Freezing Point Depression Method for Hydrate Monitoring

• Main Author: Abdul Jalil, Muhammad Bukhari
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Universiti Teknologi Petronas 2008
• Subjects: TJ Mechanical engineering and machinery
• Online Access: http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/7218/1/2008%20-%20Freezing%20point%20depression%20method%20for%20hydrate%20monitoring.pdf; http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/7218/
• Institution: Universiti Teknologi Petronas

This report gives an extensive review on the overall project works which include background of study, problem statement, significance of study, objectives and scope of work, literature review, methodology, and results and discussion. The introduction section describes the overview of natural gas hydrates as pipeline plugging and the importance of hydrate monitoring method. The critical problem associated with injecting thermodynamic inhibitors to prevent hydrate formation is adequate amount of thermodynamic inhibitors to ensure the operating conditions falls out of the hydrate stability zone and at the same time optimize the operating costs. The primary objective of this project is to determine the suitable operating pressure and temperature limits for deepwater fields producing 50 - 65 mole percent of methane (C~) using Freezing Point Depression method. The literature review section provides the theoretical aspect of the work and some correlations that will be used in accordance to the FPD method. The methodology section discusses the work need to be done to accomplish the project objectives. There are 3 main tasks in this work which are experimental, correlations and simulation. The experimental procedures and the prototype equipment used will be discussed at length in Chapter 3. Results from experimental work and correlations are presented in the Chapter 4. These experimental data showed high degree of precision which indicates that this method is applicable and practical. The hydrate phase boundary obtained using the correlations are presented in the same chapter. These results are compared with simulation results using PVT -sim. The overall outcome of the project is a graphical representation of the suitable operating conditions for reservoir fluid composed of 50 - 65 mol% of methane. The limitations of the prototype equipment will also be discussed in the same chapter. All of the information provided in this report is concluded in the conclusion section.