LAUSR

The present work investigates the dissociation kinetics of methane (sI) hydrate in a thermoelectrically cooled microfluidic system with in situ Raman spectroscopy. The dissociation profile of methane (sI) hydrate was measured under different Reynolds numbers (0.42–4.16), pressures (60.2 to 80.1 bar), and temperature driving force ([Teq – 0.1 K] to [Teq + 0.3 K]). A theoretical model was derived from first-principles to describe the contributions of heat transfer and intrinsic kinetics on the dissociation rate of methane hydrate. It was observed that the dimensionless ratio of heat transfer to the intrinsic dissociation rate depended on the initial thickness of methane hydrate, temperature driving force, pressure, and the time. Intrinsic kinetics dominated where the initial thickness of methane hydrate was in the range of 10 μm and the temperature driving force was low. Increasing initial thickness of methane hydrate resulted in a switch to a heat-transfer-limited dissociation. Our results support that the...