• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.56-64
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• 2020

This study presents the hydrate induction time of PVCap according to subcooling temperature, salt concentration, and MEG concentration in order to analyze the inhibition effect of PVCap in various production environments of offshore gas fields. A high-pressure hydrate generator was made for the hydrate formation experiments. It was verified that the apparatus had sufficient reliability by comparing the results of hydrate equilibrium conditions and induction time from the apparatus with published reference data. As the subcooling temperature increased from 6.1℃ to 12.1℃, the induction time of PVCap concentration of 0.1~1 wt% decreased. When the salt concentration increased from 3 wt% to 7 wt%, the induction time was reduced by up to 78% under the condition of 0.5 wt% PVCap due to polymer structure degradation by salt effect. In the case of HHI (hybrid hydrate inhibitor) made by mixing MEG 10 wt% and PVCap, the change in induction time was not large compared to PVCap 1 wt% due to the under-inhibition effect. On the other hand, the hydrate inhibition efficiency of HHI with MEG 20wt% increased 1.7 times compared to PVCap.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.18-27
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• 2020

This study presents flow assurance analysis in subsea pipeline considering system availability of topside in LNG-FPSO. A hydrate management strategy was established, which consisted of PVCap experiments, system availability analysis of LNG-FPSO topside, hydrate risk analysis in the pipeline, and calculation of PVCap injection concentration. The experimental data required for the determination of PVCap injection concentration were obtained by measuring the hydrate induction time of PVCap at the subcooling temperatures of 6.1, 9.2, and 12.1℃. The availability of LNG-FPSO topside system for 20 years was 89.3%, and the longest downtime of 50 hours occurred 2.9 times per year. The subsea pipeline model for multiphase flow simulation was created using field geometry data. As a result of risk analysis of hydrate plugging using subsea pipeline model, hydrate was formed at the end of flowline in 23.2 hours under the condition of 50 hours shutdown. The injection concentration of PVCap was determined based on the PVCap experiment results. The hydrate plugging in subsea pipeline of LNG-FPSO can be completely prevented by injecting PVCap 0.25 wt% 2.9 times per year.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.52 no.6
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• pp.814-820
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• 2014

In this work, hydrate inhibition performance of water-soluble polymers including pyrrolidone, caprolactam, acrylamide types were evaluated using torque measurement and high pressure differential scanning calorimeter (HP ${\mu}$-DSC). The obtained experimental results suggest that the studied polymers represent the kinetic hydrate inhibition (KHI) performance. 0.5 wt% polyvinylcaprolactam (PVCap) solution shows the hydrate onset time of 34.4 min and subcooling temperature of 15.9 K, which is better KHI performance than that of pure water - hydrate onset time of 12.3 min and subcooling temperature of 6.0 K. 0.5 wt% polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) solution shows the hydrate onset time of 27.6 min and the subcooling temperature of 13.2 K while polyacrylamide-co-acrylic acid partial sodium salt (PAM-co-AA) solution shows less KHI performance than PVP solution at both 0.5 and 5.0 wt%. However, PAM-co-AA solution shows slow growth rate and low hydrate amount than PVCap. In addition to hydrate onset and growth condition, torque change with time was investigated as one of KHI evaluation methods. 0.5 wt% PVCap solution shows the lowest average torque of 6.4 N cm and 0.5 wt% PAM-co-AA solution shows the average torque of 7.2 N cm. For 0.5 wt% PVP solution, it increases 11.5 N cm and 5.0 wt% PAM-co-AA solution shows the maximum average torque of 13.4 N cm, which is similar to the average torque of pure water, 15.2 N cm. Judging from the experimental results obtained by both an autoclave and a HP ${\mu}$-DSC, the PVCap solution shows the best performance among the KHIs in terms of delaying hydrate nucleation. From these results, it can be concluded that the torque change with time is useful to identify the flow ability of tested solution, and the further research on the inhibition of hydrate formation can be approached in various aspects using a HP ${\mu}$-DSC.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.148.2-148.2
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• 2011

천연의 메탄 하이드레이트를 생산하기 위한 방법으로는 크게 다음의 세 가지가 알려져 있다; 감압법, 열 자극법, 저해제 주입법. 갑압법이 가장 경제성이 높은 방법으로 보고 있으며, 이를 활용한 개발생산 시에는 해리 이후의 잔류 물에서 하이드레이트 전구체라고 알려진 하이드레이트 구조가 남아 있으며 이는 생산된 메탄 가스의 이송 과정에서 하이드레이트 재생성의 위험을 높이게 된다. 하이드레이트 재생성을 방지할 수 있는 한 가지 수단으로는 억제제를 주입하는 방법이 가능한데, 적절한 양을 주입함으로써 생산의 경제성을 높일 수 있다. 최근 들어 kinetic 억제제의 적용이 인기를 얻고 있는 바, 수용성 고분자인 이들 억제제를 적용하여 초기 하이드레이트 핵 생성을 지연시킬 수 있다. 이들 kinetic 억제제를 메탄 하이드레이트 생산 과정에서 투여하는 방법을 실험적으로 측정해 보았고, 잔류의 하이드레이트 구조에 대한 존재여부에 대하여 간접적으로 증명해보고자 하였다. kinetic 억제제로는 Poly Vinyl Caprolactam (PVCap)을 선택하였다. 해리압력, PVCap 주입 농도에 변화를 주면서 메탄 하이드레이트 생산, 수송과정에서 발생할 수 있는 하이드레이트 재생성 억제에 대한 효과를 실험적으로 측정하였다.