Thermodynamic evaluation of inhibitors for methane-hydrate formation

The present paper presents an experimental study on the thermodynamic effect of three amines including (3-Aminopropyl)triethoxysilane (APTES), (3-Aminopropyl)triethoxysilane (APTMS), and Triethylenetetramine (TETA) on methane hydrates. Hydrate-Liquid-Vapour Equilibrium (HLwVE) data for methane hydrate were evaluated in the presence of 7 wt% and 20 wt% APTES, APTMS, and TETA, and with pressure ranging from 2.0 to 9.0 MPa. The thermodynamic effect of these amines on methane-hydrate formation has been investigated via measuring the methane-hydrate dissociation temperature, in applying an isochoric pressure-search method. The results reveal that APTES, APTMS, and TETA effectively shift the hydrate equilibrium curve to higher-pressure and lower-temperature regions for the methane + amine + water system. All of these three show thermodynamic-inhibition effects similar to the lower-concentration case (7 wt%), but with increasing concentration to 20 wt% for the thermodynamic-inhibition effect in the order APTES > APTMS > TETA. The average hydrate-suppression temperature (ΔT), as a ‘signature’ of thermodynamic-inhibition effect on methane hydrates measured for 7 wt% APTES, APTMS and TETA was 1.5, 1.5, and 1.3 K, respectively. ΔT increased with increasing amine concentration; these values were 5, 4.3, and 3.2 for 20 wt% APTES, APTMS, and TETA, respectively. Hydrate-onset time was further delayed due to the synergistic inhibition effect of inhibitors. The results show that these amines have a kinetic effect on gas-hydrate formation, such as for methane-hydrate formation in presence of APTMS: here, the hydrate formed after several cycles with the help of the memory effect. Moreover, the inhibition impact of these amines was compared with conventional hydrate thermodynamics, and found to be in the range of some and similar to ethylene glycol at 5 wt%. Furthermore, the addition of 5 wt% APTMS to sea salt not only enhances the thermodynamic inhibition effect, but also inhibits kinetically the formation of methane hydrate. For modelling of methane-hydrate dissociation conditions, the solid-solution theory of van der Waals and Platteeuw was applied for the hydrate phase along with the Peng–Robinson equation of state for the gas phase. Taken together, this study elucidates a novel class of thermodynamic hydrate inhibitors, which can control methane-hydrate formation efficiently.