The synergy of spiral agitation and nano-promoters significantly
enhances hydrate formation under mild conditions
Abstract
Sluggish hydrate kinetics and low methane storage capacity give rise to
the limitation of the application of hydrate-based solidified natural
gas (SNG) technology. Here, we prepared two nano-promoters of -SO3-@PSNS
and -COO-@PSNS, with which, methane hydrate formation in a
spiral-agitated reactor under mild conditions was evaluated. Excitingly,
spiral agitation enhances hydrate nucleation and initial growth
kinetics, while the nano-promoters improve hydrate later growth
kinetics, and the synergy of them results in extraordinary hydrate
formation kinetic under mild conditions. Large methane storage
capacities of 147.28 V/V and 141.33 V/V were obtained in the systems of
-SO3-@PSNS and -COO-@PSNS separately under the condition of 3.8 MPa,
275.15 K and 30 rpm, which increase by 85.07% and 77.59% comparing to
that in pure water, respectively. The synergy performs better than that
of spiral agitation and amino acids, and this may promote the
application of SNG technology a step forward.