Scale-Up of Hydrate-Based Solidified Natural Gas Technology Using Kinetic Promoters and Porous Metal Packing

Amino acid-based biosurfactants have attracted considerable interest for hydrate-based methane storage. However, slow hydrate growth rates compared with SDS and scale-up challenges limit their practical application in solidified natural gas technology. This study investigates the synergistic effects of these kinetic promoters and porous packing on methane hydrate formation. Both 500 mL and 25 L reactors are used under various conditions to assess the potential for scale-up. All experiments are performed at a controlled temperature of around 1 °C and an initial methane pressure of 75 bar. Experiments were conducted using methionine, tryptophan, and SDS at concentrations of 0, 0.05, 0.1, 0.25, and 0.5 wt % in aqueous solution with and without porous metal packing to evaluate the synergic effects of additive concentration and packing on hydrate formation kinetics. The incorporation of packing significantly enhances hydrate formation rate without any significant improvement in gas consumption due to improved mass transfer and gas–liquid contact. The increase in reactor scale leads to slower hydrate formation kinetics due to limitations in heat and mass transfer, despite achieving similar final gas consumption and hydrate conversion. However, the incorporation of packing significantly enhances the hydrate formation rate in the large-scale reactor. For instance, the hydrate formation rate increases by approximately 26.78% when packing is used along with tryptophan. The results from this study facilitates the understanding of natural gas storage for scale-up applications through the synergistic effects of kinetic promoters and porous packing.