Hydrate Non-Plugging Evaluation of Crude Oils in Varying Shear Environments

Abstract

Abstract Establishment of the tendency of crude oils to disperse hydrates formed during slurry transport is of foremost importance when designing and implementing mitigation strategies in the field. In this work, high pressure quantitative rheological measurements were compared with visual qualitative agglomeration rocking cell results to quantify the impact of shear on the non-plugging performance of a crude oil. Shear rate in the rocking cell apparatus was modeled using computational fluid dynamics simulations and allowed acquired rocking cell data to be compared to rheological data on the basis of shear rate. Rocking cell visual agglomeration data were found to agree qualitatively with measured rheology results using this crude oil. It was found that increasing shear rate in rheology experiments lowered the final value of relative viscosity of the slurry. Contact angle and film growth measurements allowed for an improved mechanistic agglomeration understanding to be developed in this work. The use of variable shear comparisons provide important insight into not only the capability of oils to transport hydrates naturally, but also the range of applicability of data acquired using various benchtop experimental equipment.