Flow characteristics and morphology of hydrate slurry formed from (natural gas plus diesel oil/condensate oil plus water) system containing anti-agglomerant

The performance of a new kind of anti-agglomerant was evaluated on preventing hydrate plug in oil and gas pipelines using a flow loop device where hydrate slurries were formed from (diesel oil/condensate oil+water) dispersed system. The flow characteristics, shut down/restart behavior, and morphology of hydrate slurries were investigated experimentally at different water cut. The experimental results show that the adopted anti-agglomerant can disperse hydrate particles in fluid phase apparently. The formed hydrate slurries can safely flow and be easily restarted even though the initial water cut is upto 30.0 vol%. The rheology of hydrate slurries was analyzed based on the power-law fluid assumption and the rheology parameters and apparent viscosity were determined at different hydrate volume fraction. The analyzed results show that hydrate slurry exhibits shear-thinning behavior and belongs to pseudoplastic fluid. Its non-Newtonian behavior becomes more obvious with increasing hydrate volume fraction in fluid phase. The authors believe that the results presented in this paper are of key significance from flow assurance standpoint. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.