Study of the methane hydrate spectra using turbidity measurements

• Main Author: Herri, Jean-Michel
• Other Authors: Centre Sciences des Processus Industriels et Naturels (SPIN-ENSMSE), École des Mines de Saint-Étienne (Mines Saint-Étienne MSE), Institut Mines-Télécom Paris (IMT)-Institut Mines-Télécom Paris (IMT), Département Géochimie, environnement, écoulement, réacteurs industriels et cristallisation (GENERIC-ENSMSE), Institut Mines-Télécom Paris (IMT)-Institut Mines-Télécom Paris (IMT)-SPIN, Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris VI, Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Saint-Etienne, Michel Cournil([e-mail])
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: French
• Published: HAL CCSD 1996
• Subjects: petroleum product; particle suspension; turbidity; additive; particle size; Cristallisation; Interfaces gaz-liquide; Transitions de phases; Hydrates; turbidité; produit pétrolier; [SPI.GPROC]Engineering Sciences [physics]/Chemical and Process Engineering; Methane hydrate
• Online Access: https://theses.hal.science/tel-00842698; https://theses.hal.science/tel-00842698/document; https://theses.hal.science/tel-00842698/file/19960202-Herri-J-M-OCR.pdf

124 pages The study of the Particle Size Distribution (PSD) during the processes of crystallization is a subject of considerable interest, notably for the understanding of the inhibition mechanisms induced by some additives. Such an opportunity is well defined into the offshore exploitation of liquid fuels where the gas hydrate crystallization can plug production, treatment and transport facilities. The classical remedy to this problem is mainly thermodynamic additives such as alcohols or salts, but a new way of research is the use of dispersant additives which avoid crystals formation. In this paper, we show an original apparatus that is able to measure in situ the polychromatic UVVisible turbidity spectrum in a pressurised reactor. We apply this technology to the calculation of the PSD during the crystallization of methane hydrate particles in a stirred semi-batch tank reactor. We discuss the mathematics treatment of the turbidity spectrum in order to determine the PSD and especially the method of matrix inversion with constraint. Moreover, we give a method to calculate theoretically the refractive index of the hydrate particles and we validate it experimentally with the methane hydrate particles. We apply this technology to the study of the crystallization of methane hydrate from pure liquid water and methane gas into the range of temperature [O-2°C], into the range of pressure [30-100barsI and into the range of stirring rate [O-600rpmI. We produce a set of experiments concerning the influence of stirring rate and of the pressure on the rate of absorption of the gas in the liquid, on the induction delay for the formation of the first particles, and on the size and the number of particles during crystallization. Then we realize a model of the crystaJization taking into account the processes of nucleation, of growth, of agglomeration and flotation.-We compare this model with the experimental results concerning the complex influence of stirring rate at 1°C and pressure of 30 bars. Then, we investigate the ...