Simplified method for calculating solubilities of hydrocarbons in hydrate inhibitors

Significant amount of work has been performed in order to determine the solubility of light hydrocarbons (methane and ethane) in the most commonly used hydrate inhibitors (such as methanol and ethylene glycol) at various temperatures and pressures. Thesesolubility data have been compiled and correlated. In most cases, however, current models may not be sufficient if accurate predictions are needed. The aim of this study is to present a simple-to-use method for accurate prediction of solubilities of light hydrocarbons in methanol and ethylene glycol (at different weight percentages in water) as a function of reduced partial pressure and reduced temperature. The predictions from the method proposed are compared with reported experimental data and found good agreement between observed data and the predicted values with average absolute deviation less than 1.46 %. It was also found that this method is more accurate than conventional thermodynamical approaches (in particular, the NRTL model) in predicting thesolubilities of light alkanes in hydrate inhibitors.