Unveiling Nucleation Mechanisms of Natural Gas Hydrates Under Realistic Conditions

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Natural gas hydrates represent both a potential source of energy--as much as twice of all other fossil fuels combined--and a fouling and safety problem, when they accumulate inside oil and gas pipelines. An understanding of how gas hydrates form, specifically at the nucleation stage, will have an impact on energy storage, transport, and possibly CO2 sequestration. This proposal will use a state of the art forward flux sampling (FFS) technique to enhance statistical sampling of rare nucleation events that are often missed by direct molecular dynamics simulations, thus potentially getting a better understanding of hydrate formation.A better understanding of how gas hydrates are formed, especially at the nucleation stage, will have an impact on both energy storage and transport safety of gas and oil pipelines.