Heat generation during gas hydrate formation is an important problem because it reduces the amount of water and gas that become gas hydrates. In this research work, we present a new design of an impeller to be used for hydrate formation and to overcome this concern by following the hydrodynamic literature. CH4 hydrate formation experiments were performed in a 5.7 L continuously stirred tank reactor using a butterfly turbine (BT) impeller with no baffle (NB), full baffle (FB), half baffle (HB), and surface baffle (SB) under mixed flow conditions. Four experiments were conducted separately using single and dual impellers. In addition to the estimated induction time, the rate of hydrate formation, hydrate productivity and hydrate formation rate, constant for a maximum of 3 h, were calculated. The induction time was less for both single and dual-impeller experiments that used full baffle for less than 3 min and more than 1 h for all other experiments. In an experiment with a single impeller, a surface baffle yielded higher hydrate growth with a value of 42 × 10-8 mol/s, while in an experiment with dual impellers, a half baffle generated higher hydrate growth with a value of 28.8 × 10-8 mol/s. Both single and dual impellers achieved the highest values for the hydrate formation rates that were constant in the full-baffle experiments.
Keywords: butterfly turbine; gas hydrates; hydrate formation; induction time.