Flow Risk Index: A New Metric for Solid Precipitation Assessment in Flow Assurance Management Applied to Gas Hydrate Transportability

Melchuna, Aline; Zhang, Xianwei; Sa, Jeong-Hoon; Abadie, Emilie; Glénat, Philippe; Sum, Amadeu K.

doi:10.1021/acs.energyfuels.0c01203

Cited by 20 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Hydrate deposition, generally including hydrate implantation deposition, tube wall adhesion, and tube wall film growth, is an important cause of hydrate blockage . At present, scholars have carried out a large number of experimental studies on the formation and deposition of hydrates. − Liang et al used X-ray computed tomography to obtain the three-dimensional morphology and parameters of the hydrate shell over time and, from this, the mass transfer characteristics of hydrate molecules and guest molecules during the hydrate formation process.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hydrate Deposition Model and Flow Assurance Technology in Gas-Dominant Pipeline Transportation Systems: A Review

et al. 2022

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With the exploration and development of natural gas gradually extended to the deep sea, low-temperature and high-pressure environmental conditions and long-distance transportation make flow assurance engineers have to consider the impact of the formation and blockage of natural gas hydrates on the flow stability in the pipeline. Therefore, an inadequate understanding of the hydrate formation and plugging mechanism in a gas-rich (gas-dominant) system has become a serious obstacle to the prediction of hydrate formation and implementation of blocking prevention and control strategies. To this end, this review has conducted a comprehensive review of recent experimental investigations into hydrate formation and blockage in gas-rich systems in flow loop devices, and the physical models to characterize the clogging mechanism of hydrates established by previous scholars were summarized. In addition, the three flow patterns of the gas-rich system were divided, and the hydrate deposition mechanism corresponding to each flow pattern and the prediction model of the deposition layer thickness was summarized. Eventually, the natural gas hydrate mitigation and prophylaxis and restrain strategies used in the process of deep-sea natural gas transportation were summarized, including advantages and disadvantages of natural gas dehydration, changing the gas flow rate, and adding chemical inhibitors. The advantages and feasibility of an under-inhibited system and changing the gas flow rate for the management and prevention of hydrate blockage were emphasized. The conclusion can improve the safety index of natural gas development and transportation operations and reduce the output loss of natural gas energy and economic loss of hydrate anti-blocking.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hydrate Deposition Model and Flow Assurance Technology in Gas-Dominant Pipeline Transportation Systems: A Review

et al. 2022

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“…The chemistry of the AA alone is insufficient to define the conditions that will result in hydrate slurry flow. To better compare the test results, the recently introduced Hydrate Flow Risk Index scores the results in terms of hydrate aggregation, wall deposition, and bedding . These three phenomena are the key descriptors for assessing the hydrate slurry flow risk in multiphase systems under flowing conditions.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Categories for the grading of hydrate aggregation, wall deposition, and bedding in the multiphase flow system of the liquid hydrocarbon phase (brown), the gas phase (gray), and solid particles (white). Reprinted with permission from Ref . Copyright 2020 American Chemical Society.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Advancing Laboratory Characterization and Qualification of Additives for Hydrate Slurry Flow in Multiphase Systems

Sum

2020

Ind. Eng. Chem. Res.

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In the flowlines of oil/gas production systems, the formation of gas hydrates, icelike crystalline compounds of water and gas that form at low temperature and high pressure, can disrupt stable flow, often resulting in solid blockages that necessitate remediation and pose safety issues. Low dosage hydrate inhibitor antiagglomerants (LDHI-AAs) are chemical additives used to manage the hydrate slurry flow at relatively low dosage (∼1% of water content) by dispersing hydrates in the continuous liquid hydrocarbon phase. A reliable assessment of LDHI-AA performance is thus required for their optimal use under a given field condition. Rocking cells have been extensively used in the oil/gas industry for LDHI-AA qualifications as it is easy to build and allows full visualization of the cell interior. However, a solid rolling ball, which is put into the conventional rocking cell for mixing, brings significant disturbances to the flow and dispersion of the phases and, in particular, by breaking up the hydrates formed and pushing them to accumulate at the end of the cell, giving a very conservative (worst-case) evaluation of LDHI-AAs. There is a large gap between the testing conditions of rocking cells and the actual field conditions. The recently developed rock-flow cell can provide a much closer representation of the shear, phase dispersion and thus the flow regime in flowlines. Here, we demonstrate the capability of the rock-flow cell as a more robust testing tool for LDHI-AA qualification. The impact of the cooling mode, degree of subcooling, and salinity are well characterized in terms of hydrate aggregation, deposition, and bedding. The test results demonstrate the advantages of the rock-flow cell over the conventional rocking cell to characterize the hydrate slurry by visualization and quantification of the hydrate formation and accumulation. As such, the rock-flow cell can be used as an effective testing tool for LDHI-AA qualification, which can also be applied to many other phase precipitation problems encountered in flow assurance.

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“…Such growth of mechanistic descriptions also requires the consideration of distributed properties, as this would further provide for a consistent and quantitative definition of risk applicable across environmental, safety, and production constraints. While this approach requires significantly greater research expenditure to support laboratory-scale fundamental studies and pilot-scale flowloop campaigns, alongside significant computational expense to facilitate, it provides for a more nuanced description of risk than more recently proposed integer-based indices, , the design of which intrinsically place a limit on the resolution of risk accessible to the engineer. Rather, the successive application of the scientific method to a mechanistic model of hydrate blockage formation, particularly when adjustable or tuning parameters are absent, provides three distinct advantages: (i) The approach is scalable to the diversity of expected multiphase flow conditions that can be encountered in complex hydrocarbon transmission networks .…”

Section: Mechanistic Insight Into Hydrate Blockage Formationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hydrate Risk Management in Gas Transmission Lines

Aman

2021

Energy Fuels

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Gas hydrates are ice-like solids that can readily form and restrict flow in high-pressure natural gas transmission lines. The use of antifreeze thermodynamic inhibitors dominated production systems throughout the 20th century, where most research necessarily focused on measuring and predicting the hydrate phase boundary. In the 21st century, market competitiveness and environmental constraints have motivated a paradigm shift toward the identification and management of hydrate blockage risks, which has largely been facilitated to date through two research efforts: establishing and continuously refining mechanistic models to predict hydrate blockage formation; and exploiting critical stages within that blockage mechanism to develop novel, environmentally compatible inhibitors. This review presents a historical perspective on the development of an oil-dominant blockage mechanism and the technologies enabled by these efforts. Efforts over the past decademade possible through the collaboration between industry, the Australian government, and academiaare then summarized in the context of producing the first mechanistic blockage model for gas-dominant transmission lines, including the role of innovative high-pressure pilot-scale flowloop systems. Together, these blockage mechanisms have enabled new opportunities to develop and deploy low-dosage hydrate inhibitorsincluding the creation of new experimental capabilities that can be used to quantify occurrence probability or severity and the transient simulation tools that can leverage such knowledgethat support the ability to quantitatively manage hydrate blockage risk in hydrocarbon transmission lines. As they offer superior resolution in performance assessment to first-generation approaches, these new experimental methods offer structure–function design and optimization of low-dosage inhibitors against secondary, environmental parameters.

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Flow Risk Index: A New Metric for Solid Precipitation Assessment in Flow Assurance Management Applied to Gas Hydrate Transportability

Cited by 20 publications

References 16 publications

Hydrate Deposition Model and Flow Assurance Technology in Gas-Dominant Pipeline Transportation Systems: A Review

Hydrate Deposition Model and Flow Assurance Technology in Gas-Dominant Pipeline Transportation Systems: A Review

Advancing Laboratory Characterization and Qualification of Additives for Hydrate Slurry Flow in Multiphase Systems

Hydrate Risk Management in Gas Transmission Lines

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