Amir Abbas Izadpanah

In this comm unication , the exp eriment al and mod eling investig ation were pe rformed on ethan e hydrate forma tion process in the presence of pure water and two surfa ctants . First, the effects of stirr ing rate (450, 60 0 and 80 0 rpm) and initia l pressure (1.56 e 2.4 6 MPa) on the rate of ethan e hydrate for mation in the presence of pure water were studied . Then, effec t of two surfacta nts (sodium dode cyl sulfate (SDS) and polyoxyethylene (20 ) sorbi tan mo nopalm itate (Tween(R)40)) on ethane hydrate for mation rate were experim entally investig ated at three different temperatures ( 275 .2, 277.2 and 279. 2 K) and concen tra-tion s (30 0, 50 0 and 10 0 0 surf actant ppm). A mo del based on mass transfer was used to model these experim ental data. The results of this stud y show that both SDS and Tween(R)40 increased ethane hy-drate formation rate, but Tween (R)40 cou ld not increase ethane hydrate formation rate as effec tive as SDS.