Gas hydrates engineering

气体水合物是由水和其它化合物如天然气组分在合适的压力和温度条件下形成的晶体。天然气水合物天然存在于海底以下和永久冻土区。如果能够以安全、经济和环境可接受的方式从固体水合物中回收天然气，这些水合物将构成天然气的巨大来源。 天然气水合物使石油和天然气钻探复杂化，并且可能堵塞烃类管道，从而引起严重的安全和经济问题。在石油和天然气工业中，管理与水合物形成相关的风险投入了大量精力。合成水合物正在研究用于许多实际应用，包括天然气储存和运输，燃料电池的氢储存以及二氧化碳捕获和封存。

Gas hydrates are crystals formed by water and other compounds such as natural gas components under suitable pressure and temperature conditions. Gas hydrates occur naturally below the seafloor and in permafrost areas. These hydrates constitute a huge source of natural gas if technology becomes available to recover the gas from the solid hydrate in a safe, economic and environmentally acceptable manner. Gas hydrates complicate oil and gas drilling and may plug hydrocarbon pipelines and thus, cause serious safety and economic problems. Significant effort is devoted to manage the risk associated with hydrate formation in the oil and gas industry. Synthetic hydrates are being investigated for a number of practical applications including natural gas storage and transport, hydrogen storage for fuel cells, and carbon dioxide capture and sequestration.