Improvement and enhancement of natural gas hydrate formation process by Hummers' graphene

The effect of graphene in hydrate formation process has been studied for the first time. First, the graphene was synthesized using Hummers method and its structure characterization was analyzed by XRD, FTIR and SEM. Graphene nanofluid 1% wt. was then prepared with no stabilizer or surfactant and was used in natural gas (92.6% methane) hydrate formation process with initial pressure of 1000 psig and temperature of 4 degrees C. Results were compared with deionized water and shown that using small amount of graphene decreased the induction time 61.07% while increasing the storage capacity by 12.9%. Hummers' graphene (G-Hummers) nanofluid also decreased hydrate dissociation by 41.4% which causes the hydrates to be more stable. Therefore, G-Hummers improved economics of the hydrate formation process which is a hydrate formation technology effective move to industrialization. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.