Experimental study of gas hydrate inhibition with antifreeze proteins at different scales
Gas hydrates are encountered in the oil and gas industry at conditions of low temperature and high pressure causing flow assurance challenges. To ensure flow assurance, thermodynamic inhibitors (e.g. methanol and glycol) are applied to shift the hydrate formation towards lower temperatures. Due to the large amounts needed, economical and environmental concerns have led to an increasing interest in low dosage hydrate inhibitors (LDHIs). LDHIs are commonly polymers applied at much smaller quantities. These inhibitors suffer from low biodegradability and therefore other more environment-friendly alternatives are of interest which has led to the study of antifreeze proteins.
In this presentation, a brief introduction to the BioRec project and the antifreeze proteins is presented. This is followed by the experimental results obtained during the BioRec project for inhibition of gas hydrates with antifreeze proteins which shows promising performance of the antifreeze protein from bark beetle as a new green inhibitor. Finally, the influence of a hydrophobic surfaces on hydrate formation will be presented.