Assessing thermodynamic models and introducing novel method for prediction of methane hydrate formation

• Published in: Journal of Petroleum Exploration and Production Technology
• Main Authors: Mohamad Mohamadi-Baghmolaei, Abdollah Hajizadeh, Reza Azin, Amir Abbas Izadpanah
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: SpringerOpen 2017
• Subjects: Empirical correlation; VdW-P; Hydrate formation; Methane; Genetic programming; Petroleum refining. Petroleum products; TP690-692.5; Petrology; QE420-499; Methane hydrate
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13202-017-0415-2; https://doaj.org/article/f0c26fb345f0494ba89ef976d180fc56

Abstract Transmission of natural gas with methane as the main constituent has been a subject of interest to industrial companies. Predicting hydrate formation conditions is important to prevent formation of methane hydrate in gas pipeline. Also, attention has been taken to account for capture and storage of pure methane. In this paper, a comprehensive comparison is performed between empirical correlations and different equation of state in van der Waals Platteeuw (VdW-P) thermodynamic model to determine the most accurate method of hydrate formation condition of methane. In addition, a novel, simple and accurate correlation is developed to predict methane hydrate formation temperature using genetic programming. Error analysis on a wide range of experimental data indicates that the new proposed correlation is superior over existing correlations and all VdW-P models with R 2 = 0.999.