Controllable methane hydrate formation through trace carbon dioxide charging

Abstract An initial method to efficiently control methane hydrate formation process was investigated in this work. This method included an in-situ injection of a small amount of CO 2 into the reactor during the nucleation stage to explore hydrate formation in 0.5 mmol/L sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) solutions. Results showed that charging CO 2 higher than 2% in the mixed gases could induce immediate methane hydrate growth stage. Furthermore, when 3% CO 2 was injected into the reaction system at different time points, the times required for hydrate formation were all shortened significantly. Especially at the injection points of more than 30 min, the subsequent crystals growth began immediately after CO 2 injection. Besides, the formed hydrates tended to aggregate in the vicinity of CO 2 injection zones. Such promotion effect was possibly caused by the triggering effect of preferentially formed CO 2 hydrates in the reaction system. This work provides a novel and simple method to control hydrate formation process, which is of great significance to the transportation and storage of natural gas.