Prediction of vapor pressure of aqueous hydrate inhibitor solutions using Arrhenius-type asymptotic exponential function

Hydrate inhibition with different inhibitors such as, methanol, ethylene glycol (EG), continues to play a critical role in many natural gas transmission and processing operations. In this work, simple-to-use predictive tools are presented here for the prediction of vapor pressures of aqueous hydrate inhibitors (namely methanol, ethylene glycol, diethylene glycol and triethylene glycol) as a function of temperature and hydrate inhibitor mass fraction in water phase using a novel and simple-to-use Arrhenius-type asymptotic exponential function. The proposed tool predicts the vapor pressure of aqueous methanol solutions and glycol solutions for temperatures up to 100°C. Estimations are found to be in excellent agreement with the reliable data in the literature with average absolute deviations being around 3.8 and 1.5% for vapor pressures of aqueous methanol solutions and glycol solutions respectively. The proposed method is easier than currently available models and involves a fewer number of parameters, requiring less complicated and shorter computations. The tool developed in this study can be of immense practical value for the engineers and scientists to have a quick check on the vapor pressures of aqueous methanol, ethylene glycol, diethylene glycol, and triethylene glycol solutions at various conditions without opting for any experimental measurements. In particular, chemical and process engineers would find the approach to be user-friendly with transparent calculations involving no complex expressions.