Synthesis and evaluation investigation of novel kinetic hydrate inhibitors at high subcooling conditions

• Published in: Fuel (Guildford) 2023-06, Vol.341, p.127014, Article 127014
• Main Authors: Zou, Xue, Zi, Mucong, Wu, Tiantian, Yao, Yuanxin, Yang, Caifeng, Chen, Daoyi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Gas hydrate; High subcooling; Inhibition performance; Mechanism hypothesis; Newly-synthesized kinetic hydrate inhibitors
• ISSN: 0016-2361; 1873-7153
• DOI: 10.1016/j.fuel.2022.127014

[Display omitted] •Four new kinetic hydrate inhibitors (KHIs) were successfully synthesized.•Inhibitory performance of four KHIs is significantly better than three commercial KHIs under high subcooling.•Mechanism hypothesis of neutralization and adsorption is proposed to explain the better performance of KHIs. Kinetic hydrate inhibitors (KHIs) have gradually gained more attention in the natural gas and oil transportation field due to their remarkable inhibition performance at low dosages. However, the inhibition performance of most commercial KHIs is poor under high subcooling conditions. In this work, a radical polymerization method was used to synthesize four new KHIs by introducing the 1-vinylimidazole (VI) or vinylacetate (VAc) monomer. These newly-synthesized copolymer KHIs were characterized by Fourier Transform Infrared, 1H nuclear magnetic resonance, and gel permeation chromatography, respectively. The cloud point of HY-201 is remarkably as high as 92.3 °C and the four KHIs are all biodegradable. Under subcooling of 10 K and 15 K, the inhibitory performance of four new KHIs and three commercial KHIs on hydrate nucleation and growth are as follows: PVP