Contemporary Research Analysis Journal

Gas hydrates remain one of the most persistent and costly flow assurance challenges in natural gas transportation, and conventional thermodynamic inhibitors such as methanol and monoethylene glycol. This has driven growing interest in low-dosage hydrate inhibitors derived from plant and agricultural waste material, with several recent studies showing such extracts can match or exceed methanol's inhibition performance at a fraction of the dosage. This study investigated coconut dust, a fibrous, lignocellulosic residue from coir processing, as a candidate for this category of inhibitor, a material known to be characterized. Coconut dust extract was obtained from Soxhlet extraction using three solvent systems of increasing polarity, 100% acetone, 50% acetone/50% water, and 70% acetone/30% water, and the resulting extracts were characterized using Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and Thermogravimetric Analysis. Extraction yield was highest for the 50/50 acetone-water system (2.17%), while hydroxyl and phenolic functional-group content, evidenced by FTIR absorption strength, increased consistently with solvent polarity, peaking in the 70/30 acetone-water extract. Thermal analysis showed all three extracts remained stable well beyond typical pipeline operating temperatures, with the pure-acetone extract showing the highest overall thermal robustness and the water-containing extracts decomposing more rapidly and completely. These findings indicate that coconut dust extract, carries phytochemical and thermal characteristics consistent with those associated with effective plant-based hydrate inhibitors

Coconut dust extract, low dosage hydrate inhibitor, gas hydrate, Soxhlet extraction, FTIR, thermogravimetric analysis.

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