Capture of Carbon Dioxide using gas hydrate technology

According to IPCC Fourth Report, carbon dioxide emissions from the combustion of fossil fuels have been identified as the major contributor to global warming and climate change. To reduce these environmental concerns, there is a considerable R&D effort in all technical fields to capture carbon dioxide and subsequently lower the emissions. One of the new approaches for capturing carbon dioxide is based on gas hydrate crystallization. Gas hydrates have a large capacity for the storage of gases which also resemble an attractive method for gas filtration. Gas hydrates are crystalline solids, in which low molecular weight guest molecules are trapped inside cages of hydrogen-bonded water molecules. These crystals are stable under high pressures and low temperatures. The basis of the separation is the selective partition of the target component between the hydrate phase and the gaseous phase. It is expected that carbon dioxide is preferentially encaged into the hydrate crystal phase compared to the other components. In the present paper, after a comparison of gas hydrates with existing capture technologies, a novel apparatus for gas hydrate production is illustrated and results of a first set of experimental applications of the reactor for CO2 hydrate formation and separation are presented. Results are a basis for setting up a procedure for CO2 separation and capture.