Effects of Poly(styrene/pentafluorostyrene-block-vinylpyrrolidone) Amphiphilic Kinetic Hydrate Inhibitors on the Dynamic Viscosity of Methane Hydrate Systems at High-Pressure Driving Forces ...

• Main Authors: Du, Chong Yang, Guerra, André, McElligott, Adam, Marić, Milan, Servio, Phillip
• Format: Report
• Language: unknown
• Published: arXiv 2023
• Subjects: Soft Condensed Matter cond-mat.soft; Applied Physics physics.app-ph; FOS Physical sciences; Methane hydrate
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2304.00374; https://arxiv.org/abs/2304.00374

Reversible addition-fragmentation chain-transfer polymerization with a switchable chain-transfer agent was employed to synthesize amphiphilic block copolymers poly(styrene-b-vinylpyrrolidone) and poly(pentafluorostyrene-b-vinylpyrrolidone) at 10 wt.% hydrophobic content as kinetic hydrate inhibitors for methane hydrates. The dynamic viscosity of methane hydrate slurries was measured in a high-pressure rheometer up to 15 MPag. At 700 ppm of additives in aqueous media, the relative time for slurries to grow to 200 mPa s was 2.2-2.4 times longer than water reference values for the block copolymers. In contrast, it was only 1.3 for the poly(vinylpyrrolidone) homopolymer, demonstrating a reduced tendency for hydrate particle adhesion in block copolymer solutions. By increasing the concentration to 7000 ppm, however, the relative time only increased to 2.6-2.7. On the other hand, a block copolymer with 5 wt.% poly(pentafluorostyrene) block at 7000 ppm reached 3.5, which may indicate that the optimal hydrophobic ...