Clathrate hydrate dynamics with synthetic- and bio-surfactant in porous media: Model formulation and validation

In this contribution, we formulate a model to gain physical insight into the hydration process in presence of biosurfactant and porous media. This hydrate model addresses several practically relevant issues, including renewal of surface where hydrates form, uneven size and shape of internal pores in the porous material, hydrate formation in the interstitial and interior pore spaces of the unconsolidated porous particles, surface tension effect, and impeding nature of the salt ions present in seawater towards the hydrate formation and growth. The proposed model is illustrated by the formation and growth process of methane and carbon dioxide gases in presence of biosurfactant (the rhamnolipids solution produced from Pseudomonas aeruginosa) and porous silica gel. In addition, here we consider one of the most efficient and preferred synthetic surface active agents, namely sodium dodecyl sulfate. The proposed formulation has shown an excellent agreement (quantified with the percentage absolute average relative deviation) with the experimental data of the methane and carbon-dioxide gas hydrates formation and growth at diverse conditions. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.