Experimental study and kinetic modeling on THF hydrate formation under a static electric field

Abstract

Hydrate formation has drawn wide-ranging research attention because of its applications in natural gas storage and transportation, refrigeration technology, seawater desalination, gas separation, capturing greenhouse gases, and energy storage. Also, THF hydrate has been widely investigated in terms of its kinetics, thermophysical properties, and suitability as a replacement for CH4 hydrates in experimental studies. In this work, the kinetics of THF hydrate formation under the impact of an electric field is studied by performing a chemical affinity model. Hence, the effect of an electric field on the chemical affinity model variations involving nucleation temperature and time duration to attain equilibrium needs to be studied from the model point of view. Then, the chemical affinity model under the effect of an electric field is performed for three THF-H2O systems involving solutions containing 10 wt% THF, 19 wt% THF, and 30 wt% THF, and one THF–H2O–SDS system containing 19 wt% THF and 100 ppm SDS. Based on the results, imposing an electric field with a strength of 4.3 × 105 V/m for the mentioned systems causes the nucleation temperature and the hydration reaction time to reach equilibrium to increase. Herein the change in THF consumption versus time in the process of formation and growth of THF hydrate is analyzed by using the chemical affinity model.