Natural gas hydrates are solid hydrogen-bonded water crystals containing small molecular gases. The amount of natural gas stored as hydrates in permafrost and ocean sediments is twice that of all other fossil fuels combined. However, hydrate blockages also hinder oil/gas pipeline transportation, and, despite their huge potential as energy sources, our insufficient understanding of hydrates has ...

We study diffusive transport of aqueous methane in sea sediments, which is important for formation of methane hydrate and gas deposits and has even been claimed to be principal methane transport mechanism for some geological systems. The isothermal diffusion law (Fick's law), D X = − ∇ J , which is employed in the literature for investigations on methane hydrate, is shown to significantly devia...

A Raman spectrometer extensively modified for deep ocean use was used to measure synthetic hydrates formed in an ocean environment. This was the first time hydrates formed in the ocean have been measured in situ using Raman spectroscopy. Gas hydrates were formed in situ in the Monterey Bay by pressurizing a Pyrex cell with various gas mixtures. Raman spectra were obtained for sI methane hydrate...

Under ambient conditions, water freezes to either hexagonal ice or a hexagonal/cubic composite ice. The presence of hydrophobic guest molecules introduces a competing pathway: gas hydrate formation, with the guests in clathrate cages. Here, the pathways of the phase transitions are sought as sequences of states with coexisting phases, using a generalized replica exchange algorithm designed to s...

Clathrate hydrates are icelike crystalline compounds with small guest molecules trapped inside the cages of hydrogen bonded water molecules. Clathrate hydrate crystal growth is studied for the specific case of the guest molecule cyclopentane. Cyclopentane hydrate formation is visualized at a millimeter-scale water drop. Crystal formation takes place at the water−organic interface and has been s...

Scientific and technological innovations are needed to realize effective production of natural gas hydrates. Whereas global estimates of natural gas hydrate reservoirs are vast, accumulations vary greatly in nature and form. Suboceanic deposits vary from disperse concentrations residing at low saturations in the pore space of unconsolidated sediments with sand-sized particles to higher concentr...

The effect of overpressure on gas hydrate and free gas distribution in marine sediments is studied using a one-dimensional numerical model that couples sedimentation, fluid flow, and gas hydrate formation. Natural gas hydrate systems are often characterized by high sedimentation rates and/or low permeability sediments, which can lead to pore pressure higher than hydrostatic (overpressure). To q...

One of the new approaches for capturing carbon dioxide from treated flue gases (post-combustion capture) is based on gas hydrate crystallization. The basis for the separation or capture of the CO(2) is the fact that the carbon dioxide content of gas hydrate crystals is different than that of the flue gas. When a gas mixture of CO(2) and H(2) forms gas hydrates the CO(2) prefers to partition in ...