Experimental investigation to improve the storage potentials of gas hydrate under the unstirring condition

This study presents the experimental results on the effect of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and the extended surface as a result of the addition of a heat-transfer plate on methane hydrate formation. With the experiments, the potentials of reducing induction time have been investigated, increasing the formation rate of methane hydrate and improving hydrate storage capacity under the unstirring condition. As the results, it has been observed that the addition of SDS in hydrate formation causes an increase of consumed gas and the formation rate. However, beyond a certain concentration, there is almost no difference in the amount of consumed gas and the formation time. Installation of a heat-transfer plate was very effective in transferring cooling energy, and it reduced induction time up to 20 times. However, this effect of the heat-transfer plate under the same amount of solution is only limited to the reduction of the formation time and does not provide a significant effect on the increase of consumed gas. From the results, it is believed that the addition of a heat-transfer plate for the surfactant-aided hydrate formation is a prospective way to realize high-performance hydrate-forming reactors with no power consumption for gas and liquid mixing.