| Abstract: | Injecting inhibitors is the most commonly used method in the oil and gas industry to solve the problem of blockage caused by hydrate formation during pipeline transportation. However, most of the kinetic hydrate inhibitors (KHIs) are strictly limited by weak inhibition performance and low subcooling. Ionic liquids, a kind of green solvent, have been recognized to act as excellent thermodynamic inhibitors on methane hydrate formation. So, it is proposed to add the ionic liquids into KHIs to improve their overall performance. In this paper, the kinetic effects of an ionic liquid N-butyl-N-methylpyrrolidine tetrafluoroborate (BMP]BF4]), a commercial kinetic inhibitor polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP K90) and their mixtures with different mass ratios on the methane hydrate formation were experimentally studied at 8.0 K subcooling and two concentrations 1.0%(mass) and 2.0%(mass)]. The best mass ratio of the compound inhibitor was determined. Moreover, the crystal structures and cage occupancy characteristics of methane hydrates formed without and with inhibitors at different mass concentrations and composition ratios were measured by using powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) and low-temperature Laser Raman spectrometers. It was found that the addition of inhibitors did not change the crystal structure of methane hydrate, but affected the cage occupancies and hydration numbers. Based on the results from macroscopic kinetics and microscopic structure tests, the inhibition mechanism of compound inhibitors was proposed. |
