Storage of methane gas in propane hydrate

CHED 1446

Yazmin L Cazares, YCazares@uci.edu, Department of Chemistry, University of California, Irvine, 1041 W. Peltason Dr. Apt. F, Irvine, CA 92617
Gas hydrates, also known as clathrates, are of interest due to their gas storage potential. Clathrates are solids with a similar structure to that of ice. However, they are more complex than ice because they consist of cages of water that form around gas molecules that are held together by hydrogen bonding. In the laboratory, samples of hydrocarbon hydrates are formed to study their thermodynamic properties that will help us find a practical way to store methane. Our starting material is snow which is inserted into a sample cell that is pressurized with propane and methane gas. Propane hydrate is first formed and used as a storage medium for methane gas. As mixed clathrates are slowly decomposed temperature and pressure data is monitored with a computer to investigate if there is a correlation between the amount of energy stored and the temperature at which it stabilizes up to.