In the recent years, application of ionic liquids in flow assurance has been enhanced due their potential as viable candidates for chemical mitigation of gas hydrates. Such clathrate compounds, in which gas molecules are trapped in hydrogen bonded caged formed by water molecules, comprise a major part of flow issues in pipeline conditions of low temperatures and higher pressures. Their formation can cause plugging, thereby disrupting the normal oil and gas flow. One flow assurance strategy consists in injecting different chemicals acting as gas hydrate inhibitors (GHIs). Ionic liquids have a strong potential for this application. Therefore, challenges, issues and current trends on their use as GHIs have been discussed in detail. Contrary to usual GHIs, Ionic liquids can act both as on thermodynamic (THI) and kinetic (KHI) hydrate inhibitors (as well as anti-agglomerates). . This dual functionality of ionic liquids is advantageous for gas hydrate mitigation. In preceding open literature, the studies on the applications of dual functional behavior of ionic liquids for mixed gases are found to be limited. The discussion on mixed gas hydrates behavior is novel and the factors influencing are highlighted. It is found that imidazolium based ionic liquids have been studied frequently in THI and KHI applications for pure CO2 and CH4 hydrates as their performance is better. While in the case of mixed gas hydrates, only quaternary ammonium salts have been studied yet. They showed better performance in terms of THI and KHI. Furthermore, the prospects of the use of ionic liquids in gas hydrate inhibition applications in flow assurance are also considered.
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