A systematic molecular investigation on Sodium Dodecyl Benzene Sulphonate (SDBS) as a Low Dosage Hydrate Inhibitor (LDHI) and the role of Benzene Ring in the structure

Abstract

Thermodynamic hydrate inhibitors (THIs) are water-loving additives that in an aqueous phase preferentially interact with water and inhibit hydrate nucleation at given temperature and pressure conditions. Hydrate inhibition is one of the flow assurance challenges in oil and gas facilities, primarily for the production and transmission pipelines. In this era of a shift towards offshore production of oil and gas that is usually accompanied by large water cuts in production pipelines, the use of THIs requires a huge onboard inventory (of these additives); further, associated higher recovery costs and environmental issues has resulted in the identification and use of low dosage hydrate inhibitors (LDHIs). Thus, as the name suggests they are used in lower concentrations and do not present any space/storage problem on the offshore platforms. However, LDHI works differently, it primarily inhibits the growth and agglomeration of hydrate crystals thus ensuring flow assurance for a given period of time. Hence, an effective LDHI, may or may not delay hydrate nucleation, however, it should certainly reduce the kinetics of hydrate growth and should act as an anti-agglomerant. This work comparatively investigates the effect of three such additives on methane gas hydrate formation kinetics at very low concentrations. Sodium Dodecyl Sulphonate (SDS) is a well-studied molecule for gas hydrate formation kinetics, while SDS is a good anti-agglomerant (and has been used as anti-agglomerant in multiple gas hydrate studies), it is also a well-known hydrate promoter. In this work, additives having some similar molecular fragments to that of SDS were tested for better gas hydrate inhibition insights at molecular level. Sodium Benzene Sulphonate (SBS), Sodium Dodecyl Benzene Sulphonate (SDBS) and SDS was screened for methane gas hydrate formation experiments. A comparative kinetic study with these additives at two different concentrations (0.05 M and 0.1 M) has been presented for methane gas hydrate formation at 5 MPa (at the beginning of the experiments) and 274.15 K in n-heptane with 50% water cut, in a stirred tank isothermal reactor. The presence of a benzene ring in the molecular structure of the additive along with varying lipophilic tail and hydrophilic head on the methane gas hydrate formation kinetics are thoroughly investigated.