Natural gas storage using clathrate hydrates

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As Canada moves into the 21st century, the demand for natural gas seems to be increasing unabated. Traditionally, underground natural gas storage has been relied upon to smooth the natural gas supplyand to meet high peak gas demands. A potential new means for storing and transportation of natural gas is through its conversion into gas hydrate form. Gas hydrates are non-stoichiometric crystalline compounds that occur when hydrogen-bonded water molecules form cavities that can be occupied by a guest molecule such as methane, ethane or propane. Preliminary studies regarding the storage of natural gas in hydrate form have identified several important factors that need to be addressed before NGH can be an economically feasible means of gas storage. Most noticeably, it has been recognised that if a gas hydrate storage process is to be practical for industrial applications, then natural gas must be sequestered in gas hydrates at a rapid rate. Recently, It has been found that the rate of hydrate formation could be increased significantly if the host water is a micellar solution containing a surfactant. However, despite the recognition that surfactants can increase the rate of gas hydrate formation, very little quantitative experimental data on the intrinsic kinetics of gas hydrate formation and decomposition in the presence of surfactants has been generated. This data is vital in the design and optimisation of any system for storing natural gas in the form of gas hydrates. Thus, I am proposing to undertake an experimental study to quantify the kinetics of gas hydrate formation and decomposition in the presence of surfactants and to mathematically model a process for storing natural gas in hydrate form.