Abstract
Pectin as a novel natural kinetic hydrate inhibitor, expected to be eco-friendly and sufficiently biodegradable, was studied in this paper. The novel crystal growth inhibition (CGI) and standard induction time methods were used to evaluate its effect as hydrate inhibitor. It could successfully inhibit methane hydrate formation at subcooling temperature up to 12.5 °C and dramatically slowed the hydrate crystal growth. The dosage of pectin decreased by 66% and effective time extended 10 times than typical kinetic inhibitor. Besides, its maximum growth rate was no more than 2.0%/h, which was far less than 5.5%/h of growth rate for PVCap at the same dosage. The most prominent feature was that it totally inhibited methane hydrate crystal rapid growth when hydrate crystalline occurred. Moreover, in terms of typical natural inhibitors, the inhibition activity of pectin increased 10.0-fold in induction time and 2.5-fold in subcooling temperature. The extraordinary inhibition activity is closely related to its hydrogen bonding interaction with water molecules and the hydrophilic structure. Finally, the biodegradability and economical efficiency of pectin were also taken into consideration. The results showed the biodegradability improved 75.0% and the cost reduced by more than 73.3% compared to typical commercial kinetic inhibitors.
Highlights
The results proved that the pectin performed a powerful inhibition for methane hydrate formation
Induction time was the time from the start cooling to the first detected hydrate formation and was the acknowledged evaluation parameter[16,17], at which time hydrate had nucleated and started growing
At 10.0 °C subcooling temperature, pectin showed extraordinary long inhibitory time and no gas consumed for methane hydrate formation
Summary
The results proved that the pectin performed a powerful inhibition for methane hydrate formation. While the concentration increased to 0.5 mass%, pectin showed a remarkable inhibitory performance and no hydrate was observed during the whole experiment process at two different subcooling temperatures. At 10.0 °C subcooling temperature, pectin showed extraordinary long inhibitory time and no gas consumed for methane hydrate formation.
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