Ethane (1) -Water (2) Solubility Modeling and New Water Content Measurements of Liquid Ethane in Equilibrium with Water and Hydrates

•Water content measurements in liquid ethane in equilibrium with hydrates or water.•Water content and ethane solubility data compared to the sCPA-SRK.•Hydrate dissociation points of ethane-water system compared to the sCPA-SRK. Ethane's susceptibility to hydrate formation during transportation and handling, particularly in LNG shipments, presents operational challenges in production facilities, pipelines and storage tanks. Accurate prediction of the minimum water content required for hydrate formation and precise hydrate dissociation points are essential for mitigating these issues. In this study, the sCPA-SRK, equation of state, coupled with van der Waals' classical mixing rules and van der Waals and Platteeuw's solid solution theory was used to determine the minimum water content required for hydrate formation (when within the hydrates’ stability zone), over pressure and temperature ranges of 0.323-89.6 MPa and 201.65-413.15 K. The model achieved an absolute average deviation (AAD) of 9.25% when compared to measurements obtained from this study and the existing literature. Utilizing a novel method developed by Burgass et al. [1], 53 new water content measurements were obtained over the range of 273.15-293.15 K in liquid ethane which was in equilibrium with aqueous water or hydrates, achieving AAD of 4.61%. The model was also used to predict ethane solubility in the water aqueous phase within a pressure and temperature range of 0.101-100 MPa and 273.15-410.93 K, respectively, with a corresponding AAD of 6.5%, and was able to predict hydrate dissociation points successfully.