CATASTROPHIC GAS HYDRATE GROWTH UNDER SHUT-IN AND COLD START UP CONDITIONS

• Main Author: SUNDRAMOORTHY, JEGA DIVAN
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2015
• Subjects: TP Chemical technology
• Online Access: http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/21425/1/2015-CHEMICAL-CATASTROPHIC%20GAS%20HYDRATE%20GROWTH%20UNDER%20SHUT-IN%20AND%20COLD%20START-UP%20CONDITIONS-JEGA%20DIVAN%20SUNDRAMOORTHY.pdf; http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/21425/

In this present work, capillary aided catastrophic gas hydrate growth is observed under shut-in and cold start-up conditions employing newly fabricated customized apparatus, consisting of six units of identical rocking gas hydrate cell. The observation of a capillary-aided mass-transport mechanism for a catastrophic hydrate growth with and without kinetic hydrate inhibitor is presented. Visual observation shows that the hydrate crystal formation at the brine wetted area close to the brine/gas interface initiates capillary-aided catastrophic hydrate growth. Moreover, no masstransfer restriction of brine towards catastrophic gas hydrate growth is observed. The capillary force may provide a greater driving force to form gas hydrates than the diffusion rate of gasses into the bulk water phase. It is also found that the production profiles such as different shut-in time and capillary aided water transport influences the produce water to grow hydrate in distinctive ways.