(286e) Methane Hydrate Formation Accelerated with Various Promoters in an Unstirred Reactor

Recently, many fundamental researches and technologies have focused on the natural gas storage in artificially synthesized clathrate hydrate because of its several advantages of cost-effectiveness, non-explosiveness, and eco-friendly method. For practical applications of hydrate-based natural gas storage, rapid hydrate formation without mechanical agitation is one of key factors to be solved. Zhang et al. reported that sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) plays an important role in increasing both nucleation and growth rate of hydrate in the unstirred batch reactor.¹ Kang et al. also used a water-insoluble heavy guest molecule of iodomethane which shows rapid hydrate formation with a high conversion rate by renewing liquid-liquid interfaces without mechanical agitation.² Veluswamy et al. introduced some additives and evaluated kinetic performance of methane hydrate formation in several systems.^3-4 Here, we suggest a new concept of cyclopentane (CP) hydrate seeds as a kinetic hydrate promoter; the induction time of pure sI methane hydrate can be eliminated in the presence of small amounts of CP hydrate seeds and SDS in an unstirred reaction system.

1. Zhang, J. S.; Lee, S.; Lee, J. W., Kinetics of Methane Hydrate Formation from Sds Solution. Ind Eng Chem Res 2007, 46, 6353-6359.

2. Kang, H.; Ahn, Y. H.; Koh, D. Y.; Baek, S.; Lee, J. W.; Lee, H., Rapid Clathrate Hydrate Formation Using a Heavy Guest Molecule with Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate. Ind Eng Chem Res 2016, 55, 6079-6084.

3. Veluswamy, H. P.; Kumar, A.; Kumar, R.; Linga, P., An Innovative Approach to Enhance Methane Hydrate Formation Kinetics with Leucine for Energy Storage Application. Appl Energ 2017, 188, 190-199.

4. Veluswamy, H. P.; Hong, Q. W.; Linga, P., Morphology Study of Methane Hydrate Formation and Dissociation in the Presence of Amino Acid. Cryst Growth Des 2016, 16, 5932-5945.