RELIABILITY OF WATER CONTENT DATA FOR NATURAL GAS-HYDRATE SYSTEMS USING SEMI-EMPIRICAL CORRELATIONS

Abstract

Water in natural gas can result in various operational problems, which may lead to equipment failure and plant shutdown. Knowing the amount of water capable of condensing from natural gas is essential. Many methods have been developed for ascertaining the amount of this condensable water (water content) from many gas mixtures. However, when hydrates are present, available methods for estimating the amount of condensable water are scarce and very limited in the open literature. The reliability of the data has always been a cause for concern due to the tendency for the inaccuracy of the results. In this study, two semi-empirical methods for ascertaining the amount of condensable water in natural gas with and without hydrates were used to test the reliability of the water content data of four different published natural gas-hydrate systems, including methane and propane gas mixture, raw/unprocessed, binary (methane + water), and synthetic natural gas. The results showed that only the data set for the methane and propane gas mixture was a reliable gas-hydrate equilibrium system, while the synthetic gas mixture needed further validation. Therefore, the methodology in this study can be used as a quick and simple means for ascertaining the reliability of water content data of natural gas-hydrate systems.