Patent ID: 6871118

Claim:
A method for continuous control of hydrate formation at any point of a pipe carrying a multiphase mixture of petroleum fluids, using a mechanistic hydrodynamic module and an integrated compositional thermodynamic module to define the phase properties, and applying mass conservation and momentum conservation equations, as well as equations of energy transfer in the mixture, considering that the multiphase mixture is substantially continuously at equilibrium, a composition of the multiphase mixture is variable all along the pipe and a mass of each constituent of the mixture is globally defined by a mass conservation equation regardless of phase state thereof, and the petroleum fluids are grouped together into a limited number of pseudo-components, comprising: a) detecting hydrate formation conditions by: carrying out a grouping of the petroleum fluids into selected pseudo-components so as to isolate the hydrate forming components, with a definition for each pseudo-component of a mass fraction and of a number of characteristic physical quantities, and by applying to said modules data relative to these particular pseudo-components so as to determine a hydrate dissociation temperature; b) determine at any point along said pipe, a temperature of said mixture of petroleum fluids; c) using a control device to compare said temperature of the petroleum fluids with said hydrate dissociated temperature ; and d) applying measures intended to control hydrate formation under said control device.