CO2 Hydrate Formation Promoted by a Natural Amino Acid l-Methionine for Possible Application to CO2 Capture and Storage

We demonstrate that l-methionine, a natural amino acid, can be used to dramatically enhance CO2 uptake kinetics in the formation of CO2 hydrate without the use of energy-intensive mixing technologies or environmentally harmful chemicals. To the best of our knowledge, l-methionine is the most effective promoter to enhance CO2 hydrate formation (at a concentration of 0.2wt%, the gravimetric capacity reached up to 356mgg(-1) in 1000min, and t(90) (the time to achieve 90% of this capacity) was only 15min). We also present a tentative explanation for the promotion mechanism of l-methionine in the formation of CO2 hydrate from the point of view of structure-property relationship that will help search for more effective promoters. Our results may offer the possibility of practical application of hydrate-based CO2 capture and storage technology.