Investigation of 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium Chloride (BMIM-Cl) as Hydrate Inhibitor

Methane hydrate has been discussed as one of the unconventional reservoir, expected to be commercialized in 15 years’ time [1]. There are a few methods in extracting the gas from hydrates, but there are seem to be few drawbacks from each of them. This study is about the production of methane gas from methane hydrates by dissociation of hydrate using the hydrate inhibitor. The hydrate inhibitor that is used in this study is an ionic liquid, 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride (BMIM–Cl). This study utilized high pressure hydrate studies system (HYDREVAL) to examine the thermodynamic equilibrium of methane hydrate and evaluate the performance of BMIM-Cl. Using the Hydreval, the P-T graph, pressure versus temperature is produced. Due to limitation and restriction, the results obtained are insignificant. The result show that BMIM-Cl insignificantly shifts the equilibrium curve of methane hydrate from high to low temperature and obtain the new equilibrium curve away from the methane hydrate stability curve. The temperature difference is calculated, and it can be seen that BMIM-Cl is not effective at low pressure. In conclusion, BMIM-Cl has a high potential to be explored more as hydrate inhibitor.