Engineering and process aspects of hydrate-based technology for energy applications

Intense research on clathrate hydrates was conducted when it was pointed out that these compounds were responsible for plugging natural gas pipelines. In fact, light gases such as methane or ethane present in petroleum products are easily trapped as guest molecules in hydrate structures. Beyond their role in pipeline plugs, however, clathrate hydrates have been brought into focus in several areas of energy science. Thanks to their rather high gas concentration, hydrates can also be used propitiously for either storage and transportation of natural, carbon dioxide sequestration and gaseous mixture separation. This paper is intended to give a review of hydrate formation studies with emphasis on the process and engineering aspects of the application of gas hydrates in the energy field. The investigated topics concern with methane storage and purification and filtration of fuel gas and biogas through carbon dioxide hydrates. The purpose is to identify energy and economic gaps as well as scale-up issues to prove sustainability and industrial feasibility of energy hydrate-based processes. Although in literature there is proof of many theoretical studies and fundamental investigations on laboratory scale, hydrate-based processes seem to be a niche technology with few operating pilot plants worldwide and not to be fully proven in industrial configurations yet.