Experimental Study on Natural-Gas-Hydrate-Slurry Flow

Abstract

Summary To better understand hydrate-slurry flow, a series of experiments was performed, including water, natural gas, and diesel oil, under 4-MPa system pressure and 1.25-m/s initial linear velocity. The experiments have been conducted in a high-pressure hydrate-flow loop newly constructed at China University of Petroleum (Beijing), and dedicated to flow-assurance studies. A focused-beam reflectance measurement (FBRM) probe is installed in this flow loop, which provides a qualitative chord length distribution (CLD) of the particles/droplets in the system. First, the influence of flow rate on the hydrate-slurry flow was discussed. Then, we studied other influencing factors—such as water cut and additive dosage—on the hydrate induction period and the CLD before/after hydrate formation. Third, a new correlation was fitted between the dimensionless rheological index n′ and water cut as well as additive dosage, according to these experimental data. Finally, a laminar-flow model for the prediction of the pressure drop for the quasisingle-phase hydrate slurry was established, and tested by comparison with the experimental results in this paper.