Experimental study and chemical affinity model on the inhibition of CO2 gas hydrate formation

Natural gas and water can form complex cage crystals in oil and gas pipelines under certain conditions. The natural gas hydrate formed after crystal clustering can block the pipeline and affect the operation efficiency of the pipeline, and even cause equipment damage, bringing economic and security problems to enterprises. In the present study, we experimentally investigated the inhibition of CO2 formation hydrate using attapulgite (ATP) and glucose (GLC). The kinetic influence on the formation of CO2 hydrate by the complex pairing of kinetic inhibitor ATP is conducted under the working conditions of 277.15 K and 3.5 MPa. The effect of compound inhibitors on the temperature and pressure conditions, growth process and gas consumption of hydrate formation are revealed. The chemical affinity model of CO2 hydrate formation under a compound inhibitor system is derived and established based on experimental studies. The results show that the combination of GLC and ATP can inhibit the formation of CO2 hydrate to varying degrees, prolong the induction time of hydrate, and reduce the consumption of CO2. The optimized experimental studies demonstrate that the best inhibitory compound system is 15 mg/mL GLC + 1.00 mg/mL ATP. Compared with the pure water system and single 15 mg/mL GLC system, the induction time is extended by 122.61% and 122.23%, while the gas consumption is reduced by 23.72% and 3.41%. The results provide new ideas and methods for the prediction of hydrate formation in the compound inhibitor system for the safe operation of oil and gas pipelines.