Formation and Dissociation of Hydrate Plugs in a Water in Oil Emulsion

• Main Authors: A. Fidel-dufour, Duc Nguyen Hong, J. -m. Herri
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Methane hydrate
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.528.2384; http://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/docs/00/12/60/08/PDF/AFD-DNG-JMH-Japon-02.pdf

In this paper, we present experimental results of the formation and dissociation of methane hydrate plugs in a semi-batch reactor. The plugs are done from water in heptane emulsion (water content from 30 %). The experimental results shows that the formation rate and dissociation rate are controlled by the heat transfer at the wall of the reactor. An unexpected behaviour is observed as the temperature decreases under the 0°C temperature during dissociation and seems to form ice which slows down the dissociation rate.