Investigating the Unknown Abilities of Natural Gas Hydrates

The high capacity of gas hydrate in natural gas storage makes it attractive to use it for storage and transportation of natural gas and other gases as a competitor to liquefaction and condensation methods. Since the 1960s, when gas hydrate was introduced as a disturbing factor in gas pipelines, the idea of natural gas transfer by hydrate has been on the minds of many scientists. Because the hydrate transport temperature is higher than the liquefied natural gas (LNG) transport temperature, gaseous hydrate can be easily transported; Therefore, the technology of building hydraulic vessels will be much less complex than that of LNG vessels, and hydrogen production facilities can be designed much easier than LNG facilities. But the main problem is the smaller volume of gas transferred. According to studies in this field, each cubic meter of hydrate contains 175 cubic meters of gas. However, in LNG technology, the volume reduction reaches one hundred percent, and this issue is very important in the economics of gas transmission projects, especially long distances. Nevertheless, there is still great hope that hydrate will be used as a completely economical solution for gas transmission. In this regard, British Petroleum, in collaboration with other scientific centers such as the University of Gwasen, is building a small industrial unit that can produce 100 kg of hydrate per day.

Investigating the Unknown Abilities of Natural Gas Hydrates Keywords:

hydrate , LNG technology , gas storage , Transmission