Towards Gas Hydrate-Free Pipelines: A Comprehensive Review of Gas Hydrate Inhibition Techniques

• Published in: Energies (Basel) Vol. 15; no. 22; p. 8551
• Main Authors: Elhenawy, Salma, Khraisheh, Majeda, Almomani, Fares, Al-Ghouti, Mohammad A., Hassan, Mohammad K., Al-Muhtaseb, Ala’a
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01.11.2022
• Subjects: Alcohols; Chemical engineering; Chemical inhibitors; Control; Dosage; Electrolytes; Environmental aspects; Gas formation; Gas hydrates; Gas industry; Gas pipelines; Gases; Heating; hydrate inhibition; Hydrates; Hydrocarbons; Inhibitors; Ionic liquids; Mitigation; Nanoparticles; Natural gas; Oil; Oil and gas industry; Petroleum pipelines; Pipelines; Pressure reduction; Properties; Reviews; thermodynamic inhibitors; Qatar
• ISSN: 1996-1073; 1996-1073
• DOI: 10.3390/en15228551

Gas hydrate blockage is a major issue that the production and transportation processes in the oil/gas industry faces. The formation of gas hydrates in pipelines results in significant financial losses and serious safety risks. To tackle the flow assurance issues caused by gas hydrate formation in the pipelines, some physical methods and chemical inhibitors are applied by the oil/gas industry. The physical techniques involve subjecting the gas hydrates to thermal heating and depressurization. The alternative method, on the other hand, relies on injecting chemical inhibitors into the pipelines, which affects gas hydrate formation. Chemical inhibitors are classified into high dosage hydrate inhibitors (thermodynamic hydrate inhibitors (THI)) and low dosage hydrate inhibitors (kinetic hydrate inhibitors (KHI) and anti-agglomerates (AAs)). Each chemical inhibitor affects the gas hydrate from a different perspective. The use of physical techniques (thermal heating and depressurization) to inhibit hydrate formation is studied briefly in this review paper. Furthermore, the application of various THIs (alcohols and electrolytes), KHIs (polymeric compounds), and dual function hydrate inhibitors (amino acids, ionic liquids, and nanoparticles) are discussed thoroughly in this study. This review paper aims to provide a complete and comprehensive outlook on the fundamental principles of gas hydrates, and the recent mitigation techniques used by the oil/gas industry to tackle the gas hydrate formation issue. It hopes to provide the chemical engineering platform with ultimate and effective techniques for gas hydrate inhibition.