Combination of Silica Gel and Surfactin Promoting Methane Hydrate Formation

Abstract

Abstract Recently, gas hydrates based technologies have been exploited for few novel applications such as storage and transpiration of natural gas, gas mixtures separation, CO2 capture, and seawater desalination. Most of these applications are currently facing a challenge of low rate of gas hydrate formation. Chemical additives like surfactants can play a role of a good kinetic promoter for gas hydrate formation. The present study reports the application of biosurfactant for enhancing gas hydrate formation. Biosurfactant was produced by Bacillus subtilis strain A21. These types of microbes show their presence in the real gas hydrate sites also. The surfactin was characterized using many sophisticated techniques, conforming the formation of surfactin. It was used in the presence of fixed bed media of silica gel, and it was observed that surfactin in the presence of silica gel increased the consumption of moles of methane as well as reduced the induction time also as well as the conversion was also increased up to 27.9% for 390 min for 1000 ppm surfactin hence indicating it to be a clean and novel promoter of methane hydrate formation in combination with silica gel which can replace its synthetic counterparts which have environmental concerns.