• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.46 no.6
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• pp.1095-1099
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• 2008

In this study, we investigated that hydrate formation and phase behavior of the $THF+H_2$ binary clathrate hydrates. In order to confirm the binary clathrate hydrate formation we employed the Raman and NMR spectroscopies that are known to be quite powerful tools, particularly for examining the cage occupancy pattern of guest molecules. In addition, we traced the P-T profiles from clathrate hydrate formation and dissociation process, which made it possible for the resulting phase equilibrium boundary to be clearly established. In the binary clathrate hydrate matrix we further identified that the relatively large THF molecules can only occupy the large $5^{12}6^4$ cavities, while the small $H_2$ molecules are entrapped in the empty $5^{12}$ cavities in structure-II, making the hydrate to be stable above 273 K even at relatively low pressure condition. Considering that pure $H_2$ hydrate can be produced at the extreme pressures higher that 1,000 bar, we can conclude that the water-soluble second guest inclusion induces $H_2$ storage and transportation to be readily achievable under much milder conditions.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.52 no.6
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• pp.814-820
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• 2014

In this work, hydrate inhibition performance of water-soluble polymers including pyrrolidone, caprolactam, acrylamide types were evaluated using torque measurement and high pressure differential scanning calorimeter (HP ${\mu}$-DSC). The obtained experimental results suggest that the studied polymers represent the kinetic hydrate inhibition (KHI) performance. 0.5 wt% polyvinylcaprolactam (PVCap) solution shows the hydrate onset time of 34.4 min and subcooling temperature of 15.9 K, which is better KHI performance than that of pure water - hydrate onset time of 12.3 min and subcooling temperature of 6.0 K. 0.5 wt% polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) solution shows the hydrate onset time of 27.6 min and the subcooling temperature of 13.2 K while polyacrylamide-co-acrylic acid partial sodium salt (PAM-co-AA) solution shows less KHI performance than PVP solution at both 0.5 and 5.0 wt%. However, PAM-co-AA solution shows slow growth rate and low hydrate amount than PVCap. In addition to hydrate onset and growth condition, torque change with time was investigated as one of KHI evaluation methods. 0.5 wt% PVCap solution shows the lowest average torque of 6.4 N cm and 0.5 wt% PAM-co-AA solution shows the average torque of 7.2 N cm. For 0.5 wt% PVP solution, it increases 11.5 N cm and 5.0 wt% PAM-co-AA solution shows the maximum average torque of 13.4 N cm, which is similar to the average torque of pure water, 15.2 N cm. Judging from the experimental results obtained by both an autoclave and a HP ${\mu}$-DSC, the PVCap solution shows the best performance among the KHIs in terms of delaying hydrate nucleation. From these results, it can be concluded that the torque change with time is useful to identify the flow ability of tested solution, and the further research on the inhibition of hydrate formation can be approached in various aspects using a HP ${\mu}$-DSC.