Experimental study of natural gas hydrates and a novel use of neural network to predict hydrate formation conditions

A novel high-pressure apparatus with various abilities in hydrate investigation fields has been designed, constructed and fully described in the present paper. In order to achieve an appropriate understanding of the gas hydrate behavior in formation and destabilization, series of laboratory experiments with six different gas mixtures were done and more than 130 hydrate equilibrium points in the pressure range of about 450-3000 psia were recorded. Different methods of hydrate formation prediction were discussed and finally the new promising neural networks method was used. Because of the previous works defects in accurate hydrate formation prediction via neural networks, a new use of neural networks was introduced. Testing and validation of the new neural networks method indicates that it is a reliable technique for the accurate prediction of hydrate formation conditions for generalized gas systems and can be used in future automatic inhibitor dosing devices. (c) 2012 The Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.