Prediction of the Three-Phase Coexistence Conditions of Pure Methane and Carbon Dioxide Hydrates Using Molecular Dynamics Simulations

• Main Author: Costandy, Joseph GN
• Other Authors: Economou, Ioannis G, Castier, Marcelo, Masad, Eyad
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2015
• Subjects: molecular dynamics; direct phase coexistence; methane hydrate; bubble formation; carbon dioxide hydrate; methane solubility; carbon dioxide solubility; stochasticity; water-water interactions; water-guest interactions; Berthelot; Methane hydrate
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/1969.1/155475

Clathrate hydrates are solid crystals that consist of three-dimensional networks of hydrogen-bonded water molecules forming well-defined cages within which small “guest“ molecules are needed in order to stabilize the structures. More than 130 different molecules can form hydrates when mixed with water at relatively low temperatures and high pressures, including methane, ethane, propane, iso-butane, carbon dioxide, nitrogen and hydrogen. The accurate prediction of thermodynamic properties of clathrate hydrates has gained much attention due to the relevance of clathrate hydrates to many industrial applications. For example, hydrates play a major role in the problem of flow assurance in the oil and gas industry. They are also being considered for use in gas transport and separation applications. In addition, the existence of methane hydrates in large quantities in nature makes them a potential energy source. In this work, Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations have been used in order to determine the Hydrate – Liquid water – Guest coexistence line for methane and carbon dioxide hydrates. The direct phase coexistence method was used where slabs of the three constituent phases were separately equilibrated and then brought in contact at the conditions under investigation. In order to account for the stochastic nature of the hydrate growth and dissociation processes, many long, independent simulations at different conditions of temperature and pressure were conducted while avoiding bubble formation phenomena. This allowed for performing a statistical averaging of the results to identify the three-phase coexistence temperature at different pressures. Also, the erroneous use of dispersion tail corrections was investigated. For methane hydrates, where the Lorentz-Berthelot combining rules for the two force fields used gave accurate predictions for the solubility of methane in the aqueous phase, this approach yielded predictions that are in good agreement with experimental data. A correction to the Lorentz-Berthelot ...