Experimental Measurement and Kinetic Modeling of Ethane Gas Hydrate in the Presence of Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate Surfactant

In this work, the kinetics of ethane hydrate formation has been studied experimentally and a kinetic model based on chemical affinity has been described for predicting the hydrate growth process in the stirred batch reactor at a constant volume. The experiments were done with both pure water and aqueous solution of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS). The effect of SDS on formation kinetics has been investigated in concentrations: 300, 500 and 1000 PPM at different temperatures: 273.15, 274.15, 275.15 and 276.15 K. Experimental results showed the use of SDS decreases surface tension between the liquid and gas, then the ethane hydrate formation rate is increased, especially in SDS concentration of 500 PPM. The parameters of the model, Ar/RT and tK, were optimized for each experiment. The parameter Ar/RT was obtained a constant value for ethane gas. Acceptable agreement between the experimental and predicted data was generally found, and this model can sufficiently predict the formation pressure.