Kinetic Inhibition Effect of Valine on Methane Hydrate Nucleation Time in Oil System

Amino acids are known as novel kinetic hydrate inhibitor (KHI) for hydrate mitigation, however, the performance in oil system is not well justified up to date. In this study, the kinetics of methane hydrates in oil dominated systems using valine amino acid has been studied in a high-pressure gas hydrate reactor at 80 bar and 1 °C using the constant cooling method. Drilling oil was used in this work to mimic the oil phase in flow assurance. The results shows that valine delays hydrate formation nucleation time 4 times compared with pure water systems. This finding is contrary to most claims in literature that shows that valine promotes hydrate in gas dominated system. However, the inhibition impact of valine exhibited in this work might be due to the presence of oil with is absence in the most literature studies. The findings in the work are useful for hydrate mitigation using amino acids in flow assurance.