Promotion and inhibition of gas hydrate formation by oxide powders

In this work we studied the activity of powders of silicon, aluminium, zinc, titanium and magnesium oxides as promoters of natural gas hydrate formation. We found that the activity of powder as a promoter of heterogeneous gas hydrate nucleation depends on the properties of powder particle surface, in particular on functional groups that are present on the surface. For example, the addition of powdered aluminium oxide into water resulted in both the maximal and close to minimal induction times of the hydrate formation depending on the surface chemical composition of powder particles. Our results show that the formation of hydrates is favored by the presence of carbon-containing groups (in particular carbonate) on the surface of the particles. Consequently, the modification of the surface of oxide particles can be used to obtain the promoters of gas hydrate formation. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.