Nucleation Probability Distributions of Methane-Propane Mixed Gas Hydrates in Salt Solutions and Urea

Abstract

We studied nucleation probability distributions of a model natural gas (a mixture of 90% methane and 10% propane; C1/C3) hydrate in aqueous solutions of salts using the combinations of seven anions (F-, Cl-, Br-, I-, SCN-, NO3-, SO42-) and seven cations (NH4+, K+, Na+, Mg2+, Ca2+, Mn2+, Al3+) at a broad range of concentrations. A high pressure automated lag time apparatus (HP-ALTA) was used for the study. HP-ALTA can apply a large number (>100) of linear cooling ramps under isobaric conditions to the sample and construct nucleation probability distributions of C1/C3 mixed gas hydrate for each sample. We found that (1) ions can promote or inhibit gas hydrate formation at concentrations below ..