Investigating the effects of hydrophobic and hydrophilic multi-wall carbon nanotubes on methane hydrate growth kinetics

Currently, gas hydrates have sparked the interest of many industries for their potential use in natural gas transportation, component separation and carbon dioxide sequestration. In order to optimize the efficiencies of such applications, there has been a pronounced focus on finding techniques and additives that promote hydrate growth. Previous studies have found that the addition of multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) to methane hydrate systems greatly enhances production. In this study, the growth rates of methane hydrates were measured in the presence of as-produced (hydrophobic) and plasma functionalized (hydrophilic) MWNTs. For each condition, the effect of MWNT loading in the aqueous phase was determined. At higher concentrations, the hydrophobic MWNTs produced an enhanced growth rate whose effect plateaued with MWNT loading. The hydrophilic MWNTs' effect had an initial local maximum at lower concentrations and then followed to increase almost linearly with an increase in concentration. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

目前，天然气水合物因其在天然气运输、成分分离和二氧化碳封存方面的潜在用途，引起了许多行业的兴趣。为了优化此类应用的效率，人们明显侧重于寻找促进水合物生长的技术和添加剂。先前的研究发现，在甲烷水合物体系中添加多壁碳纳米管（MWNTs）可大大提高产量。在这项研究中，测量了在原始（疏水）和等离子体功能化（亲水）多壁碳纳米管存在下甲烷水合物的生长速率。针对每种条件，确定了水相中多壁碳纳米管负载量的影响。在较高浓度下，疏水多壁碳纳米管使生长速率提高，且其效果随多壁碳纳米管负载量增加而趋于平稳。亲水多壁碳纳米管的影响在较低浓度时出现初始局部最大值，然后随着浓度增加几乎呈线性增加。（C）2013爱思唯尔有限公司。保留所有权利。