Investigating the Effect of Nanomaterials and Biomimetic Surfaces on Gas Hydrates for Energy Recovery, Transportation and Flow Assurance

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Humanity's ever increasing need for energy and instability in countries where most of our global oil resides forces us to explore new/alternative methods to sustain our current quality of life. Gas hydrates are a possible solution to this crisis because of the enormous amount of stored energy they possess. Hydrate reserves exceed conventional carbon reserves and mostly contain natural gas, the cleanest burning of all available fossil fuels. They are also being viewed as a potential method for removing harmful carbon dioxide emissions from thermal power plants in order to abide by the Kyoto protocol. However, these ice-like materials can also act as a double-edged sword causing environmental disasters such as the BP oil spill of 2010. The proposed research program will attempt to provide necessary information for the design of safe, economical, and environmentally acceptable processes and facilities to deal with hydrate-forming systems, and for the exploitation of in-situ methane hydrate as a future energy resource. A novel approach will be undertaken in this work, exploring the effects of nanomaterials and biomimetic surfaces on gas hydrates in order to achieve our research goals. The outcome of such work has the potential to place Canada at the forefront of technology related to the recovery, storage and transportation of natural gas trapped in hydrate form as well as carbon dioxide emissions capture and storage.