Investigation of Physical Properties and Thi Performance of Choline Chloride Based Deep Eutectic Solvent Using Meg as Synergetic Compound in Gas Hydrate Formation

Abstract

Flow assurance issues posed by gas hydrate to the oil industry is enormous causing economic loss, downtime and flow line blockage. However, the use of inhibitors helps to prevent hydrate formation. This work studied the synergy between (ChCl/Urea), (ChCl/Glycerol) in 1:2 molar ratios and ethylene glycol in a horizontal flow loop at constant volume condition using compress natural gas as hydrate former and the physical properties (pH, Conductivity and Turbidity) of the effluent were studied. A drop in pressure indicated that gas was used up in forming hydrate cages. The result showed that DES of sample A with MEG as synergy in 1:1 molar ratio performed better than all the five inhibitors studied. This was observed by lesser pressure decline in the loop. FTIR analysis indicated that hydroxyl group (O-H stretch), Amine or Amide group (N-H bend) and carbonyl group (C=O stretch) were the dominant functional group present in the sample and exhibited an inhibitive/bonding effect in caging and preventing the hydrogen bond from host water from encapsulating and forming hydrate in the presence of gaseous molecules. Sample B outperformed Sample A. However, the synergy of Sample A with ethylene glycol performed better than sample B with ethylene glycol. The research work is applicable in the oil and gas industry for minimizing cost and reducing toxicity of commercial inhibitors.