Accelerated formation of methane hydrates in porous metal foams and leucine

Abstract

Three kinds of porous metal foam, alumnium foam(AF), ion foam(IF) and copper foam(CF), were immersed into the aqueous phase, expecting to increase the equilibrium temperature, accelerate the CH4 hydrates nucleation, reduce the induction time and enhance gas consumption. CF was verified to be an optimal porous medium for CH4 hydrates due to its equilibrium temperature of 279.26 K with an induction time of 66 min around 5.0 MPa, and the accelerated gas consuming rate, showing an excellent thermodynamic-kinetic dual promotion ability. In order to enhance CH4 consumption, 0.3 wt% leucine was added as a kinetic promoter, increasing the CH4 consumption to be around 0.15 mol per mole of water, nearly 3–4 times more than that of pure water and those without leucine.