High Pressure Autoclaves (x3)

We maintain a set of three High Pressure Visual Autoclaves within the Centre, which are intermediate scale instruments for characterising the behaviour of hydrocarbon fluids under shear. The pair of 1″ ID and single 2″ ID apparatus record changes in pressure and temperature within a sapphire cell which allows for a direct observation of hydrate formation at similar conditions to those found in subsea flowlines. The equipment can be used to characterise the behaviour of different hydrocarbon mixtures in the presence of hydrates to understand its severity on a case-by-case basis. Further, this facilitates the testing of fundamental thermodynamic equilibrium measurements to determine exactly when hydrate will form, and allows us to evaluate the effectiveness of testing prevention and management techniques such as thermodynamic inhibitors, kinetic inhibitors and anti-agglomerants.