Equilibrium conditions of methane and ethane hydrates in aqueous electrolyte solutions

In this work, we determined the equilibrium conditions for gas hydrates of methane and ethane in aqueous solutions containing various electrolytes, such as NaCl, NaBr, NaI, and Na2SO4. We have developed experimental apparatus in which a light beam through solutions was used to detect the formation and dissociation of gas hydrate, To model the experimental data of this work, a statistical thermodynamic model based on the classical adsorption model proposed by van der Waals and Platteeuw(1) is used. The water activity of the aqueous solutions containing electrolytes, which affects the gas hydrate stability, was evaluated by the model of Englezos and Bishnoi.(2)