Initial estimation of hydrate formation temperature of sweet natural gases based on new empirical correlation

Abstract

Production, processing and transportation of natural gases can be significantly affected by clathrate hydrates. Knowing the gas analysis is crucial to predict the right conditions for hydrate formation. Nevertheless, Katz gas gravity method can be used for initial estimation of hydrate formation temperature (HFT) under the circumstances of indeterminate gas composition. So far several correlations have been proposed for gas gravity method, in which the most accurate and reliable one has belonged to Bahadori and Vuthaluru. The main objective of this study is to present a simple and yet accurate correlation for fast prediction of sweet natural gases HFT based on the fit to Katz gravity chart. By reviewing the error analysis results, one can discover that the new proposed correlation has the best estimation capability among the widely accepted existing correlations within the investigated range.