Hydrate Formation ?
  • Vote Up0Vote Down Sumit May 2008
    Posts: 17
    How Hydrates are formed ?

    OR say I am a bad Guy who want to create hydrate in a flow line of well whose pressure is say 3000 psi.

    Its 100 % methane....now when I open the choke valve, due to pressure drop accross the valve temperature will drop...but at the same time if i open the choke fast then pressure drop will be minimize ....can i avoid hydrate formation by this way or I will end in to a trouble.

    kindly explain.

    I can see the hydrate curve and I can know the P and T for hydrate formation but I want to know due to my mistake I will end up in such situation...

    Also if the upstream of choke is gas and downstream of choke is nitrogen in that case also if pressure drop is there then hydrate will form or what ?

    also if line is full of seawater and nitrogen then addition of methane gas will form hydrate ?

    Best Regards,
    Sumit Rama
  • 2 Comments sorted by
  • Vote Up0Vote Down chusker15 May 2008
    Posts: 2
    If it's 100% methane or nitrogen you will not have hydrates.  Free-water is required to form hydrates.

    If you have a mixture of methane and water that is undersaturated (no free water) at a certain temperature and pressure and you reduce the pressure causing the gas to cool and reach its water saturation point (dew point) you could form hydrates if the conditions are right.

    Hydrate formation is independent of the path. 

  • Vote Up0Vote Down Avinash May 2008
    Posts: 11
    Just to reiterate on what chusker15 is saying:

    Hydrates are formed based on T,P, composition of gas etc. Methanol injection is usually what is used to curb hyrate formation.
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