Kinetic inhibition of natural gas hydrates in offshore drilling, production, and processing operations. Annual report, January 1--December 31, 1992 (open access)

Kinetic inhibition of natural gas hydrates in offshore drilling, production, and processing operations. Annual report, January 1--December 31, 1992

Natural gas hydrates are solid crystalline compounds which form when molecules smaller than n-butane contact molecules of water at elevated pressures and reduced temperatures, both above and below the ice point. Because these crystalline compounds plug flow channels, they are undesirable. In this project the authors proposed an alternate approach of controlling hydrate formation by preventing hydrate growth into a sizeable mass which could block a flow channel. The authors call this new technique kinetic inhibition, because while it allows the system to exist in the hydrate domain, it prevents the kinetic agglomeration of small hydrate crystals to the point of pluggage of a flow channel. In order to investigate the kinetic means of inhibiting hydrate formation, they held two consortium meetings, on June 1, 1990 and on August 31, 1990. At subsequent meetings, the authors determined the following four stages of the project, necessary to reach the goal of determining a new hydrate field inhibitor: (1) a rapid screening method was to be determined for testing the hydrate kinetic formation period of many surfactants and polymer candidates (both individually and combined), the present report presents the success of two screening apparatuses: a multi-reactor apparatus which is capable of rapid, …
Date: 1993
Creator: unknown
System: The UNT Digital Library