Eventos Anais de eventos
COBEM 2023
27th International Congress of Mechanical Engineering
NUMERICAL MODEL OF THE TETRAHYDROFURAN HYDRATE GROWTH KINETIC
Submission Author:
Gino Noel Delgado Dextre , PR
Co-Authors:
Gino Noel Delgado Dextre, Fabio Ernesto Mancilla Ramos, Moisés Marcelino Neto, Rigoberto Morales
Presenter: Gino Noel Delgado Dextre
doi://10.26678/ABCM.COBEM2023.COB2023-2003
Abstract
Over the years, the Brazilian offshore industry has been striving to meet the growing demand for oil and gas, which is expected to escalate in the near future. To achieve this objective, production processes are being directed towards deeper offshore areas, specifically the Pre-salt fields located off the coast of Brazil, where conditions such as high pressure and low temperatures prevail. Nonetheless, the presence of gas and water associated with oil production can lead to the formation of hydrates, which are crystalline solids resembling ice, resulting in pipeline blockages and subsequent financial losses. Methane, ethane, and propane are some of the gases that can lead to hydrate formation, with methane being the most frequent cause of hydrate plugging in pipelines. Hence, it is crucial an in-depth understanding of the physical and chemical properties that allow good management of the problem (e.g. equilibrium properties, growth kinetics). In this study, we aimed to understand the phenomena involved in tetrahydrofuran (THF) hydrate formation by proposing a kinetic model solved numerically. THF was chosen as a hydrate former because of its high affinity with water at atmospheric conditions, which makes it a simpler system to study than pressure systems and presents a crystalline structure that seems to methane hydrates. The numerical model was validated experimentally and applied to different scenarios of THF hydrate formation found in the literature. The numerical model presented in this study provides a time-lapse study of THF hydrate growth and compares the results with the experimental findings. Despite the observed differences between the numerical and experimental results, the numerical model represents the THF hydrate growth well. The findings of this study contribute to a better understanding of the formation of THF hydrates and can be useful in developing strategies to prevent pipeline blockages and profit losses in the oil and gas industry through realistic models. It was found that, for the conditions present in this study, the THF hydrate acts as a thermal insulator in an inverse manner proportional to its growth rate. The study provides a useful tool for understanding THF hydrate formation and highlights the importance of studying the properties of hydrates in the oil and gas industry to ensure safe and efficient production.
Keywords
Tetrahydrofuran, Hydrate Formation, Kinetic Model, numerical model, experimental validation
