A novel correlation for estimation of hydrate forming condition of natural gases

An inherent problem with natural gas production or transmission is the formation of gas hydrates, which can lead to safety hazards to production/ transportation systems and to substantial economic risks. Therefore, an understanding of conditions where hydrates form is necessary to overcome hydrate related issues. Over the years, several models requiring more complicated and longer computations have been proposed for the prediction of hydrate formation conditions of natural gases. For these reasons, it is essential to develop a reliable and simple-to-use method for oil and gas practitioners. The purpose of this study is to formulate a novel empirical correlation for rapid estimation of hydrate formation condition of sweet natural gases. The developed correlation holds for wide range of temperatures (265–298 K), pressures (1200 to 40000 kPa) and molecular weights (16−29). New proposed correlation shows consistently accurate results across proposed pressure, temperature and molecular weight ranges. This consistency could not be matched by any of the widely accepted existing correlations within the investigated range. For all conditions, new correlation showed average absolute deviation to be less than 0.2% and provided much better results than the widely accepted existing correlations.     

Rapidly Estimating Natural Gas Compressibility Factor

Natural gases containing sour components exhibit different gas compressibility factor(Z) behavior than do sweet gases.Therefore,a new accurate method should be developed to account for these differences.Several methods are available today for calculating the Z-factor from an cquation of state. However,these equations are more complex than the foregoing correlations,involving a large number of parameters,which require more complicated and longer computations.The aim of this study is to develop a simplified calculation method for a rapid estimating Z-factor for sour natural gases containing as much as 90% total acid gas.In this article,two new correlations are first presented for calculating the pseudo- critical pressure and temperature of the gas mixture as a function of the gas specific gravity.Then,a simple correlation on the basis of the standard gas compressibility factor chart is introduced for a quick estimation of sweet gases' compressibility factor as a function of reduced pressure and temperature.Finally,a new corrective term related to the mole fractions of carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide is developed.     

A statistical method for assessment of the existing correlations of hydrate forming conditions

Hydrate formation in the oil and gas industries has been a serious problem for a long time. It may cause many difficulties for instance in gas pipelines blockages. In order to determine the hydrate forming condition, gas gravity method has been used. Several correlations have been proposed based on gas gravity method. Checking the accuracy of the applied correlations is important. In this paper, the leverage approach is used for this purpose. Leverage approach is a statistical method for detection outliers which identifies the applicability domain(AD) of hydrate data predicting correlations and the quality of the existing data. Moreover, the Williams plot is sketched, which is a graphical depiction for determination of the doubtful points. The obtained results showed the existing correlations are all statistically correct and valid to predict hydrate formation temperature, just one data point is out of the applicability domains, and none of the experimental data can be chosen as outliers.     

Hydrate capture CO2 from shifted synthesis gas,flue gas and sour natural gas or biogas

CO₂ capture by hydrate formation is a novel gas separation technology, by which CO₂ is selectively engaged in the cages of hydrate and is separated with other gases, based on the differences of phase equilibrium for CO₂ and other gases. However, rigorous temperature and pressure, high energy cost and industrialized hydration separator dragged the development of the hydrate based CO₂ capture. In this paper, the key problems in CO₂ capture from the different sources such as shifted synthesis gas, flue gas and sour natural gas or biogas were analyzed. For shifted synthesis gas and flue gas, its high energy consumption is the barrier, and for the sour natural gas or biogas (CO₂/CH₄ system), the bottleneck is how to enhance the selectivity of CO₂ hydration. For these gases, scale-up is the main difficulty. Also, this paper explored the possibility of separating different gases by selective hydrate formation and reviewed the progress of CO₂ separation from shifted synthesis gas, flue gas and sour natural gas or biogas.     

A new correlation for predicting hydrate formation conditions for various gas mixtures and inhibitors

In the last 50 years, several studies have been performed on the measurement and prediction of hydrate forming conditions for various gas mixtures and inhibitors. Yet, the correlations presented in the literature are not accurate enough and consider most of the time, simple pure gases only and their mixtures. In addition, some of these correlations are presented mainly in graphical form, thus making it difficult to use them within general computer packages for simulation and design. The purpose of this paper is to present a comprehensive neural network model for predicting hydrate formation conditions for various pure gases, gas mixtures, and different inhibitors. The model was trained using 2387 input–output patterns collected from different reliable sources. The predictions are compared to existing correlations and also to real experimental data. The neural network model enables the user to accurately predict hydrate formation conditions for a given gas mixture, without having to do costly experimental measurements. The relative importance of the temperature and the different components in the mixture has also been investigated. Finally, the use of the new model in an integrated control dosing system for preventing hydrate formation is discussed.     

A novel correlation approach for prediction of natural gas compressibility factor

Gas compressibility factor (z-Factor) is one of the most important parameters in upstream and downstream calculations of petroleum industries. The importance of z-Factor cannot be overemphasized in oil and gas engineering calculations. The experimental measurements, Equations of State (EoS) and empirical correlations are the most common sources of z-Factor calculations. There are more than twenty correlations available with two variables for calculating the z-Factor from fitting in an EoS or just through fitting techniques. However, these correlations are too complex, which require initial value and more complicated and longer computations or have magnitude error. The purpose of this study is to develop a new accurate correlation to rapidly estimate z-Factor. Result of this correlation is compared with large scale of database and experimental data also. Proposed correlation has 1.660 of Absolute Percent Relative Error (E_(ABS)) versus Standing and Katz chart and has also 3.221 of E_(ABS) versus experimental data. The output of this correlation can be directly assumed or be used as an initial value of other implicit correlations. This correlation is valid for gas coefficient of isothermal compressibility (c_g) calculations also.     

Predicting hydrate forming pressure of pure alkanes in the presence of inhibitors

An inherent problem with natural gas production or transmission is the formation of gas hydrates, which can lead to safety hazards for production/transportation systems, and substantial economic risks. Hydrate inhibition with different inhibitors such as, methanol, ethylene glycol （EG）, triethylene glycol （TEG）, and sodium chloride solution continues to play a critical role in many operations. An understanding of when the hydrates form in the presence of these hydrate inhibitors, is therefore necessary to overcome hydrate problems. Several thermodynamic models have been proposed for predicting the hydrate formation conditions in aqueous solutions containing methanol/glycols and electrolytes. However, available models have limitations that include the types of liquid, compositions of fluids, and inhibitors used. The aim of this study is to develop a simple-to-use correlation for accurate prediction of hydrate-forming pressures of pure alkanes in the presence of different hydrate inhibitors, where the obtained results illustrate good agreement with the reported experimental data.     

Efficient methods for calculations of compressibility,density and viscosity of natural gases

This study presents two new methods for calculating properties of natural gases. The first is an efficient empirical model to calculate compressibility and density of natural gases containing high amount of heptane plus and none-hydrocarbon components. The model is derived from 2400 measurements of compressibility and density of various gases presented in this study. Accuracy of the model is compared to various equations of state (EOS), corresponding state, and empirical methods. The study shows that the new model is simpler and more efficient than EOS. It eliminates the numerous computations involved in EOS calculations. The new method also eliminates the characterization of the heptane plus fraction and estimation of binary interaction parameters needed for EOS calculations. Experimentally measured density of several gases has been used to study the validity of the proposed method. These measurements indicate that the new method successfully capture the physical trend of changing gas density as a function of pressure, temperature, and composition.The second method is a modification of Lee–Gonzalez–Eakin gas viscosity correlation. The new method accounts for the presence of heptane plus, hydrogen sulfide, and carbon dioxide in natural gases. The proposed method is compared to other EOS-based viscosity model, corresponding state methods, and correlations. The comparison indicates the superiority of the new method over the other methods used to calculate viscosity of natural gases.     

FID/TCD并联气相色谱法测定天然气水合物的气体组成

建立了一种氢火焰离子化检测器（FID）与热导检测器（TCD）并联检测的气相色谱分析技术。该方法一次进样,即可实现天然气水合物中C1~C6、CO2、H2S、O2+N2 16种气体成分的同时测定。实验优化了色谱柱、升温程序、柱流速、进样口温度、检测器温度、TCD参考气和尾吹气流速等仪器分析参数。在优化条件下,16种气体分子在实验浓度范围内线性关系良好,r2为0.999 03~0.999 98,方法检出限为0.000 3~0.046 mol/mol,相对标准偏差（n=6）为1.6%~5.0%。对祁连山冻土区、南海神狐海域、人工合成水合物样品的分析表明,该方法简便实用、灵敏可靠,可满足天然气水合物气体组成的分析要求。     

Comparison and application of different empirical correlations for estimating the hydrate safety margin of oil-based drilling fluids containing ethylene glycol

As the oil and gas industries continue to increase their activity in deep water, gas hydrate hazards will become more serious and challenging, both at present and in the future. Accurate predictions of the hydrate-free zone and the suitable addition of salts and/or alcohols in preparing drilling fluids are particularly important both in preventing hydrate problems and decreasing the cost of drilling operations. In this paper, we compared several empirical correlations commonly used to estimate the hydrate inhibition effect of aqueous organic and electrolyte solutions using experiments with ethylene glycol (EG) as a hydrate inhibitor. The results show that the Najibi et al. correlation (for single and mixed thermodynamic inhibitors) and the Ostergaard et al. empirical correlation (for single thermodynamic inhibitors) are suitable for estimating the hydrate safety margin of oil-based drilling fluids (OBDFs) in the presence of thermodynamic hydrate inhibitors. According to the two correlations, the OBDF, composed of 1.6 L vaporizing oil, 2% emulsifying agent, 1% organobentonite, 0.5% SP-1, 1% LP-1, 10% water and 40% EG, can be safely used at a water depth of up to 1900 m. However, for more accurate predictions for drilling fluids, the effects of the solid phase, especially bentonite, on hydrate inhibition need to be considered and included in the application of these two empirical correlations.     

Formation and decomposition of ethane, propane, and carbon dioxide hydrates in silica gel mesopores under high pressure

The experimental data on decomposition temperatures for the gas hydrates of ethane, propane, and carbon dioxide dispersed in silica gel mesopores are reported. The studies were performed at pressures up to 1 GPa. It is shown that the experimental dependence of hydrate decomposition temperature on the size of pores that limit the size of hydrate particles can be described on the basis of the Gibbs-Thomson equation only if one takes into account changes in the shape coefficient that is present in the equation; in turn, the value of this coefficient depends on a method of mesopore size determination. A mechanism of hydrate formation in mesoporous medium is proposed. Experimental data providing evidence of the possibility of the formation of hydrate compounds in hydrophobic matrixes under high pressure are reported. Decomposition temperature of those hydrate compounds is higher than that for the bulk hydrates of the corresponding gases.     

Numerical Simulation on the Dissociation,Formation, and Recovery of Gas Hydrates on Microscale Approach

Investigations into the structures of gas hydrates, the mechanisms of formation, and dissociation with modern instruments on the experimental aspects, including Raman, X-ray, XRD, X-CT, MRI, and pore networks, and numerical analyses, including CFD, LBM, and MD, were carried out. The gas hydrate characteristics for dissociation and formation are multi-phase and multi-component complexes. Therefore, it was important to carry out a comprehensive investigation to improve the concept of mechanisms involved in microscale porous media, emphasizing micro-modeling experiments, 3D imaging, and pore network modeling. This article reviewed the studies, carried out to date, regarding conditions surrounding hydrate dissociation, hydrate formation, and hydrate recovery, especially at the pore-scale phase in numerical simulations. The purpose of visualizing pores in microscale sediments is to obtain a robust analysis to apply the gas hydrate exploitation technique. The observed parameters, including temperature, pressure, concentration, porosity, saturation rate, and permeability, etc., present an interrelationship, to achieve an accurate production process method and recovery of gas hydrates.     

常见客体分子对笼型水合物晶格常数的影响

Natural gas hydrates are considered as ideal alternative energy resources for the future, and the relevant basic and applied research has become more attractive in recent years. The influence of guest molecules on the hydrate crystal lattice parameters is of great significances to the understanding of hydrate structural characteristics, hydrate formation/decomposition mechanisms, and phase stability behaviors. In this study, we test a series of artificial hydrate samples containing different guest molecules (e.g. methane, ethane, propane, iso-butane, carbon dioxide, tetrahydrofuran, methane + 2, 2-dimethylbutane, and methane + methyl cyclohexane) by a low-temperature powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD). Results show that PXRD effectively elucidates structural characteristics of the natural gas hydrate samples, including crystal lattice parameters and structure types. The relationships between guest molecule sizes and crystal lattice parameters reveal that different guest molecules have different controlling behaviors on the hydrate types and crystal lattice constants. First, a positive correlation between the lattice constants and the van der Waals diameters of homologous hydrocarbon gases was observed in the single-guest-component hydrates. Small hydrocarbon homologous gases, such as methane and ethane, tended to form sI hydrates, whereas relatively larger molecules, such as propane and iso-butane, generated sⅡ hydrates. The hydrate crystal lattice constants increased with increasing guest molecule size. The types of hydrates composed of oxygen-containing guest molecules (such as CO₂ and THF) were also controlled by the van der Waals diameters. However, no positive correlation between the lattice constants and the van der Waals diameters of guest molecules in hydrocarbon hydrates was observed for CO₂ hydrate and THF hydrate, probably due to the special interactions between the guest oxygen atoms and hydrate "cages". Furthermore, the influences of the macromolecules and auxiliary small molecules on the lengths of the different crystal axes of the sH hydrates showed inverse trends. Compared to the methane + 2, 2-dimethylbutane hydrate sample, the length of the a-axis direction of the methane + methyl cyclohexane hydrate sample was slightly smaller, whereas the length of the c-axis direction was slightly longer. The crystal a-axis length of the sH hydrate sample formed with nitrogen molecules was slightly longer, whereas the c-axis was shorter than that of the methane + 2, 2-dimethylbutane hydrate sample at the same temperature.     

Effect of temperature fluctuation on hydrate-based CO_2 separation from fuel gas

A new method of temperature fluctuation is proposed to promote the process of hydrate-based CO2 separation from fuel gas in this work according to the dual nature of CO2 solubility in hydrate forming and non-hydrate forming regions [1].The temperature fluctuation operated in the process of hydrate formation improves the formation of gas hydrate observably.The amount of the gas consumed with temperature fluctuation is approximately 35% more than that without temperature fluctuation.It is found that only the temperature fluctuation operated in the period of forming hydrate leads to a good effect on CO2 separation.Meanwhile,with the proceeding of hydrate formation,the effect of temperature fluctuation on the gas hydrate gradually reduces,and little effect is left in the completion term.The CO2 separation efficiencies in the separation processes with the effective temperature fluctuations are improved remarkably.     

Experimental and thermodynamic modelling of systems containing water and ethylene glycol: Application to flow assurance and gas processing

Accurate knowledge of hydrate phase equilibrium in the presence of inhibitors is crucial to avoid gas hydrate formation problems and to design/optimize production, transportation and processing facilities. In this communication, we report new experimental dissociation data for various systems consisting of methane/water/ethylene glycol and natural gas/water/ethylene glycol. A statistical thermodynamic approach, with the Cubic-Plus-Association equation of state, is employed to model the phase equilibria. The hydrate-forming conditions are modelled by the solid solution theory of van der Waals and Platteeuw. The thermodynamic model was used to predict the hydrate dissociation conditions of methane and natural gases in the presence of distilled water or ethylene glycol aqueous solutions. Predictions of the developed model are validated against independent experimental data and the data generated in this work. A good agreement between predictions and experimental data is observed, supporting the reliability of the developed model.     

Experimental and theoretical investigation of simple gas hydrate formation with or without presence of kinetic inhibitors in a flow mini-loop apparatus

Gas hydrates are ice-like crystalline compounds, which form through a combination of water and suitably sized guest molecules under low temperature and elevated pressure conditions. These solid compounds give rise to problems in the natural gas oil industry because they can plug pipelines and process equipment. Low dosage hydrate inhibitors are a recently developed hydrate control technology, which can be more cost-effective than traditional practices such as methanol and glycols. The kinetics of hydrate growth has been modeled by numerous authors who have measured the gas consumption rate during hydrate formation in batch agitator reactors.     

Detecting gas hydrate behavior in crude oil using NMR

Because of the associated experimental difficulties, natural gas hydrate behavior in black oil is poorly understood despite its grave importance in deep-water flow assurance. Since the hydrate cannot be visually observed in black oil, traditional methods often rely on gas pressure changes to monitor hydrate formation and dissociation. Because gases have to diffuse through the liquid phase for hydrate behavior to create pressure responses, the complication of gas mass transfer is involved and hydrate behavior is only indirectly observed. This pressure monitoring technique encounters difficulties when the oil phase is too viscous, the amount of water is too small, or the gas phase is absent. In this work we employ proton nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy to observe directly the liquid-to-solid conversion of the water component in black oil emulsions. The technique relies on two facts. The first, well-known, is that water becomes essentially invisible to liquid state NMR as it becomes immobile, as in hydrate or ice formation. The second, our recent finding, is that in high magnetic fields of sufficient homogeneity, it is possible to distinguish water from black oil spectrally by their chemical shifts. By following changes in the area of the water peak, the process of hydrate conversion can be measured, and, at lower temperatures, the formation of ice. Taking only seconds to accomplish, this measurement is nearly direct in contrast to conventional techniques that measure the pressure changes of the whole system and assume these changes represent formation or dissociation of hydrates - rather than simply changes in solubility. This new technique clearly can provide accurate hydrate thermodynamic data in black oils. Because the technique measures the total mobile water with rapidity, extensions should prove valuable in studying the dynamics of phase transitions in emulsions.     

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。     

The influence of gas phase fugacity and solubility on correlation of gas-hydrate formation pressure

The dissociation pressure for single gas-hydrate systems is correlated by van der Waals and Platteeuw's model with a Kihara spherical-core potential for the interaction between water and the guest molecule. By fitting to dissociation pressures along the hydrate-ice-gas-line, Kihara parameters are obtained independent of the mutual solubility of the gas and water. Further, the fugacity coefficients m that region are close to unity so that the Kihara parameters are rather insensitive to the choice of equation of state. By fitting to the ice-line only, we can investigate to what extent the equation of state fugacities influence the calculated dissociation pressures along the hydrate-water gas and hydrate-water-condensate equilibrium lines. By comparing the calculated equilibrium data to the experimental data we can conclude that an accurate prediction of hydrate dissociation pressures requires an equation of stat which gives an accurate correlation of fugacities rather than densities, and that it is necessary to take gas solubility into account even for non-polar gases like nitrogen and methane. Such investigation has not been reported previously. The Kihara parameters for the single gas-hydrate systems are estimated using the thermodynamically stable hydrate structure.     

二维气相色谱法分析天然气水合物区沉积物间隙水中示踪气体的浓度

利用微流路控制技术中心切割装置(Deans Switch)、两根色谱柱(PoraPLOT Q和Molsieve 5A)和3个检测器(脉冲氦离子化检测器、火焰光度检测器、热导检测器),建立了一种二维气相色谱分析系统,实现了海洋中多种示踪气体组分(氢气、甲烷、二氧化碳、硫化氢)的同时分析和精确测定。氢气、甲烷、二氧化碳、硫化氢的含量分别在2～1030、0.6～501、120～10500和0.2～49.1 μmol/mol范围内的校正曲线线性关系良好,检出限分别为0.51、0.17、82和0.08 μmol/mol,10次重复测定含量的相对标准偏差均小于10%。通过对南海天然气水合物区沉积物间隙水顶空气的测定,表明该方法方便、灵敏、可靠,易于实现海上现场测定;与以往采用多种分析方法分别测定示踪气体相比,大大节省了样品量。该方法适用于海洋天然气水合物、海底热液等资源的调查和海洋溶解态气体的研究等。