Study on crystal growth and aggregated microstructure of natural gas hydrate under flow conditions

WuChang Wang, XiaoYu Wang, YuXing Li, Shuai Liu, ShuPeng Yao and GuangChun Song

Energy, 2020, vol. 213, issue C

Abstract: The microstructure of hydrate particles plays an important role in the safety of pipeline flow assurance. The growth and aggregation of hydrate particles in natural gas + pure water systems were experimentally evaluated by using an autoclave and a high-speed camera, and the microstructural evolution was monitored. Initially, the tiny agglomerated structures were successively transformed into a snowflake and dendritic structure. Then, through the mutual combination and self-growth, polyhedral solid particles dominated in the stability stage. The maximum dominant size of the dendritic granules was selected as the size-critical value to judge the leading roles in the microstructure evolution, which was 165–413 μm and in the early stage growth was the main effect. Moreover, shearing within a certain range can cause the formation of chain particles and promote particle aggregation. The actual aggregation process and the micro generation mechanism closely correspond. Based on the evolution of the microstructure of the hydrate under flow condition, a microscopic model for the growth and aggregation of natural gas hydrate particles was established. This model better explains the mechanism of microstructural evolution of the hydrate particle, which can facilitate understanding of the effects of hydrates on flow assurance.

Keywords: Natural gas hydrate; Growth; Aggregation; Microscopic morphology; Physical model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S036054422032106X
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:213:y:2020:i:c:s036054422032106x

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2020.118999

Access Statistics for this article

Energy is currently edited by Henrik Lund and Mark J. Kaiser

More articles in Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().