A Review of Experimental Apparatus for Testing of Kinetic inhibitors of gas hydrates

One common and potentially detrimental flow assurance challenge to offshore production is formation of gas hydrates. Hydrates can occur when light hydrocarbons and water are present at thermodynamically favorable pressure and temperature. In offshore production systems, they typically are seen in long flowlines, but also can appear anywhere in the system where gas and water are present under high pressure and low temperature.The most common way to prevent hydrates is chemical inhibition. They are able to retard the gas hydrate formation process and facilitate reliable oil and gas transportation.This review will describe different test equipments such as autoclaves, rocking cells and flow loops, which have been used to select a suitable kinetic hydrate inhibitor under specific test conditions.

Keywords:

gas hydrates , flow assurance , kinetic hydrate inhibitors , rocking cells , autoclaves , flow loops