화학공학소재연구정보센터
Energy & Fuels, Vol.29, No.2, 587-594, 2015
Gas Hydrate Growth Estimation Based on Heat Transfer
Gas hydrate growth kinetics is largely ascribed to three main controlling mechanisms: intrinsic kinetics, mass transfer, and heat transfer. In this work, gas hydrate growth has been analyzed on the basis of heat transfer during stirred laboratory cell experiments at a constant pressure using pure methane as the hydrate former (structure I). For this, a heat balance model has been developed. The hydrate growth rate was related to measured gas inflow to maintain pressure in the cell constant. Produced heat from hydrate formation is estimated using the heat balance model, and then the amount of hydrate formed is estimated through the enthalpy of methane hydrate formation. The simulated results from the model give a fair representation of the main growth parameters, gas flow/hydrate growth rate, and cumulative growth/gas consumption. Heat transfer through the hydrate slurry changes with increasing the hydrate content. The analysis suggests inclusion of the transient nature of the heat-transfer coefficient for accurate prediction of hydrate growth when modeling based on heat transfer. Taking the transient effect into consideration, good correlation between estimates and measurements were obtained.