Synthesis and Evaluation of a Pyridinium-Based Ionic Liquid-Type Surfactant as a New Low-Dosage Methane Hydrate Inhibitor

This work reports the synthesis of a new low-dosage kinetic hydrate inhibitor (KHI) based on the ionic liquid C12PyBr (N-dodecyl pyridinium bromide), which was characterized and evaluated in order to determine its inhibition performance. By means of a microwave-assisted reaction scheme, a high-purity product was obtained and the commercial product Inhibex 101 (IC) was employed as a comparison reference at 0.1, 0.5 '' and 1.0 wt % in aqueous solution to test the inhibition of methane hydrate formation. In this sense, it was discovered that, by using C12PyBr at 0.1 wt %, the formation of methane hydrates was inhibited at a subcooling of 11.2 K and at a concentration one order of magnitude lower than that used with Inhibex 101 to reach the same performance as KHI. This fact could be used as an attractive factor when establishing gas hydrate inhibition plans for offshore and deep-water scenarios.