Research progress in hydrate-based technologies and processes in China: A review

Abstract Natural gas hydrate (NGH) is considered as an alternative energy resource in the future as it is proven to contain about 2 times carbon resources of those contained in the fossil energy on Earth. Gas hydrate technology is a new technology which can be extensively used in methane production from NGH, gas separation and purification, gas transportation, sea–water desalination, pipeline safety and phase change energy storage, etc . Since the 1980s, the gas hydrate technology has become a research hotspot worldwide because of its relatively economic and environmental friendly characteristics. China is a big energy consuming country with coal as a dominant energy. With the development of the society, energy shortage and environmental pollution are becoming great obstacles to the progress of the country. Therefore, in order to ensure the sustainable development of the society, it is of great significance to develop and utilize NGH and vigorously develop the gas hydrate technology. In this paper, the research advances in hydrate-based processes in China are comprehensively reviewed from different aspects, mainly including gas separation and purification, hydrate formation inhibition, sea–water desalination and methane exploitation from NGH by CH 4 –CO 2 replacement. We are trying to show the relevant research in China, and at the same time, summarize the characteristics of the research and put forward the corresponding problems in a technical way.