Experimental Investigation of Methane Hydrate Reformation with Under-inhibition of MEG

摘要

Hydrate reformation could occur inside the production pipeline and is acrucial issue for methane hydrate production. In this work, the feasibilityof inhibiting hydrate reformation with under-inhibition of MEG wasinvestigated experimentally and economically. To understand thehydrate formation characteristics in the presence of MEG, severalexperimental sets were carried out. The experimental results showed that20wt% MEG solution exhibited good performance in reducing hydrategrowth rate in early stage of hydrate formation and maintaining therelative torque during hydrate formation, even though completeprevention of hydrate reformation could be achieved with 35wt% MEGconcentration. However, in terms of economic assessment for MEGregeneration process, both CAPEX and OPEX for under-inhibition withMEG 20wt% increased to 156.4 MUSD compared to 134.4 MUSD for35 wt% because the utility cost increased to evaporate more water in thedistillation column.