Abstract
Understanding the properties of methane hydrate formation is important for the storage and transport of methane in the form of gas hydrates. In this study, nanosecond simulations were performed to investigate the formation of methane hydrates in the presence of Fe, Cu, Ag and their corresponding oxide nanoparticles. The effects of different nanoparticle and nanoparticle concentration on the rate and amount of CH4 hydrate formation were explored. The simulation results show that metal nanoparticles have a mixed effect on the kinetic improvement of methane hydrate generation process, which varies with the type and concentration of metal nanoparticles. Compared to the pure water system, the formation of methane hydrate was promoted to different degrees in the metal nanoparticle system, in the order of nano-Ag > nano-Cu > nano-Fe, which is mainly attributed to the excellent thermal conductivity of the metal itself. For the single metal oxide nanoparticle system, the promotion effect of nano-Ag2O was not obvious, while the promotion effect of nano-CuO was the best, and the promotion degree is in the order of nano-CuO > nano-FeO > nano-Ag2O. For the multiple metal oxide nanoparticle systems, the two nano-FeO system showed faster growth rate and more hydrate cages formed, which was better than the single nano-FeO and nano-Fe systems. The nano-CuO system showed the same results. However, the promotion effect of nano-Ag2O was slightly smaller than that of nano-Ag at the particle size and concentration studied in this work.
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