Clathrate-Hydrate Formation by Water Spraying onto a Porous Metal Plate Exuding a Hydrophobic Liquid Coolant

A novel technique for producing a clathrate hydrate from a gaseous guest substance was devised and experimentally tested. This technique employs a horizontally oriented spray nozzle and a vertically oriented porous metal plate placed in opposition to each other in a guest-gas phase. Water is sprayed onto the plate while a precooled hydrophobic liquid coolant is seeping out of the plate to form a continuous film flowing down the plate surface. The coolant film is expected to sweep the heat released by hydrate formation away from the plate surface and, at the same time, to prevent the hydrate crystals from agglomerating on the surface thereby hindering the successive contact of the water spray with the coolant. A series of experiments has been performed to reveal the behavior of hydrate formation in the above scheme of guest-gas/water/coolant contact operations. (C) 2009 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 55:1056-1064,2009