Fundamental studies of the role of foreign particles and surfaces on gas hydrate growth and propagation

我们面临着对能源日益增长的需求。在接下来的二十年里，大部分需求将通过化石燃料来满足，尽管由于与石油或煤炭相比，天然气对环境的影响较小，因此应该会优先考虑天然气。加拿大的天然气产量预计在未来几年将下降，当前的全球政治气候引发了对世界其他地区供应安全的担忧。确保加拿大本世纪能源需求的另一种选择是以天然气水合物的形式捕获大量天然气。以水合物形式储存的天然气（主要是甲烷）被发现埋藏在海洋沉积物和永久冻土层下。保守估计表明，水合物中储存的能量至少是所有其他化石燃料总和的两倍。由于甲烷具有很高的全球变暖潜力，以固体水合物形式储存的大量甲烷也引起了环境问题。还可以设计基于水合物技术的二氧化碳封存策略。此外，石油和天然气行业花费数百万美元用于防止管道中水合物的形成。这里提出的研究工作旨在提供有关甲烷和二氧化碳气体水合物（天然气的主要成分）与颗粒和表面相互作用的基本信息。此类研究对于了解自然界中水合物的行为并获得相关知识非常重要，从而可以经济且对环境负责地开发水合物形成系统。这项研究的潜在成果在技术和科学上具有重要意义，因为它可以使加拿大成为碳封存工作和天然气水合物等非常规能源资源回收的先锋。

We are faced with an increasing demand for sources of energy. Over the next two decades most of this demand will be met by fossil fuels, although a preference toward natural gas should develop due to its smaller environmental footprint compared to oil or coal. Canada's natural gas production is expected to decline over the next few years, and the current global political climate raises concerns over the security of supply from other parts of the world. An alternative to secure Canada's energy needs for this century is the vast amount of natural gas trapped in the form of gas hydrates. Natural gas stored as hydrate (mostly methane) is found buried under the oceanic sediment and under the permafrost. Conservative estimates suggest that the amount of energy stored in hydrates is at least twice that of all other fossil fuels combined. The enormous quantities of methane stored as solid hydrates are also of environmental concern due to the high global warming potential of methane. It is also possible to design carbon dioxide sequestration strategies based on hydrate technology. Furthermore, the oil and gas industry spends millions of dollars on hydrate formation prevention in pipelines. The research work proposed here intends to provide fundamental information on the interaction of gas hydrates of methane and carbon dioxide (main components of natural gas) with particles and surfaces. Studies of this kind are important in order to understand the behavior of hydrates in nature and to acquire relevant knowledge that will allow economical and environmentally responsible exploitation of hydrate-forming systems. The potential outcome of this research is technologically and scientifically significant for it could place Canada at the vanguard of carbon sequestration efforts and recovery of unconventional energy resources such as gas hydrates.