EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION ON GAS HYDRATE FORMATION IN PRESENCE OF ADDITIVE COMPONENTS

Additives were used to increase gas hydrate formation rate and storage capacity. Experimental tests of methane hydrate formation were carried out in surfactant water solutions in a high-pressure cell. Sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and alkyl polysaccharide glycoside (APG) were used to increase hydrate formation. The effect of SDS on hydrate formation is more pronounced compared APG. Cyclopentane (CP) also improves hydrate formation rates while it cannot increase methane gas storage capacity.     

天然气水合物生成焓的实验研究

This paper reports the measurements of enthalpies of natural gas hydrates in typical natural gas mixture containing methane, ethane, propane and iso-butane at pressure in the vicinity of 2000 kPa (300 psi) and 6900 kPa(1000psi). The measurements were made in a multi-cell differential scanning calorimeter using modified high pressure cells. The enthalpy of water and the enthalpy of dissociation of the gas hydrate were determined from the calorimeter response during slow temperature scanning at constant pressure. The amount of gas released from the dissociation of hydrate was determined from the pumped volume of the high pressure pump. The occupation ratio (mole ratio) of the water to gas and the enthalpy of hydrate formation are subject to uncertainty of 1.5%.The results show that the enthalpy of hydrate formation and the occupation ratio are essentially independent of pressure.     

甲烷水合物在纯水和抑制剂体系中的生成动力学

Kinetic data of methane hydrate formation in the presence of pure water,brines with single salt and mixed salts,and aqueous solutions of ethylene glycol(EG) and salt EG were measured.A new kinetic model of hydrate formation for the methane water systems was developed based on a four-step formation mechanism and reaction kinetic approach.The proposed kinetic model predicts the kinetic behavior of methane hydrate formation in pure water with good accuracy.The feasibility of extending the kenetic model of salt(s) and EG containing systems was explored.     

多孔载体海绵对CH4-N2-O2瓦斯气体水合分离影响（英文）

The findings were presented from laboratory investigations on the hydrate formation and dissociation processes employed to recover methane from coal mine gas.The separation process of coal mine methane(CMM) was carried out at 273.15K under 4.00 MPa.The key process variables of gas formation rate,gas volume stored in hydrate and separation concentration were closely investigated in twelve THF-SDS-sponge-gas systems to verify the sponge effect in these hydrate-based separation processes.The gas volume stored in hydrate is calculated based on the measured gas pressure.The CH4 mole fraction in hydrate phase is measured by gas chromatography to confirm the separation efficiency.Through close examination of the overall results,it was clearly verified that sponges with volumes of 40,60 and 80 cm 3 significantly increase gas hydrate formation rate and the gas volume stored in hydrate,and have little effect on the CH4 mole fraction in hydrate phase.The present study provides references for the application of the kinetic effect of porous sponge media in hydrate-based technology.This will contribute to CMM utilization and to benefit for local and global environment.     

A型分子筛对甲烷水合物生成的影响

The porous medium has an important effect on hydrate formation. In this paper, the formation process and the gas storage capacity of the methane hydrate were investigated with A-type zeolite and Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate (SDS) existing in the system. The results show that A-type zeolite can influence methane hydrate formation. At the temperature of 273.5 K and pressure of 8.3 MPa, the distilled water with A-type zeolite can form methane hydrate with gaseous methane in 12 hours. The formation process of the system with A-type zeolite was quite steady and the amount of A-type zeolite can influence the gas storage capacity significantly. The adding of A-type zeolite with 0.067 g•(g water)－1 into 2×10－3 g•g－1 SDS-water solution can increase the gas storage capacity, and the maxi-mum increase rate was 31%. Simultaneously the promotion effect on hydrate formation of 3A-type zeolite is much more obvious than that of 5A-type zeolite when the water adding amounts are 0.033 g•g－1 and 0.067 g•g－1 at the experimental conditions.     

Hydrate formation in oil–water systems: Investigations of the influences of water cut and anti-agglomerant

To investigate the characteristics of hydrate formation in oil–water systems, a high-pressure cell equipped with visual windows was used where a series of hydrate formation experiments were performed from natural gas + diesel oil + water systems at different water cuts and anti-agglomerant concentrations. According to the temperature and pressure profiles in test experiments, the processes of hydrate formation under two kinds of experimental procedures were analyzed first. Then, based on the experimental phenomena observed through the visual windows, the influences of water cut and anti-agglomerant on the places of hydrate formation and distribution, hydrate morphologies and hydrate morphological evolvements were investigated. Hydrate agglomeration, hydrate deposition and hydrate film growth on the wall were observed in experiments. Furthermore, three different mechanisms for hydrate film growth on the wall were identified. In addition, the influences of water cut and anti-agglomerant on the induction time of hydrate formation were also studied.     

COSMO-RS:An ionic liquid prescreening tool for gas hydrate mitigation

Recently ionic liquids(ILs) are introduced as novel dual function gas hydrate inhibitors. However, no desired gas hydrate inhibition has been reported due to poor IL selection and/or tuning method. Trial error as well as selection based on existing literature are the methods currently employed for selecting and/or tuning ILs. These methods are probabilistic, time consuming, expensive and may not result in selecting high performance ILs for gas hydrate mitigation. In this work, COSMO-RS is considered as a prescreening tool of ILs for gas hydrate mitigation by predicting the hydrogen bonding energies(E_(HB)) of studied IL inhibitors and comparing the predicted E_(HB) to the depression temperature(?) and induction time. Results show that, predicted EHBand chain length of ILs strongly relate and significantly affect the gas hydrate inhibition depression temperature but correlate moderately(R = 0.70) with average induction time in literature. It is deduced from the results that, ? increases with increasing IL EHBand/or decreases with increasing chain length. However, the cation–anion pairing of ILs also affects IL gas hydrate inhibition performance. Furthermore, a visual and better understanding of IL/water behavior for gas hydrate inhibition in terms of hydrogen bond donor and acceptor interaction analysis is also presented by determining the sigma profile and sigma potential of studied IL cations and anions used for gas hydrate mitigation for easy IL selection.     

STUDY FOR NATURAL GAS HYDRATE CONVERSED FROM ICE

Natural gas hydrates are crystalline clathrate compounds composed of water and gases of small molecular diameters that can be used for storage and transport of natural gas as a novel method. In the paper a series of experiments of aspects and kinetics for hydrate formed from natural gas and ice were carried out on the industrial small scale production apparatus. The experimental results show that formation conditions of hydrate conversed from ice are independent of induction time, and bigger degrees of supersaturation and supercooling improved the driving force and advanced the hydrate formation. Superpressure is also favorable for ice particle conversion to hydrate. In addition, it was found there have an optimal reaction time during hydrate formation.     

环戊烷/水乳化液水合法捕获烟道气中CO_2(英文)

Capture of CO2 by hydrate is one of the attractive technologies for reducing greenhouse effect.The primary challenges are the large energy consumption,low hydrate formation rate and separation efficiency.This work presents a new method for capture of CO2 from simulated flue gasCO2(16.60%,by mole) /N2 binary mixture by formation of cyclopentane(CP) hydrates at initial temperature of 8.1°C with the feed pressures from 2.49 to 3.95 MPa.The effect of cyclopentane and cyclopentane/water emulsion on the hydrate formation rate and CO2 separation efficiency was studied in a 1000 ml stirred reactor.The results showed the hydrate formation rate could be increased remarkably with cyclopentane/water emulsion.CO2 could be enriched to 43.97%(by mole) and 35.29%(by mole) from simulated flue gas with cyclopentane and cyclopentane/water(O/W) emulsion,respectively,by one stage hydrate separation under low feed pressure.CO2 separation factor with cyclopentane was 6.18,higher than that with cyclopentane/water emulsion(4.01) ,in the range of the feed pressure.The results demonstrated that cyclopentane/water emulsion is a good additive for efficient hydrate capture of CO2.     

Accelerated methane storage in clathrate hydrates using surfactantstabilized suspension with graphite nanoparticles

In this study, enhanced kinetics of methane hydrate formation in the sodium dodecyl sulfate(SDS) solution with different concentrations of suspended graphite nanoparticles(GNPs) were investigated at 6.1–9.0 MPa and 274.15 K. The GNPs with rough surfaces and excellent thermal conductivity not only provided a considerable number of microsites for hydrate nucleation but also facilitated the fast hydrate heat transfer in the suspension system. At a relatively low pressure of 6.1 MPa, the suspension with 0.4 wt% of GNPs exhibited the minimum induction time of 22 min and maximum methane uptake of 126.1 cm~3·cm~(-3). However, the methane storage performances of the suspensions with higher and lower concentrations of GNPs were not satisfactory. At the applied pressure, the temperature increase arising from the hydrate heat in the suspension system with the optimized concentration(0.4 wt%) of GNPs was more significant than that in the traditional SDS solution. Furthermore,compared with those of the system without GNPs, enhanced hydration rate and storage capacity were achieved in the suspensions with GNPs, and the storage capacities were increased by 3.9%–17.0%. The promotion effect of GNPs on gas hydrate formation at low pressure is much more obvious than that at high pressure.     

Structural phase transitions of methane+ethane mixed-gas hydrate induced by 1,1-dimethylcyclohexane

Methane+ethane+1,1-dimethylcyclohexane+water system was investigated by using Raman spectroscopy and isothermal phase equilibrium measurements under four-phase (gas+aqueous+large guest species+hydrate phases) equilibrium conditions at 288.15 K. The results suggest that three kinds of hydrate structures emerge at 288.15 K in the methane+ethane+1,1-dimethylcyclohexane+water system. The hydrate structure for this system changed from structure-H to structure-I via structure-II with increase in the mole ratio of ethane to methane.     

Mechanism of methane hydrate formation in the presence of hollow silica

Methane hydrates are studied extensively as a prospective medium for storing and transporting natural gas due to their inherent advantages, including high volumetric energy storage density, being environmentally benign and extremely safe method compared to conventional compression and liquefaction methods. Enhanced formation kinetics of methane hydrates has been reported in hollow silica due to the increased gas/liquid contact surface area available for efficient conversion of water to hydrates. This work elucidates the mechanism of methane hydrate formation in light weight hollow silica. Hollow silica-to-water ratio was varied and its effect on the methane hydrate formation/dissociation morphology was observed. There exists a critical hollow silica-to-water ratio (1 : 6) beyond which the hydrates preferentially crystallize on the top of the bed by drawing water from the interstitial pores, whereas below this ratio the hydrate formation occurs within the bed between inter-particular spaces of hollow silica. Due to the very low bulk density, a small fraction of hollow silica was observed to be displaced from the bed during the hydrate formation above the critical hollow silica to water ratio.     

Rheology of methane hydrate slurries during their crystallization in a water in dodecane emulsion under flowing

An original experimental set-up was developed and used for studying crystallization and rheology of methane hydrate/water/dodecane system. Methane is injected in a water in dodecane emulsion at low temperature and high pressure in order to form methane hydrate crystals and to move the suspension by gas lift. It behaves as a Newtonian fluid. Dynamic viscosity and conversion of water and gas into gas hydrate crystals were measured during the process for various water contents. Experimental results were explained by means of a model including nucleation, growth and agglomeration. Due to the high value of crystal and drop concentrations, agglomeration takes place through three-body collisions between one water drop and two already formed agglomerates. Resulting agglomerates were considered as fractal-like ones. During crystallization and agglomeration, the effective volume fraction of drops and porous agglomerates is increased, and then suspension viscosity increases. When all water drops are crystallized, agglomeration stops and viscosity does not change.     

Study on methane hydrate formation using ultrasonic waves

Methane hydrate is a kind of gas hydrate and has the crystal structure I. 1 m³ of methane hydrate can be decomposed to a maximum of 172 m³ of methane gas in standard conditions. If this characteristic of methane hydrate is reversely utilized, natural gas, which mainly consists of methane gas, is fixed into water in the form of hydrate solid. However, when methane hydrate is formed artificially by simply reversing its process of natural generation, the amount of methane gas consumed owing to hydrate formation is fairly low, which would be problematic for its massive synthesis and application. In this study, experiments are carried out with the goal of increasing the amount of gas consumed by using ultrasonic waves. The power for maximum gas consumption was observed at 150 W, and the amount of gas consumed was four times higher than that at 0 W at the subcooling temperature of 0.5 K. The ultrasonic waves are more effective at the subcooling temperature of 5.7 K than at the subcooling temperature of 0.5 K, and are another effective method for enhancing methane hydrate formation and reducing the hydrate formation time.     

石英砂中甲烷溶解运移体系水合物生成与聚集实验分析

建立了可模拟海底天然气水合物形成环境的大型三维成藏实验模拟装置,其主体高压反应釜内径500 mm,高1000 mm。在此基础上,采用填砂模型,进行了甲烷溶解运移体系下甲烷水合物生成与聚集过程的实验模拟分析。实验流程为：甲烷溶解于NaCl溶液中,再泵送进入高压反应釜,在沉积层中渗流并生成甲烷水合物。通过30个电阻率传感器监测甲烷水合物的生成和聚集过程。实验结果表明,甲烷溶解运移体系下甲烷水合物生成之后首先分散在溶液中,当溶液的总甲烷浓度（溶解的甲烷及水合物分散相中的甲烷）达到操作条件下盐溶液体系甲烷饱和溶解度后,甲烷水合物从溶液中析出。电阻率分布实验结果表明,析出甲烷水合物的聚集区域受溶液流动控制。     

Experimental determination of methane hydrate dissociation curve up to 55 MPa by using a small amount of surfactant as hydrate promoter

Methane hydrate equilibrium has been studied upon continuous heating of the water-hydrate-gas system within the temperature range of 275-300 K. This temperature range corresponds to equilibrium pressures of 3.15-55 MPa. The hydrate formation/dissociation experiments were carried out in a high-pressure reactor under isochoric conditions and with no agitation. A small amount of surfactant (0.02 wt% sodium dodecyl sulfate, SDS) was added to water to promote hydrate formation. It was demonstrated that SDS did not have any influence on the gas hydrate equilibrium, but increased drastically both the hydrate formation rate and the amount of water converted into hydrate, when compared with the experiments without surfactant. To understand and clarify the influence of SDS on hydrate formation, macroscopic observations of hydrate growth were carried out using gas propane as hydrate former in a fully transparent reactor. We observed that 10^-3 wt% SDS (230 times less than the Critical Micellar Concentration of SDS) were sufficient to prevent hydrate particles from agglomerating and forming a rigid hydrate film at the liquid-gas interface. In the presence of SDS, hydrates grew mainly on the reactor walls as a porous structure, which sucked the solution due to capillary forces. Hydrates grew with a high rate until about 97 wt% of the water present in the reactor was transformed into hydrate.Our data on methane hydrate equilibrium both confirm already published literature data and complement them within the pressure range of 20-55 MPa.     

温度对多孔介质中甲烷水合物生成过程的影响

采用自行设计的实验装置,分别进行了0℃以上(274.7 K)、0℃附近(272.8±0.5 K)和0℃以下(267.4 K)3种不同温度下,在20～40日石英砂中甲烷水合物的生成实验.结果表明甲烷水合物在0℃以上生成比较快;在0℃附近储气量大,水合物在整个砂层中的分布比较均匀.针对实验结果,本文提出了水合物在三种不同温度下的生成机理.     

Molecular dynamics study on growth of carbon dioxide and methane hydrate from a seed crystal

In the current work, molecular dynamics simulation is employed to understand the intrinsic growth of carbon dioxide and methane hydrate starting from a seed crystal of methane and carbon dioxide respectively. This comparison was carried out because it has relevance to the recovery of methane gas from natural gas hydrate reservoirs by simultaneously sequestering a greenhouse gas like CO₂. The seed crystal of carbon dioxide and methane hydrate was allowed to grow from a super-saturated mixture of carbon dioxide or methane molecules in water respectively. Two different concentrations (1:6 and 1:8.5) of CO₂/CH₄ molecules per water molecule were chosen based on gas–water composition in hydrate phase. The molecular level growth as a function of time was investigated by all atomistic molecular dynamics simulation under suitable temperature and pressure range which was well above the hydrate stability zone to ensure significantly faster growth kinetics. The concentration of CO₂ molecules in water played a significant role in growth kinetics, and it was observed that maximizing the CO₂ concentration in the aqueous phase may not result in faster growth of CO₂ hydrate. On the contrary, methane hydrate growth was independent of methane molecule concentration in the aqueous phase. We have validated our results by performing experimental work on carbon dioxide hydrate where it was seen that under conditions appropriate for liquid CO₂, the growth for carbon dioxide hydrate was very slow in the beginning.     

Optimal wetting of active carbons for methane hydrate formation

In a recent paper (Perrin A, Celzard A, Marêché JF, Furdin G. Methane storage within dry and wet active carbons: a comparative study. Energy and Fuels 2003;17(5):1283–1291), methane storage by formation of methane hydrates within wet commercial active carbons (wetting ratio R=mass ratio water/carbon≈1) was investigated at 2 °C and up to 8 MPa. It was suspected from this study that more methane hydrate could be formed if more water was added. The present article is the continuation of this former work, and the pore volumes of the same materials were now saturated by water and investigated in the same T–P conditions. It is shown that, doing this, hydrate formation occurs at the lowest possible pressures (i.e. corresponding to those observed in bulk water) but poor results in terms of stored amounts are obtained. An optimal wetting ratio leading to the highest stored amounts was evidenced and found to be close to 1 whatever the pore texture of the carbon materials. Additionally, saturating the pore space with water further slows down the formation kinetics, which were already very long at R≈1. Finally, the role of an additive like sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) was investigated in one carbon; it is found that hydrates are formed at a rather low methane pressure, but the final amount stored is not higher than that previously obtained without adding SDS.