Effect of polymer nanocomposites on methane hydrate stability and storage capacity

In this research, the effect of nanoparticles, polymers and polymer/nanoparticles suspensions on stability and storage capacity of methane gas hydrate have been investigated experimentally and compared with the hydrate formed in pure water. It has been found that some tested additives can increase the stability of the formed hydrate effectively so that the dissociation percent of hydrate was negligible after 24 h at atmospheric pressure and -10 degrees C temperature. While about 7.5 mol% of hydrate formed in pure water dissociated at similar condition. On the other hand, the hydrate formed in the presence of these additives had higher gas content compared to the pure water hydrate. Experimental results on hydrate gas content revealed that the maximum storage capacity of 179 V/V-H can be obtained which is very close to the theoretical value. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.