Study of Agglomeration Characteristics of Hydrate Particles in Oil/Gas Pipelines

Abstract

The force acting on hydrate particles is the critical factor to hydrate slurry stability which serves as fundamental basis for slurry flow assurance. A comprehensive analysis of forces acting on the hydrate particles was executed to determine the major agglomeration forces and separation forces, and comparison of forces reveals that the main agglomeration force is capillary force and the main separation force is shear force. Furthermore, four main influencing factors deciding the hydrate particle agglomeration were also analyzed and calculated, which shows contacting angle of capillary bridge is the most important factor for hydrate particles agglomeration, while interface tension of oil and water is the least important one. Some methods must be adopted to change the surface of hydrate agglomerates from hydrophile to lipophilicity so as to control the agglomeration of hydrate particle, which is the significant guarantee for safe flow of oil and gas transporting pipeline with hydrate particles.