EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON THE INHIBITION MECHANISM OF CH4 HYDRATE FORMATION BY PVCap

Kinetic inhibitors have the advantages of low cost, small dosage and good effect. Thus, they have great development prospects in the field of natural gas hydrate prevention and control. However, its inhibition mechanism is not clear enough, which severely limits the development and application of kinetic inhibitors. In this paper, the hypothesis of PVCap inhibition of CH4 dissolution is verified by experiments, and the influence of its concentration and molecular weight on the inhibition effect is explored. And the following experimental results are obtained. PVCap inhibits hydrate nucleation by slowing down the dissolution of CH4 before hydrate induced nucleation. And the higher the concentration and molecular weight of PVCap, the more obvious the effect of inhibiting CH4 dissolution and the stronger the ability to inhibit hydrate nucleation and growth.