Assessing Hydrate Formation in Natural Gas Pipelines under Transient Operation

摘要

This work presents a transient, non-isothermal compressible gas flow model that is combined with a hydrate phase equilibrium model. It enables, to determine whether hydrates could form under existing operating conditions in natural gas pipelines. In particular, to determine the time and location at which the natural gas enters the hydrate formation region. The gas flow is described by a set of partial differential equations resulting from the conservation of mass, momentum, and energy. Real gas effects are determined by the predictive Soave-Redlich-Kwong group contribution method. By means of statistical mechanics, the hydrate model is formulated combined with classical thermodynamics of phase equilibria for systems that contain water and both hydrate forming and non-hydrate forming gases as function of pressure, temperature, and gas composition. To demonstrate the applicability a case study is conducted.