Synergistic enhancement of methane hydrate inhibition using biopolymers: Experimental and computational insights on kinetics and performance

The kinetics of methane hydrate formation in the presence of eight biopolymers (Arabic gum, xanthan gum, inulin, dextran, starch, pectin, pullulan, and guar gum) were investigated and analyzed. A rocking cell apparatus and constant cooling methods were used to determine the nucleation time and gas consumption rate. The effects of these biopolymers were tested at concentrations (0.25, 0.50, 0.75, and 1.0 wt.%). The results indicated that when tested individually, all biopolymers successfully prolonged the induction time, but some of them did not reduce the gas consumption rate at specific concentrations. Guar gum and Arabic gum effectively extended the induction time to 186 and 178 min, respectively. In addition, they decreased the gas consumption rate to the lowest value of 1.84 and 0.89 × 10⁻⁴ mol/min, respectively. The synergistic effect of biopolymers with PVP and PVCap was also investigated. The results showed that they are effective synergists. In addition, they had a substantial synergistic impact on PVCap and PVP performance. Starch and Arabic gum demonstrated exceptional inhibition synergy with PVP, extending the induction time to 349 and 332 min and reducing the rate of gas consumption to 1.02 and 1.01 × 10⁻⁴ mol/min, respectively. Inulin and dextran exhibited extraordinary inhibition synergy, prolonging the induction time to 472 and 434 min and reducing the gas consumption rate to 0.63 and 0.42 × 10⁻⁴ mol/min, respectively. The simulation results demonstrate that guar gum substantially enhances the hydrate inhibition performance of both PVCap and PVP, showing excellent correlation with experimental findings.