Inhibition of Methane Hydrates Using Biodegradable Additives

Inhibitory influence of amino acids on the formation kinetics of methane hydrates in oil-water and oil-brine systems

This experimental study evaluates the inhibition performance of kinetic hydrates inhibitors (KHIs) of three amino acids, namely: glycine, proline, and alanine. It includes the performance comparison with the conventional inhibitor i.e., polyvinyl pyrrolidine (PVP) on methane (CH₄) hydrate in oil systems in two different systems, i.e., deionized and brine water systems. The experiments were conducted in a high-pressure hydrate reactor replicating subsea pipeline conditions, i.e., the temperature of 274 K, pressure 8 MPa, and concentration of 1 wt%, by applying the isochoric cooling technique. The formation kinetics results suggest that all the studied amino acids effectively worked as kinetic inhibitors by potentially delaying CH₄ hydrate formations due to their steric hindrance abilities. The interesting phenomenon was observed that the different studied amino acids behave differently in the brine-oil and deionized water-oil systems due to their side chain interaction. In a deionized water-oil system, glycine gives the highest inhibition performance by reducing the hydrate formation risk. On the contrary, in the brine-oil system, proline showed a significant inhibition effect. It should be noted that both glycine and proline were giving almost similar inhibition performance compared to the conventional hydrate inhibitor PVP, however glycine and proline significantly reduced CH₄ consumption into hydrate due to their high surface active under CH₄ conditions, which strengths the surface tension of the liquid/CH4 interface. Furthermore, according to the findings, it shows that increased side alkyl chain lengths of amino acids increase the efficacy of their kinetic hydration inhibition performance due to better surface adsorption abilities. The amino acids' ability to suppress growth is also linked strongly with hydrophobicity and alkyl side chain length. The findings of this study contribute significantly to current efforts to limit gas hydrate formation in offshore pipelines, particularly in oil-dominant pipelines.

Experimental investigation and modelling of synergistic thermodynamic inhibition of Diethylene Glycol and glycine mixture on CO2 gas hydrates

In this experimental and modelling study, Diethylene glycol (DEG) and Glycine (Gly) mixtures are introduced to hinder carbon dioxide hydrate formation by pushing the phase boundaries on the lower temperature side. The mixture of DEG and Gly with the ratio of 1:1 is experimented at 15, 10, and 5 wt% concentrations and the pressure vary from 2.5 to 4.0 MPa. The T-cycle method is employed to assess the effect of the studied blends on the CO₂ hydrate by evaluating the hydrate dissociation temperature. Varied compositions of pure DEG and Gly as well as their mixtures are used to compute the synergistic effect. The studied system's thermodynamic hydrate inhibition (THI) influence is a concentration-driven phenomenon. Higher concentration can shift the hydrate liquid vapor equilibrium (HLVE) curve to lower temperatures and high-pressure regions. The outcomes depict that mixture of DEG and Gly at 15 wt%. Shows comparatively better results than the mixtures at 5 and 10 wt%, respectively. The obtained 10 wt% mixture results have also been compared with the conventional hydrate inhibitors and other THIs systems and provide a significant hydrate average suppression (ΔT) of 2.4 K. Furthermore, the freezing point-based Dickens and Quint Hunt model was also applied to predict the HLVE data of CO₂ hydrates and satisfactory agreement found with maximum mean absolute error (MAE) of 0.498 K. A better inhibitory performance was seen when diethylene glycol and glycine were combined, demonstrating the potential of amino acids as synergistic inhibitors in the exploitation of hydrates, transportation of oil and gas, and flow assurance.

Explicating the amino acid effects for methane storage in hydrate form

Methane emissions increase day by day into the atmosphere and influence global temperatures. The necessity to capture these emissions at the source point is a primary concern. Several methods/techniques are being adopted to capture these emissions. The methane hydrates could be a viable method among them. The present study exposes various amino acids' effects in methane hydrate formation. The formation temperatures are around ∼268 to 273 K except for l-cys, which is about ∼277 K. The required subcooling for hydrates to trigger is high and is increasing in the order l-thr > l-met > l-phe > l-val > l-cys. The methane hydrate conversion is high in the presence of nearly all the amino acids with methane uptake capacity of ∼80–85%, except l-thr, for which it is only 30% of the total uptake capacity. The side chain of l-thr comprises the hydroxyl group, making it a polar and uncharged amino acid. It is ascertained that hydroxyl groups alone can form hydrogen bonds with water, increasing the hydrophilicity and solubility of molecules, causing lesser conversion in the l-thr system. The gas uptake kinetics is faster in l-met and l-phe systems (t₉₀ ∼ 40 min), and sluggish kinetics is observed in l-cys, l-val, and l-thr systems. The investigations positively indicate using amino acids, l-met, l-phe, l-cys, and l-val as efficient materials for methane gas capture and storage in hydrate form, although not l-thr. Amino acids are readily dissolvable in water and could be easily pelletized for methane gas storage and transportation.

Methane gas storage in the hydrate form using amino acids.