“We have shown that the inhibitors based on polyurethanes developed at Kazan Federal University, despite their properties to form micelles and behave like surfactants, inhibit hydrate formation – this is a new interesting finding,” says co-author Mikhail Varfolomeev , Chair of the Department of Petroleum Engineering. “Previously, it was believed that the formation of micelles would not allow effective use of the inhibitors we developed. However, our studies disproved this theory and showed that the presence of surface active properties and the ability to form micelles can effectively hinder the process of hydrate formation.”
Another co-author, Lab Researcher Abdolreza Farhadian , continues, “No promoting effect on methane hydrate formation was observed. The results of molecular dynamics modeling confirm that water-soluble polyurethanes inhibit the formation of gas hydrates due to their higher proton-acceptor ability to form hydrogen bonds compared to water molecules. The results show that, depending on the molecular structure of the additives, their micelles can have an inhibitory effect on the formation of methane hydrate.”
The results shed light on the inhibition mechanism: there is reasonable evidence of competition between hydrophobic and hydrophilic groups for the formation of gas hydrates. This information will be useful for further design and development of effective inhibitors and promoters of gas hydrates to ensure safe transportation and storage of gas.
The research was made available online on 17 August 2021 and is set to appear in print on 1 January 2022.
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Chemical Engineering Journal
Experimental study
Not applicable
Reconsideration of the micellization theory: Promotion or inhibition of gas hydrate formation for gas storage and flow assurance applications
17-Aug-2021
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.