Enhancement of hydrate formation with amino acids as promoters

Environmentally friendly amino acids are reported as promising kinetic accelerators for hydrate formation. In this work, the effect of three amino acids (valine, leucine and methionine) with aliphatic side chains on the kinetics of HCFC-141b hydrate formation under static conditions is studied. These amino acids have different hydrophobicity. There is an optimal addition amount to promote hydrate formation for each amino acid. Leucine with moderate hydrophobicity has the best promoting effect on hydrate nucleation. It can be inferred that the hydrophobic group of amino acid affects hydrate formation, and there is an optimal hydrophobicity range. It is also found that the valine, which has the higher hydrophobicity, is more beneficial to increase the cold storage capacity of HCFC-141b hydrate. HCFC-141b hydrate nucleation has a stochastic nature and the additive of valine, leucine or methionine reduces the scatter of hydrate induction time. (C) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.