Challenges and advantages of using environmentally friendly kinetic gas hydrate inhibitors for flow assurance application: A comprehensive review

Gas hydrate formation is one of the most serious challenges for flow assurance in oil and gas transportation pipelines as it causes severe safety, environmental, and economic problems for the oil and gas industry. The upstream petroleum industry has been using kinetic hydrate inhibitors (KHIs) for more than 25 years to prevent gas hydrate blockage in flow lines. One or more water-soluble polymers with both hydrophilic and hydrophobic functions are the major constituents of current commercial KHI formulations. However, most KHIs are not biodegradable, cheap, and eco-friendly oilfield production chemicals. Even though most KHIs have low bioaccumulation, acute toxicity, and poor biodegradability. As a result, the long-term chronic toxicity from partially decomposed compounds is a concern if they are disposed into the environment. Therefore, it is necessary to develop cheaper and greener KHIs. In this report, all efforts to produce KHIs with higher biodegradability are reviewed. It is made clear that not all classes of purportedly “green” chemicals are easily biodegradable or non-toxic. A thorough analysis is provided on the function of traditional and novel additives utilized to prevent hydrate formation at different conditions depending on their resources. The research seeks to present a comprehensive view of the structural properties of bio-based KHIs, with a particular emphasis on their key concerns, obstacles and future prospects in hydrate mitigation technologies.