NMR Investigation of Methane Hydrate Dissociation

Abstract

The methane hydrate dissociation mechanism was studied on the molecular scale using 13C magic-angle spinning (MAS) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Analysis of time-resolved 13C MAS NMR spectra for methane Structure I (sI) hydrate dissociation obtained by raising the temperature above the hydrate equilibrium conditions permitted the cage occupancy and pressure to be determined during this process. The relationship between NMR methane gas chemical shift, pressure, and temperature was developed, which allows estimating the system pressure in the sealed glass tube sample at any temperature. The large to small cage occupancy ratio remained constant during hydrate dissociation suggesting that there is no preferential dissociation of hydrate cavities and the whole unit cell decomposes during dissociation. This decomposition rate is virtually the same for both the large and the small cages in methane hydrate on a per cage basis. The similar decomposition rate of both cage types shows that the sI methane hydrate dissociation mechanism differs from the formation process where preferential formation of specific hydrate cages has been observed.