The Impact of Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate on Methane Hydrate Volume Fraction in a Batch Rocking Cell Reactor

Natural gas holds significant importance as a prospective energy source for meeting growing energy demands in the future. Gas hydrates offer a solution for the transportation and storage of natural gas. Within the sphere of gas hydrate formation, both the kinetics and thermodynamics play crucial roles and directly impact the economic feasibility of the process. In our current study, we focus on examining one specific kinetic parameter related to hydrate formation: the methane hydrate volume fraction (HVF) produced within a stirred batch reactor operating at a speed of 10 rpm. Our experiments were done out in a double-walled reactor with a capacity of 169 cm3, maintaining a temperature of 275.15 K and a pressure of 7.5 MPa, utilizing a constant volume-constant temperature methodology. The experimental findings indicated that the utilization of SDS, noticeably, increases the amount of water to hydrate conversion, and the amount of combined volume of unreacted water and formed hydrate during hydrate growth. The addition of 350 ppm and 700 ppm SDS resulted in an increase in HVF by 491.2% and 495.7%, respectively, after 1 hour of hydrate growth.