Gas hydrates engineering

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Gas hydrates are crystals formed by water and other compounds such as natural gas components under suitable pressure and temperature conditions. Gas hydrates occur naturally below the seafloor and in permafrost areas. These hydrates constitute a huge source of natural gas if technology becomes available to recover the gas from the solid hydrate in a safe, economic and environmentally acceptable manner. Gas hydrates complicate oil and gas drilling and may plug hydrocarbon pipelines and thus, cause serious safety and economic problems. Significant effort is devoted to manage the risk associated with hydrate formation in the oil and gas industry. Synthetic hydrates are being investigated for a number of practical applications including natural gas storage and transport, hydrogen storage for fuel cells, and carbon dioxide capture and sequestration. The proposed research aims to advance the state of knowledge on gas hydrates and then interpret the findings in a manner that will benefit engineers to exploit gas hydrates. Three projects will be carried out. In the first project we study the novel idea of simultaneous production of natural gas from the earth's hydrates and sequestration of carbon dioxide. This would be accomplished by injecting carbon dioxide into a hydrate sediment. The source of carbon dioxide will be that captured form a power plant or another source instead of being emitted into the atmosphere. In the second project we aim to develop a strategy to predict the field performance of chemicals added in small dosages in oil and gas pipelines so that they can delay the onset of gas hydrates and control their growth. The outcome of this work will enable the safe, economic and environmentally acceptable design of oil and gas facilities. In the third project we aim to develop a next generation thermodynamic model for hydrate systems by using molecular-based equations of state without binary adjustable parameters. This model will be used as a tool for the safe, economic and environmentally acceptable design of chemical and energy processing facilities.