Gas hydrates engineering

气体水合物是由水和其它化合物如天然气组分在合适的压力和温度条件下形成的晶体。天然气水合物天然存在于海底以下和永久冻土区。如果能够以安全、经济和环境可接受的方式从固体水合物中回收天然气，这些水合物将构成天然气的巨大来源。 天然气水合物使石油和天然气钻探复杂化，并且可能堵塞烃类管道，从而引起严重的安全和经济问题。在石油和天然气工业中，管理与水合物形成相关的风险投入了大量精力。合成水合物正在研究用于许多实际应用，包括天然气储存和运输，燃料电池的氢储存以及二氧化碳捕获和封存。 拟议的研究旨在提高对天然气水合物的认识，然后以有利于工程师开采天然气水合物的方式解释研究结果。将实施三个项目。在第一个项目中，我们研究了从地球的水合物中同时生产天然气和封存二氧化碳的新想法。这将通过向水合物沉积物中注入二氧化碳来实现。二氧化碳的来源将是从发电厂或其他来源捕获的二氧化碳，而不是排放到大气中。 在第二个项目中，我们的目标是制定一项战略，以预测石油和天然气管道中小剂量添加的化学品的现场性能，以便它们可以延迟天然气水合物的发生并控制其增长。这项工作的成果将使石油和天然气设施的安全，经济和环境可接受的设计。在第三个项目中，我们的目标是开发下一代水合物系统的热力学模型，通过使用基于分子的状态方程没有二元可调参数。该模型将被用作化学和能源加工设施的安全、经济和环境可接受设计的工具。

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.