Experiment on effect of different surfactants on formation of gas hydrate

Abstract

The acceleration of surfactant to the rapid formation of gas hydrate is a hot topic of research. For the effect of the surfactant concentration on formation of gas hydrate is not clear at present, experiments for effect of various surfactants on formation of gas hydrate were conducted. Under the condition of constant volume, the tests were conducted to study the effect of various surfactants including SDS, Tween 80, Rhamnolipid and Triton X-100 and their concentrations on the formation of structure-H methane hydrate with large guest molecules, which was also compared with the formation process of hydrate without surfactant. In terms of the effect of surfactants with same concentration on shortening the induction time of natural gas hydrate, SDS > Rhamnolipid > Tween 80 > Triton X-100, and for the facilitation of gas storage, SDS > Tween 80 > Rhamnolipid > Triton X-100. In addition, with the increase of the concentration of surfactant, the promoting effect increases at first and then decreases. SDS and Rhamnolipid have good effect in facilitating the formation of gas hydrate. In particular, Rhamnolipid, as an environment-friendly biosurfactant, is used in the formation experiment of gas hydrate for the first time. It is capable of ensuring the high formation rate and simultaneously satisfying the requirements of environment protection. However, Triton X-100 is not applicable for the surfactant of structure-H hydrate.

Keywords

• structure-h hydrate
• surfactants
• large guest molecule
• formation rate
• induction time