Synergetic Effect of Ionic Liquids on the Kinetic Inhibition Performance of Poly(N-vinylcaprolactam) for Natural Gas Hydrate Formation

To identify the synergetic inhibition effects of ionic liquids (ILs) containing tetrafluoroborate anion (BF4-), various ILs, poly(N-vinylcaprolactam) (PVCap), commercially available polymeric hydrate inhibitor, and their mixtures, were tested as kinetic hydrate inhibitors (KHIs) for natural gas hydrate formation. The experimental results revealed that PVCap IL mixtures exhibited significantly higher KHI performance. In particular, the mixture of PVCap and 1-hexyl-1-methylpyrrolidinium tetrafluoroborate (HMP-BF4) showed the best hydrate inhibition effectiveness, even under higher pressures. As HMP-BF4 also exhibited the highest hydrate-nucleation-inhibiting performance when it was used alone, further experiments were performed using the mixtures of PVCap and HMP-BF4 at various combinational concentrations. As a result of the experiments, the combination of 1.0 wt % PVCap and 0.5 wt % HMP-BF4 was found to provide the longest induction time. The excellent synergetic effect of the ILs on natural gas hydrate inhibition may arise from the prevention of methane-containing S-12 cage formation by the ILs, inducing inhibition of metastable structure I hydrate formation.