About this Research Topic
Gas hydrates, formed by gas and water molecules at suitable pressures and temperatures, have been endowed with important potential in gas purification and storage, desalination, refrigeration, etc. Achieving the rapid formation of gas hydrates is critical to utilizing this technology, which has aroused great attention during the past 2-3 decades. Mechanical methods such as stirring, bubbling, and spraying can efficiently enhance hydrate formation rate by enhancing the gas/liquid contact. However, the extra energy consumption cannot be neglected. Using additives (also called promoters), such as surfactants, amino acids, metal-nanoparticles, carbon-materials, cyclopentane, tetrahydrofuran, etc. can achieve excellent promotion of gas hydrate formation at a low dosage, and is therefore superior in helping to achieve the industrial application of hydrate technologies.
Even with 20-30 years of research, promoters in gas hydrate formation are used almost exclusively at the lab scale, far from industrial applications. This is because several problems still exist, including the indistinct promotion mechanisms and kinetic and thermodynamic models of different promoters and the defects of current promoters, such as foam generation with surfactants, the low stability and cyclable performance of nanofluids and dry water, the high dosage and relatively low efficiency of porous materials, etc. However, given the great potential of the promoters in bringing gas hydrate technology to the industrial sector, more work should be carried out in the research on hydrate promoters. Therefore, this Research Topic presents both summaries on and the most recent developments in current promoters, with a focus on new physical insight, in the aim of a comprehensive evaluation of the status of current research.
The current Research Topic aims to cover promising and novel research trends in hydrate promoters with the application of gas storage, CO2 capture, desalination, refrigeration, etc. Article types including original research, reviews, mini reviews, and perspectives will be welcomed. Areas to be covered in this Research Topic may include, but are not limited to:
• Novel promoters for gas hydrate formation
• Reaction dynamics and kinetics of the current promoters
• Mechanistic/physical insights into the promotion of current promoters
• Molecular dynamics simulations of gas hydrate formation in the presence of promoters
Even with 20-30 years of research, promoters in gas hydrate formation are used almost exclusively at the lab scale, far from industrial applications. This is because several problems still exist, including the indistinct promotion mechanisms and kinetic and thermodynamic models of different promoters and the defects of current promoters, such as foam generation with surfactants, the low stability and cyclable performance of nanofluids and dry water, the high dosage and relatively low efficiency of porous materials, etc. However, given the great potential of the promoters in bringing gas hydrate technology to the industrial sector, more work should be carried out in the research on hydrate promoters. Therefore, this Research Topic presents both summaries on and the most recent developments in current promoters, with a focus on new physical insight, in the aim of a comprehensive evaluation of the status of current research.
The current Research Topic aims to cover promising and novel research trends in hydrate promoters with the application of gas storage, CO2 capture, desalination, refrigeration, etc. Article types including original research, reviews, mini reviews, and perspectives will be welcomed. Areas to be covered in this Research Topic may include, but are not limited to:
• Novel promoters for gas hydrate formation
• Reaction dynamics and kinetics of the current promoters
• Mechanistic/physical insights into the promotion of current promoters
• Molecular dynamics simulations of gas hydrate formation in the presence of promoters
Keywords: Gas hydrates, Promoters, Promotion mechanisms, Kinetics and thermodynamics, Molecular dynamic simulations
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