Mitigating Gas Hydrate Formation in Deepwater Operations Using Red Onion Skin Extract ROSE

Abstract One of the serious flow assurance issues plaguing the oil and gas industry is Gas Hydrate formation. They are nonstoichiometric glasslike or crystalline compounds that form when water referred to as host molecules encapsulate hydrocarbon or non-hydrocarbon gases (guest molecules) at low temperatures and high-pressure conditions. They cause restrictions/plugging of flowlines when allowed to form which mitigates flow assurance. The use of agro-waste in various process activities is becoming popular due to environmental concerns and public health. This study seeks to address the use of such waste; Red Onion Skin extract (ROSE) as an inhibitor for gas hydrate. A locally formulated High-pressure magnetic stirrer was used to screen varying weight percentages of ROSE (0.01-0.03wt%) and compared to a conventional hydrate inhibitor Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP). The performance of the agro waste skin extract (ROSE) was assessed using pressure, temperature plots as well as relevant plots. Gas hydrate formation was indicated by a rise in the temperature of the reactor cell and a drastic reduction in the cell's pressure. The final pressures for 0.01-0.03wt% of ROSE were 11.2, 12.3 and 12 bar while values for the same weight percentage of PVP were 12.3,11.6, and 10.1 bar respectively. The ROSE performed better than PVP at 0.02 and 0.03wt% respectively showing its optimum inhibition performance at 0.02wt%. Although the performance of PVP was better than that of ROSE at the lowest concentration of 0.01wt%, the difference in the final pressure value was about 1.1 bar which shows ROSE's competitiveness at the weight percent. Again the ROSE helps to check environmental degradation, toxicity, and high cost of the convention PVPThe difference in values for ROSE at 0.03 and 0.03wt% was about 0.3 bar which is an indication that inhibition above 0.02wt% was needless and uneconomical. 0.01wt% while for 0.02 and 0.03wt% ROSE out-performed the PVP. The ROSE has been shown to perform better than PVP in most weight percentages used and can be harnessed as an alternative to costly and toxic inhibitors by the Oil and Gas industry taking into cognizance its eco-friendliness and human health compliance.