PROPERTIES OF OILFIELD BRINES - Petroleum Reservoir Fluid Property Correlations - page 151

Methane Solubility in Sodium Chloride Brines

Methane solubility in sodium chloride brines database
Many studies of methane solubility in sodium chloride brines at high
pressures and high temperatures have been published over the years.
Spivey et al. compiled a database of published data on solubility of
methane in pure water and sodium chloride brines for temperatures
from 32ºF to 680ºF (0 to 360ºC), pressures from 50 to 28,600 psia
(0.34 to 197 MPa), and sodium chloride concentrations from 0 to
26.3 wt% (0 to 6.1 g-mol/kg H 2 O). 15 They then used this database to
develop a correlation for estimating solubility of methane in sodium
chloride brines.

Table 4-4. Methane solubility database

Methane solubility range
(g-mol/kg H 2 O)
Culberson-McKetta (1951) a 70/71 25-171 2.2-69 0 0.018-0.43
O'Sullivan-Smith (1970) b 75/79 51-125 10-62 0-4 0.047-0.24
Sultanov et al. (1972) c 35/71 150-250 4.9-108 0 0.045-1.36
Amirijafari-Campbell (1972) d 8/8 38-71 4-34.5 0 0.033-0.187
Price (1979) e 51/71 154-292 5.2-192 0 0.070-2.56
Price et al. (1981) f 29/29 24-72 0.9-14 0.8-3.0 0.004-0.08
McGee et al. (1981) 30/30 191-292 10-18 0-4.3 0.14-0.23
Crovetto et al. (1982) g 5/7 24-157 1.3-2.2 0 0.012-0.024
Blount et al. (1979) (1982) 655/670 99-240 13-157 0-5.7 0.037-1.12
Dhima et al. (1998) h 4/4 71 20-100 0 0.12-0.28
Keipe et al. (2003) i 26/26 40-100 0.34-9.3 0 0.0028-0.086
Combined 988/1,066 24-292 0.34-192 0-5.7 0.0028-2.56
Note: n = number of points used in fit/number of points in database. a Culberson, O.L. and McKetta, J.J., Jr. “Phase Equilibria in
Hydrocarbon-Water Systems III-The Solubility of Methane in Water at Pressures to 10,000 psia.” Transactions . AIME. Vol. 192 (1951)
223-226. b O'Sullivan, T.D. and Smith, N.O. “The Solubility and Partial Molar Volume of Nitrogen and Methane in Water and
Aqueous Sodium Chloride from 50 to 125ºC and 100 to 600 Atm.” Journal of Physical Chemistry . Vol. 74, No. 7 (April 2, 1970) 1,460-
1,466. c Sultanov, R.C., Skripka, V.E., and Namiot, A.Y. “Solubility of Methane in Water at High Temperatures and Pressures.” Gazova
Promyshlennost . Vol. 17 (May 1972) 6-7. d Amirijafari, B. and Campbell, J.M. “Solubility of Gaseous Hydrocarbon Mixtures in Water.”
Society of Petroleum Engineers Journal . Vol. 12, No. 1 (February 1972) 21-27. e Price, L.C. “Aqueous Solubility of Methane at Elevated
Pressures and Temperatures.” AAPG Bulletin . Vol. 63 (1979) 1,527-1,533. f Price, L.C., Blount, C.W., MacGowan, D., and Wenger, L.
“Methane Solubility in Brines with Application to the Geopressured Resource.” Proceedings of the 5th Geopressured-Geothermal Energy
Conference . Vol. 5 (1981) 205-214. g Crovetto, R., Fernández-Prini, R., and Japas, M.L. “Solubilities of Inert Gases and Methane in H 2 O and
D 2 O in the Temperature Range of 300 to 600 K.” Journal of Chemical Physics . Vol. 76, No. 2 (January 15, 1982) 1,077-1,086. h Dhima, A.,
de Hemptinne, J.-C., and Moracchini, G. “Solubility of Light Hydrocarbons and Their Mixtures in Pure Water under High Pressure.” Fluid Phase
Equilibria . Vol. 145 (1998) 129-150. i Kiepe, J., Horstmann, S., Fischer, K., and Gmehling, J. “Experimental Determination and Prediction
of Gas Solubility Data for Methane+Water Solutions Containing Different Monovalent Electrolytes.” Industrial and Engineering Chemical
Research . Vol. 42 (2003) 5,392-5,398.

Temperature
range (ºC)

Pressure
range (MPa)

NaCl salinity range
(g-mol/kg H 2 O) Reference n