and the energy and rate of hydrate formation was developed. A comparison of the calculated and experimental values of the parameters revealed that the difference between them varied from 0 to 5.46%.