Kinetics of Propane Hydrate Formation in Agitated Reactor: A Mass Transfer Approach

Understanding the kinetics of gas hydrate formation is essential to model and predict the hydrate formation (or dissociation) process. In the present paper, we investigated the formation of pure propane gas hydrate as a former gas. In this regard, several experiments were conducted to measure the rate of hydrate formation under various pressures (410 to 510 kPa) and temperatures (274 K to 277 K) in a controlled temperature stirred reactor. It was observed that propane consumption rate can be assumed constant with time. Mass transfer approach was used to estimate the mass transfer coefficient in the gas-liquid contact area as a function of pressure and temperature. Results indicated that mass transfer approach can predict the kinetics of propane hydrate formation. In other word, it is reasonable to assume that this process is a mass transfer limited phenomena and the mass transfer in the liquid side the gas-liquid contact area controls the hydrate growth.