Storing natural gas as frozen hydrate

Journal Article · Tue Feb 01 04:00:00 EST 1994 · SPE Production and Facilities (Society of Petroleum Engineers); (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2118/24924-PA· OSTI ID:5108382

Gudmundsson, J S; Khokhar, A A ^[1]; Parlaktuna, M ^[2]

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1. Univ. of Trondheim (Norway)
2. Middle East Technical Univ., Ankara (Turkey)

The formation of natural gas hydrates is a well-known problem in the petroleum and natural gas industries. Hydrates are solid materials that form when liquid water and natural gas are brought in contact under pressure. Hydrate formation need not be a problem. On the contrary, it can be an advantage. The volume of hydrates is much less than that of natural gas. At standard conditions, hydrates occupy 150 to 170 times less volume than the corresponding gas. Typically, natural gas hydrates contain 15% gas and 85% water by mass. It follows that hydrates can be used for large-scale storage of natural gas. Benesh proposed using hydrates to improve the load factor of natural gas supply systems. The author suggested that hydrates could be produced by bringing liquid water into contact with natural gas at the appropriate temperature and high pressure. The hydrate then would be stored at a temperature and pressure where it was stable. When gas was needed for the supply system, the hydrate would be melted at low pressure. The stability of a natural gas hydrate during storage at atmospheric pressure and below-freezing temperatures was studied in the laboratory. The gas hydrate was produced in a stirred vessel at 2- to 6-MPa pressure and temperatures from 0 to 20 C. The hydrate was refrigerated and stored in deep freezers at [minus]5, [minus]10, and [minus]18 C for up to 10 days. The natural gas hydrate remained stable when kept frozen at atmospheric pressure.

• OSTI ID: 5108382
• Journal Information: SPE Production and Facilities (Society of Petroleum Engineers); (United States), Journal Name: SPE Production and Facilities (Society of Petroleum Engineers); (United States) Vol. 9:1; ISSN 1064-668X; ISSN SPRFEZ
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

03 NATURAL GAS
032000* -- Natural Gas-- Transport
Handling
& Storage
BENCH-SCALE EXPERIMENTS
ENERGY SOURCES
FLUIDS
FOSSIL FUELS
FUEL GAS
FUELS
GAS FUELS
GAS HYDRATES
GASES
HYDRATES
NATURAL GAS
STABILIZATION
STORAGE
VOLUME