Hydrate formation in seafloor pipelines is considered an economic and flow assurance issue for the oil and gas industries. Ionic liquids (ILs) have been recently used as potential hydrate inhibitors. Although branded as green compounds, their ecotoxicity in case of leakage from pipelines onto the aquatic environment needs more deep evaluations. Here, we investigate the impacts of three ILs previously used as successful thermodynamic hydrate inhibitors namely choline chloride (ChC1), 1-methyl-1-propyl pyrrolidinium triflate (PMPy [triflate]) and tetra-methyl ammonium acetate (TMAA). Mortality (including LC50), teratogenicity, locomotion and neurotoxicity, and hatching rate were utilized to investigate any potential acute toxicity of these ILs on embryonic development of zebrafish. No significant mortality or teratogenic effects were found for all tested compounds in a concentration range between 50 and 200 mg/L. The LC50 was significantly higher than the tested dose >200 mg/L. While, up to 200 mg/L all compound had no impact on the survival rate, ChCl showed a significant effect on neuromuscular development as judged by the increase of spontaneous tail coiling activity (25 VS 4 burst/ minutes of the negative control-treated embryos). Further, apart from PMPy [triflate], ChC1 and TMAA had a significant adverse effect on the hatching rate of the treated embryos at concentrations of 200 mg/L. However, this effect was very mild at lower concentrations (≤100 mg/L). Our data indicate that within the tested concentrations both TMAA and PMPy [triflate] had no or little potential harmful effect on embryonic development of aquatic fauna “green”, while ChC1 should be used with caution.

海底管道中的水合物形成被认为是石油和天然气行业的经济和流量保证问题。离子液体（ILs）最近已被用作潜在的水合物抑制剂。尽管已被标记为绿色化合物，但在从管道泄漏到水生环境中的情况下其生态毒性需要进行更深入的评估。在这里，我们研究了以前用作成功的热力学水合物抑制剂的三种IL的影响，即胆碱氯化物（ChC1），1-甲基-1-丙基吡咯烷鎓三氟甲磺酸盐（PMPy [triflate]）和乙酸四甲基铵（TMAA）。使用死亡率（包括LC50），致畸性，运动和神经毒性以及孵化率来研究这些IL对斑马鱼胚胎发育的任何潜在急性毒性。对于浓度在50至200 mg / L之间的所有受试化合物，均未发现明显的死亡率或致畸作用。LC50显着高于测试剂量> 200 mg / L。虽然最高200 mg / L的所有化合物对存活率均无影响，但ChCl对神经肌肉发育有显着影响，这可通过自发尾巴卷曲活性的增加（阴性对照处理的胚胎的25 VS 4爆发/分钟）来判断。 ）。此外，除了PMPy [triflate]外，在200 mg / L的浓度下，ChC1和TMAA对处理过的胚胎的孵化率也有明显的不利影响。但是，在较低浓度（≤100mg / L）下，这种作用非常轻微。