Design of Vessel for Storage and Transportation of Natural Gas Hydrates.

Viveki Rai, *Shyam Kumar Inturi and Ritesh Roy

Department of Petroleum Engineering and Earth Sciences Engineering, University of Petroleum and
Energy Studies, Bidholi campus, Dehradun-248007, Uttarakhand, India.

&Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, Bidholi campus,
Dehradun-248007, Uttarakhand, India.

E-mail: vbcap.viveki.rai95@gmail.com, *shyaminturi@gmail.com,ritesh.roy9695@gmail.com

Telephone: +91-135-2770137, Fax: +91-135-2776095,2776090

* Corresponding author

Objective: Transportation of natural gas as a gas hydrates via carbon dioxide injection in the specially
designed vessel.

Availing the operating conditions of the gas hydrates a vessel is designed specially to store and transport
the gas hydrates. The controlling parameters are flow rate through valve V1, CO2 pressure, choke
diameter, hydrocarbon composition and diffusivity of hydrocarbon gas. Reverse engineering is applied to
design the vessel so as to achieve the optimal gas hydrate formation condition and attain an equilibrium
condition.

Method:

The process is explained as shown in the figure-1

Initially, outside chamber is filled with carbon dioxide with certain pressure P1, temperature T1 through
throttling valve V1. The hydrocarbon gas is then passed through the inlet valve V 1, which then passes
through choke C1 to the inside chamber. The throttling process of hydrocarbon gas through choke C1
causes suitable pressure and temperature drop to attain the optimal condition to form the gas hydrate of
hydrocarbon. The composition of hydrocarbon and CO2 mixture in the inside chamber and outside
chamber, flow rate , choke design are kept so as to have the optimal conditions of temperature and
pressure in the inside chamber to form the gas hydrate and an equilibrium is maintained between the
inside and outside chamber.

The production of the hydrocarbon gas can achieve by the changing the equilibrium conditions and it
effects the hydrate phase change and gas is produced by injecting the CO2 from the outside chamber
through choke C1. The CO2 pressure is controlled inside chamber 2 and accordingly there is equilibrium
between CO2 hydrate and Hydrocarbon hydrate so than CO2 replaces the hydrocarbon gas from the gas
hydrates with some rate through which the gas will come out through choke C2.

Formulae and graphs:

Joule Thompson effect or throttling process:

Where μJT is the Joule-Thomson coefficient. ( μJT >0)

Temperature-Entropy Diagram:

Fig.2: Temperature-Entropy diagram to study the final temperature during gas expansion.

(https://neutrium.net/fluid_flow/joule-thomson-cooling)

Fig: 3 temperature inversion curve showing the Tr and Pr relation for cooling during expansion of gas.

(https://neutrium.net/fluid_flow/joule-thomson-cooling)

Design:

Fig.1: design and working of vessel

Chamber-1: Inside chamber

Chamber-2: Outside chamber

V1 Inlet valve

C1 Inlet choke valve

C2: Out let choke valve

CO2 inside the chambers maintain the pressure constant in both the chambers so that a constant pressure
difference of ∆P is maintained between two chambers which brings the pressure from P1 to P0 . Further
CO2 is used in producing gas from hydrocarbon hydrate.

Observations:

Conditions inside the chambers:

Chamber-1:

High pressure CO2 at temperature T1 and pressure P1.

T1< inversion temperature of Hydrocarbon gas

>0

Chamber-2:

Pressure P0 and Temperature T0 attained by Joule-Thomson effect.

P0, T0 - in the stability zone of hydrocarbon hydrate

T0 < dew point of water

P1>P0>minimum pressure required to form the gas hydrate.

Since P1>P0, no work is extracted from gas during expansion and the gas expansion through throttling
device is insulated to prevent any heat transfer to or from the gas.

Results:

This design meets the requirements for hydrocarbon storage and transportation with the use of CO2 and
Joules-Thomson effect.

Conclusion: The natural gas can be transported as hydrates; the emissions of CO2 can be reduced.

Reference

1. Zahra Taheri*, Mohammad Reza Shabani, Khodadad Nazari, Ali Mehdizaheh, “Natural gas transportation
and storage by hydrate technology: Iran case study”Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering 21
(2014) 846-849.
2. Moridis, G., M. Kowalsky, and K. Pruess, 2005, HydrateResSim User’s Manual: A Numerical Simulator
for Modeling the Behavior of Hydrates in Geologic Media. Contract No. DE-AC03-76SF00098:
Department of Energy, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA.
3. Moridis, G.J., 2003. Numerical Studies of Gas Production from Methane Hydrates: SPE Journal, v. 8, p.
359-370.
4. Ohgaki, K., K. Takano, H. Sangawa, T. Matsubara, and S. Nakano, 1996, Methane exploitation by carbon
dioxide from gas hydrates-phase equilibria for CO2 -CH4 mixed hydrate system: Journal of Chemical
Engineering of Japan, v. 29, p. 478-483.