Study on formation of methane hydrate in rotating packed bed

• Published in: Fuel (Guildford) 2024-04, Vol.362, p.130755, Article 130755
• Main Authors: Zhu, Jian-Lu, Li, Nan, Li, Yu-Xing, Wang, Wu-Chang, Song, Guang-Chun, Han, Hui, Wang, Yun-Fei
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Gas consumption; High-gravity factor; Methane hydrate; Rotating packed bed
• ISSN: 0016-2361; 1873-7153
• DOI: 10.1016/j.fuel.2023.130755

•A small high-gravity device was designed independently.•Methane hydrate was prepared by gas–liquid countercurrent rotating packed bed.•The effects of high-gravity factor β, initial pressure, and packing type on hydrate formation were assessed. Offshore oilfield development process often carries a large amount of associated gas, most of it needs to be emptied or burned, resulting in a large amount of waste and environmental pollution. Hydrate storage and transportation technology has the advantages of simple process treatment, good offshore adaptability, good safety and relatively low investment. It is one of the important recovery technologies for associated gas in offshore oil fields. However, the long induction period of hydrate formation, the difficulty of gas dissolution, and the difficulty of continuous formation hinder the improvement of hydrate formation rate and gas storage density, and hinder the development of hydrate storage and transportation technology. High-gravity technology may be one of the development directions of new hydrate rapid formation reactors due to its small size and high mass transfer capacity. In this paper, a small-scale RPB was designed independently, and the effects of high-gravity factor, initial pressure, and packing type on hydrate formation were assessed by calculating the gas consumption, gas consumption rate, gas storage density, and gas conversion rate of hydrate formation under each experimental condition. The results show that in the range of high-gravity factor and pressure tested in the experiment, the increase of high-gravity factor and pressure can significantly accelerate the hydrate formation rate, which can be increased by up to 177 %, and the maximum gas storage density can reach 148.88 V/V. The type of packing has a strong influence on the rate of hydrate formation, and the principle of packing selection changes when dealing with solid-containing systems, and the rate of hydrate formation can be increased by 20 % with the proper selection of packing type. This study can provide a basis for subsequent high-gravity hydrate experiments and industrial applications.