Evidence of liquid water formation during methane hydrates dissociation below the ice point

Dissociation of small methane hydrate samples formed from water droplets of size 0.25-2.5 mm has been investigated below the ice melting point in the temperature range of 240-273 K, where the self-preservation effect is observed for bulk hydrates. The experiments included optical microscopy observations combined with P-T measurements of the dissociation conditions for the methane hydrates. For the first time, the formation of supercooled liquid water during the hydrate dissociation was reliably detected in the temperature range of 253-273 K. The formation of the liquid phase was visually observed. The induction time of the ice nucleation for the metastable liquid water depended from the dissociation temperature and a size of water droplets formed during the hydrate dissociation. It was found that in the temperature range of 253-273 K values of the dissociation pressure for the small hydrate samples fall on the extension of the water-hydrate-gas equilibrium curve into the metastable region where supercooled water exist. The average molar enthalpy of 51.7 kJ/mol for the dissociation of the small methane hydrate samples in the temperature range of 253-273 K was calculated using Clausius-Clapeyron equation. This value agrees with the enthalpy of dissociation of bulk methane hydrates into water and gas at temperatures above 273 K.     

Kinetics of formation of carbon dioxide clathrate hydrates

The new experimental apparatus capable of observing the clathrate hydrate formation kinetics was developed in this study. Experimental data on the kinetics of carbon dioxide hydrate formation were carefully measured. The experiments were carried out in a semi-batch stirred tank reactor with stirring rate of 500 rpm at three different temperatures between 275.2 and 279.2 K and at pressures ranging from 2.0 to 3.5 MPa. The kinetic model was adopted to predict the growth of hydrates with only one adjustable parameter which represented the rate constant for the hydrate particle growth. The model was based on the crystallization theory coupled with the two-film theory for gas absorption into the liquid phase. The model predictions matched the experimental data very well with the largest deviation of 7.18%, which is within experimental error range. This study is the first for the kinetic data of carbon dioxide hydrate formation and important in developing carbon dioxide fixation process using clathrate hydrate phenomenon.     

Notes on the dissolution rate of gas hydrates in undersaturated water

An elementary model for the dissolution of pure hydrate in undersaturated water is proposed that combines intrinsic decomposition within a desorption film and the subsequent diffusion of the released hydrate guest species into bulk water. Applying the proposed approach to recently published measurements of the decomposition rates of methane (CH₄) and carbon dioxide (CO₂) hydrates in deep seawater suggests that the concentration of the hydrate guest species at the interface between desorption film and diffusive boundary layer may be much lower than ambient solubility. Calculations, however, fail to account for the observed proportionality of decomposition rate with solubility for both CH₄ and CO₂ hydrates. This may indicate a limitation in the range of applicability of published formulas for intrinsic hydrate decomposition rates.     

Porous structure of crystalline polymers by exclusion effect of carbon dioxide

We investigated the morphology of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) crystallized under carbon dioxide (CO₂) by light scattering measurements and microscopic observations. The crystallization of HDPE was delayed and the ordering of the spherulite was smaller by dissolving CO₂ rather than air at ambient pressure. A fine-layered porous structure having a size of 500 nm was obtained in HDPE, while a large rod-like porous structure radiating in the spherulite was obtained in PVDF. Such a characteristic porous structure is attributed to the exclusion of CO₂ from the crystal growth front to the intercrystalline amorphous region and the growth of bubbles by the supersaturation of CO₂ in the constrained amorphous region. The exclusion effect is covered by the Keith-Padden theory through consideration of the self-diffusion in polymer-CO₂ systems; the exclusion and the growth of bubbles occur as lamellar stacks in HDPE whereas they occur as bundles of lamellar stacks in PVDF.     

Formulation of a new generic density-based model for modeling solubility of polyphenols in supercritical carbon dioxide and ethanol

The aim of this work is to present a first approach in formulating a generic model for polyphenols solubility in ternary mixtures (polyphenol + ethanol + sc-CO₂). Solubility data of six polyphenols were collected from the literature, and six different groups of parameters were proposed for the new generic model in order to evaluate their effects and find the best set for each polyphenol. Likewise, four dimensional groups of factors were proposed to evaluate the effect of dimensions on solubility data calculation. The results show that the originally formulated model and its modifications are particularly useful in calculating polyphenols solubility data; for instance, when resveratrol solubility data was fitted, the AARD decreased from a value of 38.52 to 14.03, upon changing from a simple to a complex model. Additionally, this generic model with a specific modification can estimate solubility maxima occurring in the ternary resveratrol + ethanol + sc-CO₂ system.     

Theoretical investigation of the phase behaviour of mixtures of a novel family of perfluoroalkyl-polyoxyethylene ether diblock surfactants in aqueous solutions of carbon dioxide

The accurate knowledge of the thermodynamic properties, with special emphasis on phase equilibria, of aqueous solutions of carbon dioxide is essential from practical and theoretical points of view. These aqueous mixtures are of great interest in different industrial processes, including its use as supercritical solvents, CO₂ sequestration technologies and oil enhanced recovery, among many different applications. From a theoretical point of view, this mixture exhibits a variety of interactions, including dispersive forces, hydrogen bonding between water molecules, and also dipolar and quadrupolar electrical interactions, which determine its phase behaviour. In particular, the mixture exhibits type III phase behaviour, which leads to large regions of liquid-liquid immiscibility. In a number of practical situations, it is important to make miscible this mixture. This can effectively be done by adding some amount of a selected surfactant that stabilizes the mixture. An ideal candidate would be a surfactant formed by hydrophilic and CO₂-philic parts that interact favourably with water and carbon dioxide molecules, respectively. In this work we study a novel family of diblock amphiphiles, the perfluoroalkyl-polyoxyethylene ether non-ionic diblock surfactants, which have the general formula F(CF₂)_i(OCH₂CH₂)_jOH or simply F_iE_j. We employ the sophisticated and versatile Statistical Associating Fluid Theory for potentials of variable range, the so-called SAFT-VR approach, to study the phase behaviour of aqueous solutions of carbon dioxide and the novel surfactants. All molecules are modeled under the united-atom approach, in which different chemical groups are treated as hard-sphere attractive segments. The F_iE_j surfactant is modelled as a diblock compound, which consists of a perfluorinated alkane chain and a polyoxyethylene ether chain. The optimized molecular parameters for H₂O, CO₂, and the perfluoroalkyl, polyoxyethylene ether and the rest of chemical groups forming the surfactant are taken from previous works from the literature. Unlike interactions between different chemical groups are carefully chosen to reproduce the phase behaviour of similar associating surfactants previously studied in the literature. In this work we study the effect of temperature, pressure and composition of a selection of mixtures to understand the microscopic conditions that determine the stabilization of aqueous solutions of carbon dioxide when this kind of surfactants are added. To our knowledge, this is the first time the phase behaviour of mixtures containing this kind of surfactants is studied using a microscopic modelling approach.     

Spectroscopic analysis of carbon dioxide and nitrogen mixed gas hydrates in silica gel for CO2 separation

In this study solid-state NMR spectroscopy was used to identify structure and guest distribution of the mixed N₂ + CO₂ hydrates. These results show that it is possible to recover CO₂ from flue gas by forming a mixed hydrate that removes CO₂ preferentially from CO₂/N₂ gas mixture. Hydrate phase equilibria for the ternary CO₂–N₂–water system in silica gel pores were measured, which show that the three-phase H–L_w–V equilibrium curves were shifted to higher pressures at a specific temperature when the concentration of CO₂ in the vapor phase decreased. ¹³C cross-polarization (CP) NMR spectra of the mixed hydrates at gas compositions of more than 10 mol% CO₂ with the balance N₂ identified that the crystal structure of mixed hydrates as structure I, and that the CO₂ molecules occupy mainly the abundant 5¹²6² cages. This makes it possible to achieve concentrations of more than 96 mol% CO₂ gas in the product after three cycles of hydrate formation and dissociation.     

Icosahedron cage occupancy of structure-H hydrate helped by Xe -1,1-, cis -1,2-, trans-1,2-, and cis-1,4-dimethylcyclohexanes

Four mixtures of 1,1-, cis-1,2-, trans-1,2-, and cis-1,4-dimethylcyclohexanes (hereafter abbreviated DMCH) including H₂O and Xe have been investigated in a temperature range over 274.5 K and a pressure range up to 2.7 MPa. The 1,1-DMCH and cis-1,2-DMCH generate the structure-H hydrate in the temperature range up to 295.2 and 280.2 K, respectively. Especially, very large depression of equilibrium pressure has been observed in the structure-H 1,1-DMCH hydrate system. On the other hand, neither trans-1,2-DMCH nor cis-1,4-DMCH generates the structure-H hydrate in the present temperature range. It is an important finding that the cis-1,4-DMCH does not generate the structure-H hydrate in the presence of Xe, while the mixture of cis-1,4-DMCH and methane generates the structure-H hydrate.     

Phase equilibria of clathrate hydrates of methyl cyclopentane, methyl cyclohexane, cyclopentane or cyclohexane+carbon dioxide

In this work, experimental dissociation data for clathrate hydrates of methyl cyclopentane, methyl cyclohexane, cyclopentane or cyclohexane+carbon dioxide are reported at different temperatures. The experimental data were generated using an isochoric pressure-search method. The reliability of this method is examined by generating new dissociation data for clathrate hydrates of methyl cyclopentane+methane and comparing them with the experimental data reported in the literature. The acceptable agreement demonstrates the reliability of the experimental method used in this work. The experimental data for all measured systems are finally compared with the corresponding literature data in the absence of the above mentioned cyclic compounds to identify their promotion effects.     

Evaluation of density-based models for the solubility of solids in supercritical carbon dioxide and formulation of a new model

Many models have been developed to calculate supercritical solubility behavior and most can be either a semi-empirical relationship or based on an equation of state. In this work, density-based, semi-empirical models were evaluated in terms of their ability to accurately correlate solid solubility in supercritical carbon dioxide. The models considered were the methods of Chrastil, del Valle and Aguilera, Adachi and Lu, Méndez-Santiago and Teja, and Bartle. Six binary systems (solid + supercritical carbon dioxide), each with three isotherms, were selected for this evaluation. The average error was calculated for all 18 isotherms with each of the models evaluated. The solid compounds used in this study were naphthalene, anthracene, fluorene, hydroquinone, 1,5-naphthalenediamine, and cholesterol. The solubility data were obtained from literature. Of the previously mentioned models, the Adachi-Lu and del Valle-Aguilera equations provided, in general, lower average error than the other models. Since the Adachi-Lu equation and the del Valle-Aguilera equation correct for different effects, a new model is proposed in this work as a combination of the previous two methods. The proposed equation provided the least overall average error compared to all other models considered in this study. The new model is particularly useful when the reduced density of the solvent is below 1 where previous models tend to fail. This work also emphasizes on the advantages of expressing density-based models in dimensionless form to avoid dimensional inconsistencies in Chrastil-type models. One of the benefits, for example, is that parameters obtained by different authors can be readily compared, regardless of the units used.     

Extraction of methane hydrate energy by carbon dioxide injection-key challenges and a paradigm shift

Significant effort including field work has been devoted to develop a natural gas extraction technology from natural gas hydrate reservoirs through the injection of carbon dioxide. Natural gas hydrate is practically methane hydrate. The hypothesis is that carbon dioxide will be stored as hydrate owing to its favorable stability conditions compared to methane hydrate. Although the dynamics of the CO₂/CH₄ exchange process are not entirely understood it is established that the exchange process is feasible. The extent is limited but even if the CH₄ recovery is optimized there is a need for a CH₄/CO₂ separation plant to enable a complete cyclic sequence of CO₂ capture, injection and CH₄ recovery. In this paper we propose an alternative paradigm to the Inject (CO₂)/Exchange with (CH₄)/Recover (CH₄) one namely Recover (CH₄) first and then Inject (CO₂) for Storage.     

Phase equilibria of alcohols in supercritical fluids Part II. The effect of side branching on C8 alcohols in supercritical carbon dioxide

This paper is a continuation of a previous study and investigated the phase equilibria of six C₈ alcohols (2,2,4-trimethyl-1-pentanol, 2,4,4-trimethyl-1-pentanol, 2-ethyl-1-hexanol, 2-propyl-1-pentanol, 4-methyl-3-heptanol and 6-methyl-2-heptanol) in supercritical carbon dioxide. Data has been measured between 308 and 348 K for alcohol mass fractions between 0.660 and 0.0162. The results show that the position, size and quantity of side chains have a significant effect on the phase behaviour by changing the shape of the molecule and the effect of the hydroxyl group on the polarity of the molecule. The pressure required for total solubility increases in the following sequence: 4-methyl-3-heptanol < 2,2,4-trimethyl-1-pentanol < 6-methyl-2-heptanol < 2,4,4-trimethyl-1-pentanol < 2-propyl-1-pentanol < 2-ethyl-1-hexanol < 1-octanol. The difference in phase behaviour is believed to be a result of a difference in shielding of the hydroxyl group. Greater shielding of the hydroxyl group results in a less asymmetric system, and this, in turn, results in higher solubility of the molecule.     

Stability boundaries of gas hydrates helped by methane—structure-H hydrates of methylcyclohexane and cis-1,2-dimethylcyclohexane

The four-phase coexistence curves for the structure-H hydrates of methylcyclohexane and cis-1,2-dimethylcyclohexane in the presence of methane are measured in the temperature range 274.09- and pressure range 1.42-. Very large pressure reductions from the pure methane hydrate are observed by forming structure-H hydrates. The present investigation on the trans-1,2-dimethylcyclohexane system reveals that the limit of the largest-cage occupancy for the structure-H hydrate is laid between the 1,2-dimethylcyclohexane stereo-isomers.     

Solubility of non-ionic poly(fluorooxetane)-block-(ethylene oxide)-block-(fluorooxetane) surfactants in carbon dioxide

The impact of side chain and midblock length on the solubility of ABA triblock copolymers of fluorooxetane-(ethylene oxide)-fluorooxetane in carbon dioxide is examined. The use of short fluorinated side chains instead of long fluorinated chains prevents issues with bioaccumulation of the degradation products of the surfactant. At 40 °C for the same degree of polymerization, increasing the number of perfluoro-units from one to four results in a non-monotonic change in the cloud point pressure; the cloud point pressure decreases as the side chain is increased from perfluoromethyl to perfluoroethyl. However, further increasing the fluorinated side chain to perfluorobutyl results in a significant increase in the cloud point. However when the temperature is increased to 60 °C, the cloud point pressure for the surfactants with perfluoroethyl and perfluorobutyl side chains is statistically similar, while the perfluoromethyloxetane based surfactant requires a substantially larger pressure to obtain comparable solubility. An increase in cloud point pressure is observed when increasing the hydrophilic ethylene oxide segment. These results illustrate that commercially available fluorooxetane-(ethylene oxide)-fluorooxetane surfactants are highly soluble in CO₂.     

超临界二氧化碳和醇类体系的相平衡计算

应用Peng-Robinson(P-R)状态方程对超临界CO2系统进行了相平衡模拟。对超临界CO2和醇类二元系统进行了汽液相平衡计算,结果表明,P-R状态方程模拟高压下CO2系统的相平衡具有较高的精度。     

Decomposition of carbon dioxide hydrate in the samples of natural coal with different degrees of metamorphism

Methane and carbon dioxide hydrates are one of the possible forms in which these gases exist in natural coal (for more detailed discussion see Refs [1,2]). In this work, the decomposition of carbon dioxide hydrate in five samples of natural coal differing from each other in metamorphism degree was investigated experimentally. Carbon dioxide hydrate dispersed in coals was synthesized from water adsorbed in these coals. During a linear temperature rise in an autoclave with the coal + hydrate sample the hydrate decomposition manifests itself as a step of increase in gas pressure, accompanied by a decrease/stabilization of the temperature of coal sample. The dependencies of the amount of hydrate formed on initial coal humidity and on gas pressure during hydrate formation were studied. It was demonstrated that each coal sample is characterized by its own humidity threshold below which hydrate formation in natural coal is impossible. With an increase in gas pressure, the amount of water transformed into hydrate increases. For the studied coal samples, the decomposition of carbon dioxide hydrates proceeds within a definite temperature and pressure range, and this range is close to the curve of phase equilibrium for bulk hydrate.     

Storage capacity of hydrogen in tetrahydrothiophene and furan clathrate hydrates

The storage capacity of hydrogen in the tetrahydrothiophene and furan hydrates was investigated by means of pressure-volume-temperature measurement. The hydrogen-absorption rate of tetrahydrothiophene and furan hydrates is much larger than that of tetrahydrofuran hydrate in spite of same crystal structure (structure-II). The storage amount of hydrogen at 275.1 K is about 1.2 mol (hydrogen)/mol (tetrahydrothiophene or furan hydrate) (∼0.6 mass%) at 41.5 MPa, which is coincident with that of tetrahydrofuran hydrate.     

The effect of high-pressure carbon dioxide treatment on the crystallization behavior and mechanical properties of poly(l-lactic acid)/poly(methyl methacrylate) blends

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of carbon dioxide (CO₂) on the crystallization behavior and the mechanical properties of PLLA/PMMA blends with various weight fraction of PMMA. PLLA/PMMA blends can be crystallized even at a low temperature of 0 °C under high-pressure CO₂. The films treated with high-pressure CO₂ at 0 °C have about three times larger strain at break than that of the amorphous and cold-crystallized film. The size of spherulites in the CO₂ treated film is considered to be smaller than the wavelength of the visible light because of a good transparency. The improvement of the strain at break is attributed to the reduction of the stress concentration during the deformation.     

二氧化碳水合物促进剂的研究进展

综述了二氧化碳水合物促进剂的种类、促进效果的评价方法、研究现状以及促进机理等,并对其未来研究提出了建议。     

Equilibrium distribution of water in the two-phase system supercritical carbon dioxide–textile

When natural fibres are dyed in supercritical carbon dioxide, the addition of a small amount of water increases coloration. For a process design it is important to know how much water has to be added to obtain a desired humidity of both textile and carbon dioxide. In this work a thermodynamic model is proposed to calculate the distribution of water over the textile phase and the supercritical phase as a function of pressure and temperature. The phase equilibrium is described with Raoult's law for non-ideal fluids. The absorbed water in the textile is a condensed phase and is modelled here as a non-ideal liquid, using the NRTL-equation. The non-ideality of the supercritical phase is described by a solubility enhancement factor, a new equation derived from statistical thermodynamics. Although the model is applied to cotton, viscose, silk and wool, it can be used for all water absorbing textiles.