An Integrated Experimental and Computational Platform to Explore Gas Hydrate Promotion, Inhibition, Rheology, and Mechanical Properties at McGill University: A Review

Abstract

(1) Background: Gas hydrates are historically notable due to their prevalence and influence on operational difficulties in the oil and gas industry. Recently, new technologies involving the formation of gas hydrates to accomplish various applications have been proposed. This has created new motivation for the characterization of rheological and mechanical properties and the study of molecular phenomena in gas hydrates systems, particularly in the absence of oil and under pre-nucleation conditions. (2) Methodology: This work reviews advances in research on the promotion, inhibition, rheology, and mechanical properties of gas hydrates obtained through an integrated material synthesis-property characterization-multi-scale theoretical and computational platform at McGill University. (3) Discussion: This work highlights the findings from previous experimental work by our group and identifies some of their inherent physical limitations. The role of computational research methods in extending experimental results and observations in the context of mechanical properties of gas hydrates is presented. (4) Summary and Future perspective: Experimental limitations due to the length and time scales of physical phenomena associated with gas hydrates were identified, and future steps implementing the integrated experimental-computational platform to address the limitations presented here were outlined.

Keywords

• gas hydrates
• methane
• viscosity
• molecular dynamics
• nanofluids
• polymers