Experimental Study on Hydrate Formation and Flow Characteristics with High Water Cuts

The rapid increasing amount of produced water in the deep-water and ultra-deep-water fields, especially those at their later development stages, increases the risk of the occurrence of hydrates plugging. In order to prevent and remediate the hydrates risks, it is important to understand the hydrate...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Energies (Basel) 2018-10, Vol.11 (10), p.2610
Main Authors: Zhou, Shidong, Chen, Xiaokang, He, Chengyuan, Wang, Shuli, Zhao, Shuhua, Lv, Xiaofang
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Carbon dioxide
Coefficient of friction
Computational fluid dynamics
Cooling rate
Cooling water
Crystal structure
Data acquisition
Data acquisition systems
Differential pressure
Drinking water
Experiments
Flow characteristics
Flow rates
Flow stability
Flow velocity
Fluid flow
formation
Friction
Friction resistance
high water cut
Hydrates
Laboratories
Liquid paraffins
mechanisms
Methane hydrates
Natural gas
Offshore
Pipes
plugging
Pressure
Pressure drop
Process controls
Temperature
Tightness
Vacuum
Vacuum pumps
Vapor phases
Viscosity
Visual observation
Water circulation
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The rapid increasing amount of produced water in the deep-water and ultra-deep-water fields, especially those at their later development stages, increases the risk of the occurrence of hydrates plugging. In order to prevent and remediate the hydrates risks, it is important to understand the hydrate formation, slurry flow, and plugging characteristics and mechanisms under high water cuts conditions. In this paper, experiments with high water cuts ranging from 60–100% were conducted using a high pressure flow loop with observation windows. The whole processes of the hydrate formation, slurry flow and plugging is visually seen and recorded, and has been discussed and explained in detail in this paper. Moreover, it is found that the increasing water cuts shorten the induction time, but increase the volume fraction of hydrates. As the water cuts increase, the flow time of the hydrate slurry decreases, which serves as a critical parameter for the safe operation of the pipeline. In addition, different hypothetical mechanisms have been proposed for the medium and high water cuts conditions. We believe that this research can provide theoretical support for the safe transportation of oil and gas development in the high water cut oilfield.
ISSN:1996-1073
1996-1073
DOI:10.3390/en11102610