A novel technique for separating hydrogen from (H2 + CH4) gas mixtures through hydrate formation/dissociation was proposed. In this work, a systematic experimental study was performed on the separation of hydrogen from (H2 + CH4) feed mixtures with various hydrogen contents (mole fraction x = 40%–90%). The experimental results showed that the hydrogen content could be enriched to as high as ～94% for various feed mixtures using the proposed hydrate technology under a temperature slightly above 0°C and a pressure below 5.0 MPa. With the addition of a small amount of suitable additives, the rate of hydrate formation could be increased significantly. Anti-agglomeration was used to disperse hydrate particles into the condensate phase. Instead of preventing hydrate growth (as in the kinetic inhibitor tests), hydrates were allowed to form, but only as small dispersed particles. Anti-agglomeration could keep hydrate particles suspended in a range of condensate types at 1°C and 5 MPa in the water-in-oil emulsion.
In this work, a thermodynamic model is developed for prediction of structure H hydrate formation. The model combines the Peng-Robinson equation of state for the vapor, liquid and aqueous phases with the extended Ng-Robinson hydrate model for gas hydrate formation of all three structures. The parameters of 14 structure- H hydrate formers are determined based on the experimental data of structure-H hydrates in the literature. The expression of fugacity of water in the empty hydrate phase is correlated for calculating structure-H hydrate formation conditions in the absence of free water. The model is tested by predicting hydrate formation conditions of a number of structure-H hydrate forming systems which are in good agreement with the experimental data. The proposed model is also applied to the prediction of hydrate formation conditions for various reservoir fluids such as natural gas and gas condensate.
MA Qinglan（马庆兰）CHEN Guangjin（陈光进）GUO Tianmin（郭天民）ZHANG Kun（张坤）Julian Y. ZuoDan ZhangHeng-Joo Ng
