Laboratory Facilities
Hydrafact has state-of-the-art experimental facilities that span a wide range of PT conditions, from very low (-80°C) to very high temperatures (400°C), and from vacuum to ultra-high pressures ( 30,000 psia / 2 kbar).
Hydrafact has combined the laboratory facilities of the Centre for Gas Hydrate Research (CGHR) and Centre for Flow Assurance Research (C-FAR) with our own providing access to some of the most advanced laboratory equipment worldwide. The majority of our set-ups are custom built in-house based on designs developed through many years of R&D experience in the petroleum industry.
See more details about specific laboratory equipment »
Gas Hydrates and Flow Assurance
High pressure set-ups for flow assurance studies include:
- Autoclave cells
- Rocking cells
- Windowed / visual cells
- Capillary sampling cells
- QCM (Quartz Crystal Microbalance) cells
- Resistivity/conductivity and ultrasonic cells
- Gas water equilibrium cell and water content measurement
- Advanced cells for simulating flow through chokes and Joule-Thomson effect
- 40 m flow loop
- High-pressure micromodels
Advanced cells for simulating hydrate formation/removal in well-tubing and/or annulus
For phase compositional analysis:
- Combined gas chromatography / mass spectrometry (GC/MS)
- Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope (ESEM)
For studies of sediment-hosted gas hydrates
- Sediment ultrasonic cells
- Porous media cells
- Micromodels
VLE, SLE, Phase Equilibria
In addition to the high pressure equipment above we also have capabilities for phase
equilibrium studies.
- VLE Ebulliometer
- Differential Thermal Analysis
Rheological Properties Measurement
For measurement of rheological properties (e.g. viscosity, gel point G’ and G’’) of pure and multicomponent fluids at atmospheric and high pressure.
- High pressure Rheometer
Spectroscopic Analysis
IR is used for compound identification and quantitative analysis.
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Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) Spectrometer