Subsea processing offers novel methods for the recovery of previously untapped energy reserves, as well as improved recovery at current sites. This collaboration with Statoil aims to generate new thermodynamic data for use in the design and operation of subsea installations. The data will be modeled with the Cubic-Plus-Association equation of state.
Robust design and operation of future subsea developments requires new experimental thermodynamic data, in order to formulate a detailed understanding of the thermodynamic properties of reservoir fluids over a broad range of temperatures and pressures. Subsea processing (separation, boosting and compression) offers the opportunity for improved recovery and extended reservoir lifetimes. Flow assurance is a critical aspect of all offshore operations, with the formation of gas hydrates being of major concern.
As part of a research collaboration between the Centre for Energy Resources Engineering (CERE) at the Technical University of Denmark and Statoil, a new equilibrium cell was constructed and the first VLLE measurements for gas – water – reservoir fluid – hydrate inhibitor phase equilibria have been reported in 2014.
The aim of this project is to re-establish this equipment and study the interactions of gas – water systems with hydrate inhibitors at conditions relevant to subsea processing installations. The project will include experimental work at both DTU-CERE and Statoil R&D.
The experimental data will be modelled using the Cubic-Plus-Association (CPA) equation of state, leading to evaluations of higher order thermodynamic properties. New parameters or binary interaction parameters (which improve the description of the measured systems) will be incorporated into an existing CAPE-OPEN framework for implementation of CPA in Aspen simulation packages.
Supervisor : Assoc. Prof. Nicolas von Solms
Co-supervisor: Prof. Georgios Kontogeorgis