Molecular dynamics simulation to explore the synergistic inhibition effect of kinetic and thermodynamic hydrate inhibitors

Zhi Li, Yue Zhang, Yimao Shen, Liwei Cheng, Bei Liu, Kele Yan, Guangjin Chen and Tianduo Li

Energy, 2022, vol. 238, issue PB

Abstract: The combined injection of kinetic and thermodynamic hydrate inhibitors (KHIs and THIs) is considered as a promising method to prevent the blockage of oil and gas pipelines caused by the accidental formation of methane hydrate. To develop better strategies for enhancing inhibition effects, molecular dynamics simulation is employed to investigate the synergistic mechanism of a KHI and a THI (PVP-A and methanol, respectively). Our results show that the nucleation time is shortened from 22 ns to about 12 ns by 1.65 wt% PVP-A or 4.8 wt% methanol, exhibiting the promotion effect on hydrate formation under the simulated high subcooling conditions. However, the composite inhibitor composed of PVP-A and methanol with a total concentration of 4.8 wt% prolongs the nucleation time beyond 500 ns, showing amazing inhibition effect. The whole synergistic process of KHIs and THIs is mainly composed of three stages, i.e. gas adsorption, water arrangement destruction and steric hindrance stages, and the first one usually dominates the whole inhibition process. Adding THIs to the aqueous solution containing KHIs enhances the attraction to methane and weakens the driving force for hydrate formation. Therefore, the methane adsorption capacity of the hybrid inhibitors is suggested to be considered in the future development.

Keywords: Molecular dynamics; Kinetic hydrate inhibitors; Thermodynamic hydrate inhibitors; High subcooling condition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544221019459
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:238:y:2022:i:pb:s0360544221019459

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2021.121697

Access Statistics for this article

Energy is currently edited by Henrik Lund and Mark J. Kaiser

More articles in Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().