Análise do cenário de inibição dos hidratos de gás natural com ênfase na modelagem de inibidores termodinâmicos

Abstract

In the area of natural gas exploration and production, there are several problems that companies face in extracting and transporting gas from the extraction site to their separation facilities. During deep and ultra deep water extraction, natural gas is located in a region of high pressure and low temperature, these are thermodynamic conditions that can cause the formation of natural gas hydrates, also known as clathrates. Over time, these hydrates can becoming crowded in points of the pipes, reducing the flow of the gas, with capacity to totally obstruct the pipeline, being able to cause great loss to the gas industry. In order to avoid the formation of clathrates are injected inhibitor into the hydrate wells, which are separated into three main classes according to their mechanism of inhibition: thermodynamic, kinetic and anti-agglomerant. In order to amplify and optimize the use of these inhibitors. To amplify and optimize the use of these inhibitors, several models (state equations) have been developed to correlate and predict the formation of gas hydrates through the study of the thermodynamic properties of the natural gas and the environment has been developed. With the application of these models (state equations) it is possible to predict in what thermodynamic conditions the formation of clathrates will occur, as well as calculate the amount of inhibitor necessary for the equilibrium to be displaced enough for the extraction operation to proceed without risk. Since thermodynamic inhibitors represent the largest and oldest of the above-mentioned classes, a review of the models developed for the use of these thermodynamics is carried out along with an analysis of the modeling evolution over the years.