Formation of Methane Hydrate in the Presence of Natural and Synthetic Nanoparticles
نویسندگان
چکیده
Natural gas hydrates occur widely on the ocean-bed and in permafrost regions, and have potential as an untapped energy resource. Their formation and growth, however, poses major problems for the energy sector due to their tendency to block oil and gas pipelines, whereas their melting is viewed as a potential contributor to climate change. Although recent advances have been made in understanding bulk methane hydrate formation, the effect of impurity particles, which are always present under conditions relevant to industry and the environment, remains an open question. Here we present results from neutron scattering experiments and molecular dynamics simulations that show that the formation of methane hydrate is insensitive to the addition of a wide range of impurity particles. Our analysis shows that this is due to the different chemical natures of methane and water, with methane generally excluded from the volume surrounding the nanoparticles. This has important consequences for our understanding of the mechanism of hydrate nucleation and the design of new inhibitor molecules.
منابع مشابه
Experimental Investigation of Natural Gas Components During Gas Hydrate Formation in Presence or Absence of the L-Tyrosine as a Kinetic Inhibitor in a Flow Mini-loop Apparatus
Hydrates are crystalline compounds similar to ice, with guest molecules like methane and ethane trapped inside cavities or cages formed by the hydrogen bounded framework of water molecules. These solid compounds give rise to problems in the natural gas oil industry because they can plug pipelines and process equipments. Low dosage hydrate inhibitors are a recently developed hydrate control tech...
متن کاملApplication of ESD and PR+Wong Sandler Mixing Rule Equations of State to Study Methane Hydrate Formation in the Presence of Different Inhibitors
متن کامل
Evaluation of Empirical Correlations for Predicting Gas Hydrate Formation Temperature
One of the important, practical and simple methods for hydrate formation conditionis empirical equations, and so far many empirical equations have been presented to predict thetemperature and pressure of hydrate formation. In this study, the methods and empiricalcorrelations have been reviewed and their predictive capabilities have been evaluated with ...
متن کاملExperimental Measurement of Methane and Ethane Mole Fractions during Gas Hydrate Formation
The super-saturation condition has to be provided to form gas hydrates. Consequently, the prediction of the guest molecule fraction in the aqueous phase is crucial in the study of the gas hydrate kinetics. In the present work, several experiments were carried out in a semi-batch reactor in order to determine the mole fraction of methane and ethane during gas hydrates formation (growth stage...
متن کاملRapid Gas Hydrate Formation Processes: Will They Work?
Researchers at DOE’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) have been investigating the formation of synthetic gas hydrates, with an emphasis on rapid and continuous hydrate formation techniques. The investigations focused on unconventional methods to reduce dissolution, induction, nucleation and crystallization times associated with natural and synthetic hydrates studies conducted in the...
متن کامل