Experimental investigation of methane hydrate formation in the presence of copper oxide nanoparticles and SDS

Worldwide demand for natural gas (mainly composed of methane) is ever increasing, therefore; production and transmission of natural gas from stranded reservoirs becomes increasingly attractive. However, one of the challenges facing the development of these reservoirs is transportation of the produced gas to the market in a safe, efficient and cost-effective manner. Gas hydrates have been considered as a good alternative for storage and transportation media of natural gas produced from the stranded reservoirs, but the most disadvantage of this method is the slow rate of hydrate formation although addition of surfactants and nanoparticles will promote this formation process. In this work, the effects of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and CuO nanoparticles on the hydrate behavior of methane at 274.65 and 276.65 K temperatures; 5 and 6 MPa initial pressures and in a wide range of concentrations of nanoparticle in aqueous solution have been studied. The results show that by adding these materials, the amounts of gas consumption, the rate of gas consumption and the mole percent of water to hydrate conversion have increased, where this increase is proportional to the nanoparticle concentration used. The results also demonstrate that adding these materials have decreased the induction times, however, have no appreciable effect on the final gas-storage capacity. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.