Correlation of the Growth Rate of the Hydrate Layer at a Guest/Liquid-Water Interface to Mass Transfer Resistance

Masatoshi Kishimoto and Ryo Ohmura
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Masatoshi Kishimoto: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Keio University, 3-14-1 Hiyoshi, Kohoku-ku, Yokohama 223-8522, Japan
Ryo Ohmura: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Keio University, 3-14-1 Hiyoshi, Kohoku-ku, Yokohama 223-8522, Japan

Energies, 2012, vol. 5, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Growth rate of a hydrate layer at the guest/liquid-water interface is analyzed considering the conjugate process of the mass-transfer and hydrate crystal growth. Hydrate-layer growth rate data in the literature are often compiled according to the system subcooling (? T ? T eq ? T ex , where T eq is the equilibrium dissociation temperature of the hydrate and T ex is the system temperature), suggesting predominant heat transfer limitations. In this paper, we investigate how the existing data on hydrate-layer growth is better correlated to mass transfer of the guest species in liquid water in three-phase equilibrium with bulk guest fluid and hydrate. We have analyzed the conjugate processes of mass-transfer/hydrate-layer-growth following our previous study on the hydrate crystal growth into liquid water saturated with a guest substance. A dimensionless parameter representing the hydrate-layer growth rate is derived from the analysis. This analysis is based on the idea that the growth rate is controlled by the mass transfer of the hydrate-guest substance, dissolved in the bulk of liquid water, to the front of the growing hydrate-layer along the guest/water interface. The variations in the hydrate-layer growth rate observed in the previous studies are related to the dimensionless parameter.

Keywords: clathrate hydrate; crystal growth rate; mass transfer (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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