Gas hydrate formation as a strategy for CH4/CO2 separation: Experimental study on gaseous mixtures produced via Sabatier reaction

Separation of the components of gas mixtures is a critical problem. We considered the possibility of using the hydrate formation process to separate species contained in gas mixtures. We applied this strategy to mixtures of CH4/CO2 produced through the Sabatier process. Both species tend to form hydrates, but through different conditions. The results reported here show that, depending on the methanation efficiency, three different hydrate formation results are possible. If the efficiency is in the range from 0.00 to 0.69, the formation mainly involves CO2. For values ranging from 0.90 to 1.00, the opposite occurs and methane can be stored as solid form. For efficiency values ranging from 0.70 to 0.89, the formation conditions of both species are very similar and therefore the method cannot give rise to CH4/CO2 separation.