Monitoring Severe Slugging in Pipeline-Riser System Using Accelerometers for Application in Early Recognition.

The use of accelerometer signals for early recognition of severe slugging is investigated in a pipeline-riser system conveying an air-water two-phase flow, where six accelerometers are installed from the bottom to the top of the riser. Twelve different environmental conditions are produced by changing water and gas superficial velocities, of which three conditions are stable states and the other conditions are related to severe slugging. For online recognition, simple parameters using statistics and linear prediction coefficients are employed to extract useful features.

Thermoresponsive Microcarriers for Smart Release of Hydrate Inhibitors under Shear Flow.

The hydrate formation in subsea pipelines can cause oil and gas well blowout. To avoid disasters, various chemical inhibitors have been developed to prevent or delay the hydrate formation and growth. Nevertheless, direct injection of the inhibitors results in environmental contamination and cross-suppression of inhibition performance in the presence of other inhibitors against corrosion and/or formation of scale, paraffin, and asphaltene.

Kinetics of methane hydrate replacement with carbon dioxide and nitrogen gas mixture using in situ NMR spectroscopy.

In this study, the kinetics of methane replacement with carbon dioxide and nitrogen gas in methane gas hydrate prepared in porous silica gel matrices has been studied by in situ (1)H and (13)C NMR spectroscopy. The replacement process was monitored by in situ (1)H NMR spectra, where about 42 mol % of the methane in the hydrate cages was replaced in 65 h. Large amounts of free water were not observed during the replacement process, indicating a spontaneous replacement reaction upon exposing methane hydrate to carbon dioxide and nitrogen gas mixture.

Structural transformation and tuning behavior induced by the propylamine concentration in hydrogen clathrate hydrates.

The structures and the guest-host distributions of iso-propylamine (i-PA) and n-propylamine (n-PA) hydrates with hydrogen as a secondary guest were identified by powder X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopic analysis. The structure of 11.1 mol% i-PA + H2 hydrate was identified to be hexagonal (space group P63/mmc) with a few unindexed diffraction peaks, while 5.

Synergistic hydrate inhibition of monoethylene glycol with poly(vinylcaprolactam) in thermodynamically underinhibited system.

This study investigates the hydrate inhibition performance of monoethylene glycol (MEG) with poly(vinylcaprolactam) (PVCap) for retarding the hydrate onset as well as preventing the agglomeration of hydrate particles. A high-pressure autoclave was used to determine the hydrate onset time, subcooling temperature, hydrate fraction in the liquid phase, and torque changes during hydrate formation in pure water, 0.2 wt % PVCap solution, and 20 and 30 wt % MEG solutions.

Catastrophic growth of gas hydrates in the presence of kinetic hydrate inhibitors.

The effect of the concentration of kinetic hydrate inhibitors, polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), and polyvinylcaprolactam (PVCap) on the onset and growth of synthetic natural gas hydrates is investigated by measuring the hydrate onset time and gas consumption rate. Although the hydrate onset time is extended by increasing the concentration from 0.5 to 3.

Inhibition of natural gas hydrates in the presence of liquid hydrocarbons forming structure H.

The effects of LMGS (large molecule guest substance) amount on the thermodynamics of natural gas hydrates, as well as structural characteristics of mixed hydrates of LMGS and natural gas, have been studied. The addition of 1.7 wt % neohexane (NH) to water induced inhibition of natural gas hydrates, and this inhibition effect increased with increased addition of NH up to 7.

Structure and composition analysis of natural gas hydrates: 13C NMR spectroscopic and gas uptake measurements of mixed gas hydrates.

Gas hydrates are becoming an attractive way of storing and transporting large quantities of natural gas, although there has been little effort to understand the preferential occupation of heavy hydrocarbon molecules in hydrate cages. In this work, we present the formation kinetics of mixed hydrate based on a gas uptake measurement during hydrate formation, and how the compositions of the hydrate phase are varied under corresponding formation conditions. We also examine the effect of silica gel pores on the physical properties of mixed hydrate, including thermodynamic equilibrium, formation kinetics, and hydrate compositions.

Tuning the composition of guest molecules in clathrate hydrates: NMR identification and its significance to gas storage.

Gas hydrates represent an attractive way of storing large quantities of gas such as methane and carbon dioxide, although to date there has been little effort to optimize the storage capacity and to understand the trade-offs between storage conditions and storage capacity. In this work, we present estimates for gas storage based on the ideal structures, and show how these must be modified given the little data available on hydrate composition. We then examine the hypothesis based on solid-solution theory for clathrate hydrates as to how storage capacity may be improved for structure II hydrates, and test the hypothesis for a structure II hydrate of THF and methane, paying special attention to the synthetic approach used.

Complex gas hydrate from the Cascadia margin.

Natural gas hydrates are a potential source of energy and may play a role in climate change and geological hazards. Most natural gas hydrate appears to be in the form of 'structure I', with methane as the trapped guest molecule, although 'structure II' hydrate has also been identified, with guest molecules such as isobutane and propane, as well as lighter hydrocarbons. A third hydrate structure, 'structure H', which is capable of trapping larger guest molecules, has been produced in the laboratory, but it has not been confirmed that it occurs in the natural environment.

Efficient recovery of CO2 from flue gas by clathrate hydrate formation in porous silica gels.

Thermodynamic measurements and NMR spectroscopic analysis were used to show that it is possible to recover CO2 from flue gas by forming a mixed hydrate that removes CO2 preferentially from CO2/N2 gas mixtures using water dispersed in the pores of silica gel. Kinetic studies with 1H NMR microimaging showed that the dispersed water in the silica gel pore system reacts readily with the gas, thus obviating the need for a stirred reactor and excess water. Hydrate phase equilibria for the ternary CO2-N2-water system in silica gel pores were measured, which show that the three-phase hydrate-water-rich liquid-vapor equilibrium curves were shifted to higher pressures at a specific temperature when the concentration of CO2 in the vapor phase decreased.

Tuning clathrate hydrates for hydrogen storage.

The storage of large quantities of hydrogen at safe pressures is a key factor in establishing a hydrogen-based economy. Previous strategies--where hydrogen has been bound chemically, adsorbed in materials with permanent void space or stored in hybrid materials that combine these elements--have problems arising from either technical considerations or materials cost. A recently reported clathrate hydrate of hydrogen exhibiting two different-sized cages does seem to meet the necessary storage requirements; however, the extreme pressures (approximately 2 kbar) required to produce the material make it impractical.