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Simulation of Laboratory Hydrate Loop Using Aspen Hysys

Received: 12 April 2019     Accepted: 23 June 2019     Published: 4 July 2019
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Abstract

Gas hydrates have repeatedly plagued the oil and gas industry by impeding flow and causing catastrophic damages to subsea pipelines and equipment. Several software as well as equipment have been developed to reduce hydrate plugs in the field. In this study, steady state simulation and dynamic state simulation on a laboratory hydrate loop was carried out using Aspen Hysys. During the simulation, two mixers (Mixer 1 and Mixer 2) were selected to create the inhibitor water stream and the mixed feed stream respectively in the Process Flow Diagram (PFD). A pump was then selected to boost the pressure in the simulation to 150 psia and to agitate the fluid. Heat exchanger was selected to reduce the temperature to hydrate formation temperature, mimicking the action of the 4” PVC water bath in which the loop is immersed in the experimental set up. In the dynamic simulation, valves were included in the feed stream of the PFD created for the steady state simulation. The feed stream used in the simulation study contained 85% methane and 2wt% methanol as inhibitor. The steady state simulation did not record hydrate formation implying that the 2wt% Methanol used as inhibitor was sufficient to prevent hydrate formation in the loop. However, the dynamic state simulation which was set to run for 2 hours just as the experimental setup recorded hydrate formation at a temperature of 4.26 °C and a pressure of 83.84 psi. This can also imply that during shut in process, hydrate formation may not occur as the line may only attain hydrate formation temperature. However, during restart prrocess which is like the dynamkic simulation, a lot of aggitation takes place and hydrate formation will be noticed. Therefore, the engineer must proceed to dynamic state simulation before concluding on the effectiveness of a particular dosage of inhibitor prior to field application.

Published in Engineering and Applied Sciences (Volume 4, Issue 3)
DOI 10.11648/j.eas.20190403.11
Page(s) 52-58
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2019. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Gas Hydrate, Laboratory Hydrate Loop, Flow Assurance, Hydrate Inhibition, Hydrate Prediction

References
[1] Philips, N. J. & Grainer, M., 1998. Development and application of kinetic hydrate inhibitors in the North sea. SPE Gas Technology Symposium, Issue 40030, pp. 398-404.
[2] Jardine, J. et al., 2014. History of Evolution of the Product Selection Criteria for Selecting Kinetic Hydrate Inhibitors. Malaysia, International Petroleum Technology Conference.
[3] Marathon, W. R., 1979. Gas Hydrate Control in Hostile Environment. Marathon oil company, pp. 1-4.
[4] A. P. Semenov, A. S. Stoporev, R. I. Mendgaziev, P. A. Gushchin, V. N. Khlebnikov, V. S. Yakushev, V. A. Istomin, D. V. Sergeeva, V. A. Vinokurov, Synergistic Effect of Salts and Methanol in Thermodynamic Inhibition of sII Gas Hydrates, J. Chem. Thermodynamics (2019), doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jct. 2019.05.013
[5] Ballard A. L. and Sloan E. D. (2001): Hydrate phase diagrams for methane + ethane + propane mixtures. Chemical Engineering Science 56 (2001) 6883-6895.
[6] Mazlin I., Mazuin J., Faqrul N. Y., Wu P., Nasim K. (2018): “Preliminary study of natural polymer as kinetic hydrate inhibitor”, Materials Today: Proceedings, Volume 5, Issue 10, Part 2, 2018, Pages 21667-21671, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2018.07.017.
[7] Botrel, T., 2001. Hydrates Prevention and Removal in Ultra-deep Water Drilling Systems. OTC-12962-MS presented at Offshore Technology Conference, Houston, Texas.
[8] Owodunni, O. L., Ajienka, J. A., 2007. Use of Thermal Insulation to Prevent Hydrate and Paraffin Wax Deposition. SPE-111903-MS, Presented at the Nigeria Annual International Conference and Exhibition, 6e8 August, Abuja, Nigeria.
[9] Halvorsen, V. H., Lervik, J. K., Klevjer, G., 2000. Hydrate and Wax Prevention of Risers by Electrical Heating. ISOPE-I-00e118, presented at The Tenth International Offshore and Polar Engineering Conference, Seattle, Washington, USA.
[10] Duncum, S., Edwards, A. R. & Osborne, C. G., 1996. Trials of Threshold Hydrate inhibitors in the Ravensprun to Cleeton line. Society of Petroleum Engineers, pp. 250-255.
[11] Vasquez E. R., Eldredge T. (2011): “18 - Process modeling for hydrocarbon fuel conversion”, Advances in Clean Hydrocarbon Fuel Processing, Science and Technology Woodhead Publishing Series in Energy, 2011, Pages 509-545, https://doi.org/10.1533/9780857093783.5.509.
[12] Davarnejad R., Jam A. and Jab A. (2014): “Prediction of Gas Hydrate Formation using Hysys Softtware (Technical Note)” IJE TRANSACTIONS C: Aspects Vol. 27, No. 9 (September 2014) 1325-1330.
[13] Kvamme, B., 2001. Molecular Dynamics Simulations as a Tool for the Selection of Candidates for Kinetic Hydrate Inhibitors. Norway, The International Society of Offshore and Polar Engineers.
[14] Odutola T. O., Ajienka J. A., Onyekonwu M. O, Ikiensikimama S. S. (2017): "Design, Fabrication and Validation of a Laboratory Flow Loop for Hydrate Studies", American Journal of Chemical Engineering. Special Issue: Oil Field Chemicals and Petrochemicals, Volume 5, Issue 3-1, pp 28-41.
[15] Odutola T. O., Ajienka J. A., Onyekonwu M. O. and Ikiensikimama S. S. (2016): “Hydrate Inhibition in laboratory flowloop using polyvinylpyrrolidone, N-Vinylcaprolactam and 2-(Dimethylamino) ethylmethacrylate” Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering, Volume 36, Part A, pp 54–61.
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  • APA Style

    Odutola Toyin Olabisi, Ugwu Chukwuemeka Emmanuel. (2019). Simulation of Laboratory Hydrate Loop Using Aspen Hysys. Engineering and Applied Sciences, 4(3), 52-58. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.eas.20190403.11

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    ACS Style

    Odutola Toyin Olabisi; Ugwu Chukwuemeka Emmanuel. Simulation of Laboratory Hydrate Loop Using Aspen Hysys. Eng. Appl. Sci. 2019, 4(3), 52-58. doi: 10.11648/j.eas.20190403.11

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    AMA Style

    Odutola Toyin Olabisi, Ugwu Chukwuemeka Emmanuel. Simulation of Laboratory Hydrate Loop Using Aspen Hysys. Eng Appl Sci. 2019;4(3):52-58. doi: 10.11648/j.eas.20190403.11

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  • @article{10.11648/j.eas.20190403.11,
      author = {Odutola Toyin Olabisi and Ugwu Chukwuemeka Emmanuel},
      title = {Simulation of Laboratory Hydrate Loop Using Aspen Hysys},
      journal = {Engineering and Applied Sciences},
      volume = {4},
      number = {3},
      pages = {52-58},
      doi = {10.11648/j.eas.20190403.11},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.eas.20190403.11},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.eas.20190403.11},
      abstract = {Gas hydrates have repeatedly plagued the oil and gas industry by impeding flow and causing catastrophic damages to subsea pipelines and equipment. Several software as well as equipment have been developed to reduce hydrate plugs in the field. In this study, steady state simulation and dynamic state simulation on a laboratory hydrate loop was carried out using Aspen Hysys. During the simulation, two mixers (Mixer 1 and Mixer 2) were selected to create the inhibitor water stream and the mixed feed stream respectively in the Process Flow Diagram (PFD). A pump was then selected to boost the pressure in the simulation to 150 psia and to agitate the fluid. Heat exchanger was selected to reduce the temperature to hydrate formation temperature, mimicking the action of the 4” PVC water bath in which the loop is immersed in the experimental set up. In the dynamic simulation, valves were included in the feed stream of the PFD created for the steady state simulation. The feed stream used in the simulation study contained 85% methane and 2wt% methanol as inhibitor. The steady state simulation did not record hydrate formation implying that the 2wt% Methanol used as inhibitor was sufficient to prevent hydrate formation in the loop. However, the dynamic state simulation which was set to run for 2 hours just as the experimental setup recorded hydrate formation at a temperature of 4.26 °C and a pressure of 83.84 psi. This can also imply that during shut in process, hydrate formation may not occur as the line may only attain hydrate formation temperature. However, during restart prrocess which is like the dynamkic simulation, a lot of aggitation takes place and hydrate formation will be noticed. Therefore, the engineer must proceed to dynamic state simulation before concluding on the effectiveness of a particular dosage of inhibitor prior to field application.},
     year = {2019}
    }
    

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  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Simulation of Laboratory Hydrate Loop Using Aspen Hysys
    AU  - Odutola Toyin Olabisi
    AU  - Ugwu Chukwuemeka Emmanuel
    Y1  - 2019/07/04
    PY  - 2019
    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.eas.20190403.11
    DO  - 10.11648/j.eas.20190403.11
    T2  - Engineering and Applied Sciences
    JF  - Engineering and Applied Sciences
    JO  - Engineering and Applied Sciences
    SP  - 52
    EP  - 58
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2575-1468
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.eas.20190403.11
    AB  - Gas hydrates have repeatedly plagued the oil and gas industry by impeding flow and causing catastrophic damages to subsea pipelines and equipment. Several software as well as equipment have been developed to reduce hydrate plugs in the field. In this study, steady state simulation and dynamic state simulation on a laboratory hydrate loop was carried out using Aspen Hysys. During the simulation, two mixers (Mixer 1 and Mixer 2) were selected to create the inhibitor water stream and the mixed feed stream respectively in the Process Flow Diagram (PFD). A pump was then selected to boost the pressure in the simulation to 150 psia and to agitate the fluid. Heat exchanger was selected to reduce the temperature to hydrate formation temperature, mimicking the action of the 4” PVC water bath in which the loop is immersed in the experimental set up. In the dynamic simulation, valves were included in the feed stream of the PFD created for the steady state simulation. The feed stream used in the simulation study contained 85% methane and 2wt% methanol as inhibitor. The steady state simulation did not record hydrate formation implying that the 2wt% Methanol used as inhibitor was sufficient to prevent hydrate formation in the loop. However, the dynamic state simulation which was set to run for 2 hours just as the experimental setup recorded hydrate formation at a temperature of 4.26 °C and a pressure of 83.84 psi. This can also imply that during shut in process, hydrate formation may not occur as the line may only attain hydrate formation temperature. However, during restart prrocess which is like the dynamkic simulation, a lot of aggitation takes place and hydrate formation will be noticed. Therefore, the engineer must proceed to dynamic state simulation before concluding on the effectiveness of a particular dosage of inhibitor prior to field application.
    VL  - 4
    IS  - 3
    ER  - 

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Author Information
  • Department of Petroleum and Gas Engineering, University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria

  • Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria

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