EFFECTS OF IMPURITIES ON HYDRATE FORMATION

A hydrate is a physical combination of water and other small molecules to
produce a solid which has an 'ice-like' appearance but possesses a different
structure than ice. The formation of hydrates can plug pipelines, equipments,
instruments and restrict or interrupt the gas flow. The objectives of this research
project are to study the effect of hydrogen sulfide and ethane in the equilibrium
conditions of hydrate formation, effect of temperature and pressure governing the
formation ofthe hydrate in the presence of the targeted impurities, effect ofwater
gas ratio in feed on pressure formation of CH4, C02, C2H6 and H2S hydrate, effect
of water gas ratio in feed on pressure formation of CH4, CO2, C2H6 and H2S
hydrate and the effect of temperature on hydrate phase equilibrium composition
of CH4, C02, C2H6 and H2S mixture hydrate. The research project utilizes the
iCON software, Excel and K-factor methods to obtain the hydrate formation
temperature, pressure and phase equilibrium composition of the gas hydrate.
Temperature and composition of gas and water are input as the manipulative
variable whereas pressure is the dependant variable. Findings from the research
show that as temperature increases, formation pressure increases. Formation
pressure decreases as the amount of hydrogen sulfide and ethane content
increases. Increment in water to gas ratio caused formation pressure to increase.
When pressure increases, amount of impurities incorporated in the hydrate
decreases.
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