MODELING THE METHANE HYDRATE FORMATION IN AN AQUEOUS FILM SUBMITED TO STEADY COOLING ...

• Main Authors: Avendaño-Gómez, Juan Ramón, García-Sánchez, Fernando, Vázquez Gurrola, Dynora
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: The University of British Columbia 2008
• Subjects: Methane hydrate
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0040989; https://doi.library.ubc.ca/10.14288/1.0040989

The aim of this work is to model the thermal evolution inside a hydrate forming system which is submitted to an imposed steady cooling. The study system is a cylindrical thin film of aqueous solution at 19 Mpa, the methane is the hydrate forming molecule and it is assumed that methane is homogeneously dissolved in the aqueous phase. The model in this work takes into account two factors involved in the hydrate crystallization: 1) the stochastic nature of crystallization that causes sub-cooling and 2) the heat source term due to the exothermic enthalpy of hydrate formation. The model equation is based on the resolution of the continuity equation in terms of a heat balance. The crystallization of the methane hydrate occurs at supercooling conditions (Tcryst < TF), besides, the heat released during crystallization interferes with the imposed condition of steady decrease of temperature around the system. Thus, the inclusion of the heat source term has to be considered in order to take into account the ...