Methane Hydrate Decomposition with Radio Frequency Argon Jet Plasma

• Main Authors: Ken, Fujiwara, Shinfuku, Nomura, Shinobu, Mukasa, Hiromichi, Toyota, Ismail, Rahim
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: English
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: FAKULTAS TEKNIK; Pendidikan Teknik Otomotif; KARYA ILMIAH DOSEN; Methane hydrate
• Online Access: http://eprints.unm.ac.id/21566/; http://eprints.unm.ac.id/21566/2/Methane%20Hydrate%20Decomposition%20with%20Radio%20Frequency%20Argon%20Jet%20Plasma1%20%281%29.pdf; http://eprints.unm.ac.id/21566/1/Prosiding%20Internasional-Methane%20Hydrate%20Decomposition.pdf; http://eprints.unm.ac.id/21566/4/Turnitin_Methane%20Hydrate%20Decomposition%20with%20Radio%20Frequency%20Argon%20Jet%20Plasma.pdf

The purpose of this study is to decompose methane hydrate into hydrogen gas by the in-liquid plasma method. Two types of in-liquid plasma methods are proposed in order to decompose methane hydrate under pressures ranging from 0.1MPa to 1MPa. One is the radio frequency (RF) in-liquid plasma, which has had satisfactory results for plasma decomposition in various liquids. The other is the RF argon plasma jet methods, which generates plasma stably under severe environmental condition such as extremely low temperature and high pressure conditions. With these plasma methods, most of input energy exerted is for melting and breaking down the hydrate. The relative volume of hydrogen gas in the generated gas decreases as pressure increases, because a higher output power is necessary under the higher pressure. The methane hydrate is broken down into high temperature hydrogen gas, methane gas, and water steam, hence, there is no concern about greenhouse gases such as methane hydrate re-hydrating during this process. If a CO2 plasma jet could be utilized in substitution for argon gas, it would enable the conversion of the methane hydrate into CO2 hydrate. This suggests that this method could be used to solidify CO2 or other carbon components on the ocean floor.