Current Researches

The Particle Sizing in Diphasic Flow Loop (From 2000)

The ARCHIMEDE project consists in studying the hydrodynamics of a water in oil emulsion converting itself into hydrate during flowing in a pilot scale flow loop. The ARCHIMEDE (50 m long, 1 cm diameter, 100 bars) flow loop is instrumented with particle sizers from different technologies (light transmission and retrodiffusion, cords length measurement, optical microscopy). The project aims at coupling the hydrodynamics to the particle size distribution.

Formation and dissociation of gas hydrates in consolidated structures

The project consists in identifying the limiting steps (heat transfer, mass transfer or reaction transfer) during formation and dissociation of gas hydrates in consolidated structures such as plugs in pipelines or sediments. This thematic covers both the flow insurance, and gas production from methane hydrates bearing sediments.

The program is divided into two sub projects :
ForDiMHyS Project (From 2000) Formation and Dissociation of Methane Hydrates in Sediments
ForDiMHyPP Project (From 2001) Formation and Dissociation of Methane Hydrates in Plugs in Pipelines.

Air Conditioning Using Hydrate Slurries

The ACUHS projects consists in flowing an hydrate slurry at atmospheric pressure and to distribute it to end-units to cool-down rooms. The melted fluid is then regenerated in continuous crystalliser and stored in a tank during night when electricity is cheaper. A pilot scale unit has been built to air-condition a part of the School of Mines of St-Etienne (cooling power of 30 kW).

CO2 Capture by Hydrate Crystallisation (From 2002)

The projects (ULCOS, SECOHYA, ACACIA, ICAP) propose a new technology to capture carbon dioxide from Nitrogen or methane for example. The principle of the separation is based on the differential affinity of gases to the hydrate structure. Differents topics are developped from thermodynamic to kinteics, from labscale to pilot scale, from fundamentals programs to european programs.