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Zhang J, Yin Z, Khan SA, Li S, Li Q, Liu X, Linga P. Path-dependent morphology of CH 4 hydrates and their dissociation studied with high-pressure microfluidics. LAB ON A CHIP 2024; 24:1602-1615. [PMID: 38323341 DOI: 10.1039/d3lc00950e] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/08/2024]
Abstract
Methane hydrates (MHs) have been considered a promising future energy source due to their vast resource volume and high energy density. Understanding the behavior of MH formation and dissociation at the pore-scale and the effect of MH distribution on the gas-liquid two phase flow is of critical importance for designing effective production strategies from natural gas hydrate (NGH) reservoirs. In this study, we devised a novel high-pressure microfluidic chip apparatus that is capable of direct observation of MH formation and dissociation behavior at the pore-scale. MH nucleation and growth behavior at 10.0 MPa and dissociation via thermal stimulation with gas bubble generation and evolution were examined. Our experimental results reveal that two different MH formation mechanisms co-exist in pores: (a) porous-type MH with a rough surface formed from CH4 gas bubbles at the gas-liquid interface and (b) crystal-type MH formed from dissolved CH4 gas. The growth and movement of crystal-type MH can trigger the sudden nucleation of porous-type MH. Spatially, MHs preferentially grow along the gas-liquid interface in pores. MH dissociation under thermal stimulation practically generates gas bubbles with diameters of 20.0-200.0 μm. Based on a custom-designed image analysis technique, three distinct stages of gas bubble evolution were identified during MH dissociation via thermal stimulation: (a) single gas bubble growth with an expanding water layer at an initial slow dissociation rate, (b) rapid generation of clusters of gas bubbles at a fast dissociation rate, and (c) gas bubble coalescence with uniform distribution in the pore space. The novel apparatus designed and the image analysis technique developed in this study allow us to directly capture the dynamic evolution of the gas-liquid interface during MH formation and dissociation at the pore-scale. The results provide direct first-hand visual evidence of the growth of MHs in pores and valuable insights into gas-liquid two-phase flow behavior during fluid production from NGHs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jidong Zhang
- Institute for Ocean Engineering, Shenzhen International Graduate School, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen 518055, China.
| | - Zhenyuan Yin
- Institute for Ocean Engineering, Shenzhen International Graduate School, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen 518055, China.
| | - Saif A Khan
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117582, Singapore
| | - Shuxia Li
- School of Petroleum Engineering, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao 266580, China
| | - Qingping Li
- State Key Laboratory of Natural Gas Hydrates, Technology Research Department CNOOC Research, Beijing 100192, China
| | - Xiaohui Liu
- Institute for Ocean Engineering, Shenzhen International Graduate School, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen 518055, China.
| | - Praveen Linga
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117582, Singapore
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Sharma MK, Leong XN, Koh CA, Hartman RL. The crystal orientation of THF clathrates in nano-confinement by in situ polarized Raman spectroscopy. LAB ON A CHIP 2024. [PMID: 38214152 DOI: 10.1039/d3lc00884c] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/13/2024]
Abstract
Gas hydrates form at high pressure and low temperatures in marine sediments and permafrost regions of the earth. Despite forming in nanoporous structures, gas hydrates have been extensively studied only in bulk. Understanding nucleation and growth of gas hydrates in nonporous confinement can help create ways for storage and utilization as a future energy source. Herein, we introduce a new method for studying crystal orientation/tilt during tetrahydrofuran (THF) hydrate crystallization under the influence of nano-confinement using polarized Raman spectroscopy. Uniform cylindrical nanometer size pores of anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) are used as a model nano-confinement, and hydrate experiments are performed in a glass microsystem for control of the flash hydrate nucleation kinetics and analysis via in situ polarized Raman spectroscopy. The average THF hydrate crystal tilt of 56 ± 1° and 30.5 ± 0.5° were observed for the 20 nm and 40 nm diameter pores, respectively. Crystal tilt observed in 20 and 40-nanometer-size pores was proportional to the pore diameter, resulting in lower tilt relative to the axis of the confinement at larger diameter pores. The results indicate that the hydrates nucleation and growth mechanism can depend on the nanoconfinement size. A 1.6 ± 0.01 °C to 1.8 ± 0.01 °C depression in melting point compared to the bulk is predicted using the Gibbs-Thomson equation as a direct effect of nucleation in confinement on the hydrate properties.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mrityunjay K Sharma
- Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, NYU Tandon School of Engineering, Brooklyn, NY, 11201, USA.
| | - Xin Ning Leong
- Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, NYU Tandon School of Engineering, Brooklyn, NY, 11201, USA.
| | - Carolyn A Koh
- Center for Hydrate Research, Department of Chemical & Biological Engineering, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO, 80401, USA
| | - Ryan L Hartman
- Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, NYU Tandon School of Engineering, Brooklyn, NY, 11201, USA.
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Datta SS, Battiato I, Fernø MA, Juanes R, Parsa S, Prigiobbe V, Santanach-Carreras E, Song W, Biswal SL, Sinton D. Lab on a chip for a low-carbon future. LAB ON A CHIP 2023; 23:1358-1375. [PMID: 36789954 DOI: 10.1039/d2lc00020b] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
Transitioning our society to a sustainable future, with low or net-zero carbon emissions to the atmosphere, will require a wide-spread transformation of energy and environmental technologies. In this perspective article, we describe how lab-on-a-chip (LoC) systems can help address this challenge by providing insight into the fundamental physical and geochemical processes underlying new technologies critical to this transition, and developing the new processes and materials required. We focus on six areas: (I) subsurface carbon sequestration, (II) subsurface hydrogen storage, (III) geothermal energy extraction, (IV) bioenergy, (V) recovering critical materials, and (VI) water filtration and remediation. We hope to engage the LoC community in the many opportunities within the transition ahead, and highlight the potential of LoC approaches to the broader community of researchers, industry experts, and policy makers working toward a low-carbon future.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sujit S Datta
- Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton NJ, USA.
| | - Ilenia Battiato
- Department of Energy Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Palo Alto CA, USA
| | - Martin A Fernø
- Department of Physics and Technology, University of Bergen, 5020, Bergen, Norway
| | - Ruben Juanes
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge MA, USA
| | - Shima Parsa
- School of Physics and Astronomy, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester NY, USA
| | - Valentina Prigiobbe
- Department of Civil, Environmental, and Ocean Engineering, Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken NJ, USA
- Department of Geosciences, University of Padova, Padova, Italy
| | | | - Wen Song
- Hildebrand Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, Austin TX, USA
| | - Sibani Lisa Biswal
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77005, USA
| | - David Sinton
- Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto ON, Canada.
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4
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Wells JD, Creek JL, Koh CA. Midstream on a chip: ensuring safe carbon dioxide transportation for carbon capture and storage. LAB ON A CHIP 2022; 22:1594-1603. [PMID: 35315861 DOI: 10.1039/d2lc00117a] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Emerging technologies like enhanced oil recovery and carbon sequestration rely on carbon dioxide water content data to ensure that pipelines remain sub-saturated to avoid corrosion and hydrate flow assurance issues. To improve throughput and confidence in the hydrate phase equilibria data to avoid pipeline blockages, further research into the carbon dioxide water content must be conducted. However, the liquid carbon dioxide regime is experimentally difficult to study and the available data disagree between studies. This work aims to provide the critical and accurate data for liquid carbon dioxide for a high pressure range (13.8 to 103.4 bar) and temperature range (20 and -30 °C) utilizing a small volume microfluidic reactor (<20 microliter) coupled with Raman spectroscopy, which can reveal any phase metastability in the system. The small volume of the microfluidic system (<20 microliter) allowed experiments to be run in a few hours, compared to a whole week for prior larger scale measurements. The carbon dioxide water content results from this work agree well with both model predictions and available literature data in the gas region; however, once carbon dioxide was converted to liquid, the data showed a weak function of pressure, similar to model predictions and some previous data sets. The discrepancies between literature data are attributed to metastable phases present in the equilibrium cells, as the data is usually taken in the carbon dioxide near critical region, close to carbon dioxide's dew point, and near the hydrate phase transition. For these reasons, it is important to observe and qualify all phases in the cell, as was done in this novel study with in situ Raman spectroscopy coupled to Midstream on a chip, to ensure accurate water content of the carbon dioxide fluid phase is being measured.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jonathan D Wells
- Center for Hydrate Research, Chemical and Biological Engineering Department, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO 80401, USA.
| | - Jefferson L Creek
- Center for Hydrate Research, Chemical and Biological Engineering Department, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO 80401, USA.
| | - Carolyn A Koh
- Center for Hydrate Research, Chemical and Biological Engineering Department, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO 80401, USA.
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Soussana TN, Weissman H, Rybtchinski B, Drori R. Adsorption-Inhibition of Clathrate Hydrates by Self-Assembled Nanostructures. Chemphyschem 2021; 22:2182-2189. [PMID: 34407283 DOI: 10.1002/cphc.202100463] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/15/2021] [Revised: 08/11/2021] [Indexed: 11/11/2022]
Abstract
The mechanism by which safranine O (SFO), an ice growth inhibitor, halts the growth of single crystal tetrahydrofuran (THF) clathrate hydrates was explored using microfluidics coupled with cold stages and fluorescence microscopy. THF hydrates grown in SFO solutions exhibited morphology changes and were shaped as truncated octahedrons or hexagons. Fluorescence microscopy and microfluidics demonstrated that SFO binds to the surface of THF hydrates on specific crystal planes. Cryo-TEM experiments of aqueous solutions containing millimolar concentrations of SFO exhibited the formation of bilayered lamellae with an average thickness of 4.2±0.2 nm covering several μm2 . Altogether, these results indicate that SFO forms supramolecular lamellae in solution, which might bind to the surface of the hydrate and inhibit further growth. As an ice and hydrate inhibitor, SFO may bind to the surface of these crystals via ordered water molecules near its amine and methyl groups, similar to some antifreeze proteins.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tamar Nicole Soussana
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Yeshiva University, 245 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY, 10016, USA
| | - Haim Weissman
- Department of Organic Chemistry, Weizmann Institute of Science, 234 Hertzel Street, PO Box 26, Rehovot, 7610001, Israel
| | - Boris Rybtchinski
- Department of Organic Chemistry, Weizmann Institute of Science, 234 Hertzel Street, PO Box 26, Rehovot, 7610001, Israel
| | - Ran Drori
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Yeshiva University, 245 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY, 10016, USA
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Wells JD, Chen W, Hartman RL, Koh CA. Carbon dioxide hydrate in a microfluidic device: Phase boundary and crystallization kinetics measurements with micro-Raman spectroscopy. J Chem Phys 2021; 154:114710. [PMID: 33752371 DOI: 10.1063/5.0039533] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Various emerging carbon capture technologies depend on being able to reliably and consistently grow carbon dioxide hydrate, particularly in packed media. However, there are limited kinetic data for carbon dioxide hydrates at this length scale. In this work, carbon dioxide hydrate propagation rates and conversion were evaluated in a high pressure silicon microfluidic device. The carbon dioxide phase boundary was first measured in the microfluidic device, which showed little deviation from bulk predictions. Additionally, measuring the phase boundary takes on the order of hours compared to weeks or longer for larger scale experimental setups. Next, propagation rates of carbon dioxide hydrate were measured in the channels at low subcoolings (<2 K from phase boundary) and moderate pressures (200-500 psi). Growth was dominated by mass transfer limitations until a critical pressure was reached, and reaction kinetics limited growth upon further increases in pressure. Additionally, hydrate conversion was estimated from Raman spectroscopy in the microfluidics channels. A maximum value of 47% conversion was reached within 1 h of a constant flow experiment, nearly 4% of the time required for similar results in a large scale system. The rapid reaction times and high throughput allowed by high pressure microfluidics provide a new way for carbon dioxide gas hydrate to be characterized.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jonathan D Wells
- Center for Hydrate Research, Chemical and Biological Engineering Department, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Colorado 80401, USA
| | - Weiqi Chen
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, New York University, Brooklyn, New York 11201, USA
| | - Ryan L Hartman
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, New York University, Brooklyn, New York 11201, USA
| | - Carolyn A Koh
- Center for Hydrate Research, Chemical and Biological Engineering Department, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Colorado 80401, USA
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7
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Experimental visualization of cyclopentane hydrate dissociation behavior in a microfluidic chip. Chem Eng Sci 2020. [DOI: 10.1016/j.ces.2020.115937] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
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8
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Morais S, Cario A, Liu N, Bernard D, Lecoutre C, Garrabos Y, Ranchou-Peyruse A, Dupraz S, Azaroual M, Hartman RL, Marre S. Studying key processes related to CO 2 underground storage at the pore scale using high pressure micromodels. REACT CHEM ENG 2020. [DOI: 10.1039/d0re00023j] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
Micromodels experimentation for studying and understanding CO2 geological storage mechanisms at the pore scale.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Anaïs Cario
- CNRS
- Univ. Bordeaux
- Bordeaux INP
- ICMCB
- Pessac Cedex
| | - Na Liu
- CNRS
- Univ. Bordeaux
- Bordeaux INP
- ICMCB
- Pessac Cedex
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | - Ryan L. Hartman
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
- New York University
- Brooklyn
- USA
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10
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Hua T, Hartman RL. Computational fluid dynamics of DNA origami folding in microfluidics. REACT CHEM ENG 2019. [DOI: 10.1039/c8re00168e] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
A computational fluid dynamics study of single and multiphase microfluidics for understanding DNA origami folding kinetics in continuous-flow.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tianyi Hua
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
- New York University
- Brooklyn
- USA
| | - Ryan L. Hartman
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
- New York University
- Brooklyn
- USA
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11
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Gavoille T, Pannacci N, Bergeot G, Marliere C, Marre S. Microfluidic approaches for accessing thermophysical properties of fluid systems. REACT CHEM ENG 2019. [DOI: 10.1039/c9re00130a] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/29/2022]
Abstract
Thermophysical properties of fluid systems under high pressure and high temperature conditions are highly desirable as they are used in many industrial processes both from a chemical engineering point of view and to push forward the development of modeling approaches.
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Affiliation(s)
- Theo Gavoille
- IFP Energies nouvelles
- 92852 Rueil-Malmaison Cedex
- France
- CNRS
- Univ. Bordeaux
| | | | | | | | - Samuel Marre
- CNRS
- Univ. Bordeaux
- Bordeaux INP
- ICMCB
- F-33600 Pessac
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12
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Pinho B, Liu Y, Rizkin B, Hartman RL. Confined methane-water interfacial layers and thickness measurements using in situ Raman spectroscopy. LAB ON A CHIP 2017; 17:3883-3890. [PMID: 29051944 DOI: 10.1039/c7lc00660h] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
Gas-liquid interfaces broadly impact our planet, yet confined interfaces behave differently than unconfined ones. We report the role of tangential fluid motion in confined methane-water interfaces. The interfaces are created using microfluidics and investigated by in situ 1D, 2D and 3D Raman spectroscopy. The apparent CH4 and H2O concentrations are reported for Reynolds numbers (Re), ranging from 0.17 to 8.55. Remarkably, the interfaces are comprised of distinct layers of thicknesses varying from 23 to 57 μm. We found that rarefaction, mixture, thin film, and shockwave layers together form the interfaces. The results indicate that the mixture layer thickness (δ) increases with Re (δ ∝ Re), and traditional transport theory for unconfined interfaces does not explain the confined interfaces. A comparison of our results with thin film theory of air-water interfaces (from mass transfer experiments in capillary microfluidics) supports that the hydrophobicity of CH4 could decrease the strength of water-water interactions, resulting in larger interfacial thicknesses. Our findings help explain molecular transport in confined gas-liquid interfaces, which are common in a broad range of societal applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bruno Pinho
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, New York University, Brooklyn, NY 11201, USA.
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