Investigation of the Hydrate Formation Equilibrium Conditions of Natural Gas

One of the main problems in oil recovery via the gas injection is the formation of hydrates in the lines. In order to prevent the formation of hydrate in these lines, which leads to the blockage and sometimes explosion, at first, the equilibrium formation conditions must be determined and then to prevent its formation by changing the thermodynamic conditions or by adding the inhibitors. In this research, the hydrate formation for a natural gas sample has been studied under the various thermodynamic conditions. For this purpose, a gas sample was taken from the natural gas transmission lines. Then, the conditions for the formation of gas hydrates were determined from the experimental equations. Also, by constructing and launching a laboratory system, the experiments were carried out using the Isochoric method and the hydrate formation conditions were determined. The experiments were done at a temperature range of 264 to 300 K and a pressure range of 5 to 45 bar in the pure water. The results showed that, with increasing temperature, the equilibrium pressure of the hydrate formation increases and with increasing pressure, the equilibrium temperature of hydrate formation is reduced.