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

人类对能源的需求与日俱增，全球大部分石油所在国家的不稳定迫使我们探索新的/替代方法来维持我们目前的生活质量。天然气水合物是这场危机的一个可能的解决方案，因为它们拥有巨大的储能。水合物储量超过了传统的碳储量，而且主要含有天然气，这是所有可用化石燃料中最清洁的燃烧方式。它们还被视为一种潜在的方法，可以消除火力发电厂的有害二氧化碳排放，以遵守《京都议定书》。然而，这些像冰一样的材料也可能成为一把双刃剑，引发2010年英国石油公司漏油事件等环境灾难。拟议的研究计划将试图为设计安全、经济和环境可接受的处理水合物形成系统的工艺和设施提供必要的信息，并为开发作为未来能源的就地甲烷水合物提供必要的信息。这项工作将采用一种新的方法，探索纳米材料和仿生表面对天然气水合物的影响，以实现我们的研究目标。这项工作的成果有可能使加拿大走在与回收、储存和运输以水合物形式捕获的天然气以及捕获和储存二氧化碳排放有关的技术前沿。

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.