Hydrate dissociation
inhibition is essential for maintaining wellbore
stability during drilling in hydrate-bearing sediments. In this work,
cellulose was modified and evaluated as a hydrate dissociation inhibitor.
The structures of cellulose samples modified by aminosilane coupling
agents with different chain lengths were determined and compared by
Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and thermogravimetric analysis.
The hydrate dissociation inhibition property was evaluated by conducting
hydrate dissociation tests in an inhibitor solution and pure water
for comparison, and the average dissociation time was increased to
10 h from 6.8 h. To elucidate the inhibition mechanism of the modified
cellulose, molecular dynamics simulations were performed. The mean
square displacement curve indicated that the aminosilane chain was
the adsorption group, and the diffusion coefficient of the modified
cellulose was 32.3% smaller. During the stable adsorption stage, the
number of intramolecular hydrogen bonds in cellulose decreased after
modification, resulting in more potential sites that could adsorb
to the hydrate surface. The biodegradability of the modified cellulose
was better than that of poly(N-vinylcaprolactam)
(PVCap), a commercial kinetic hydrate inhibitor. Therefore, the proposed
method for modifying cellulose enhanced its adsorption capacity on
the methane hydrate surface. These findings may facilitate the design
of effective green hydrate dissociation inhibitors.
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