APPLICATION OF SILICON OXIDE AND ALUMINIUM OXIDE NANOPARTICLES FOR HYDRATE PREVENTION AND CONTROL IN SUBSEA PIPELINES DURING HYDROCARBON PRODUCTION

Abstract: Hydrate formation in subsea pipelines poses significant challenges to flow assurance and operational safety. This paper takes a look at gas hydrate inhibition in a simulated offshore environment using silicon oxide nanoparticles and aluminium oxide nanoparticles as inhibitors. The essence of this work is to compare the effectiveness of silicon oxide nanoparticles and aluminium oxide nanoparticles for hydrate inhibition. Experiments were conducted using a mini flow loop. It will involve mitigating hydrate formation using varying weight percentages of the inhibitors (0.01wt%, 0.02wt %) and then evaluate their effect on hydrate inhibition in the mini flow loop. Sensitivity charts for pressure, temperature and time both nanoparticles were made. From the analysis, 0.01 weight percentages of silicon oxide nanoparticles has close match with 0.01 weight percentage of aluminium oxide nanoparticles, and 0.02 weight percentage silicon oxide nanoparticles showed better inhibitory capacity than aluminium oxide nanoparticles of 0.02 weight percentage.

Keywords: Gas hydrate, silicon oxide nanoparticles, aluminium oxide nanoparticles, simulated offshore environment