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Gas hydrate

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11 views

Gas hydrate

Uploaded by

thebigad22
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Assignment 8

Gas hydrate or gas clathrate is a crystalline solid; its building blocks consist of a
gas molecule surrounded by a cage of water molecules. The water molecules are
connected by hydrogen bonds, but the gas molecule is not bonded; rather it is
simply trapped within the cage and held by Vander Waal forces (the term
“clathrate” refers to a cage or lattice-like structure). Because the material is
formed of hydrogen-bonded water molecules, it looks like ice and is very similar to
ice, although of different crystallographic form, having its crystal structure
stabilized by the guest gas molecules. A conceptual model of a gas hydrate cage is
shown in Fig. 1, containing a methane molecule. This is the most common gas
hydrate structure, which is classified as structure I. Structure I gas hydrate has the
smallest cavity sizes and is comfortable holding methane molecules or other gas
molecules of similar size, such as nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen
sulfide. The structure of the clathrate cages varies depending on the size of the
guest molecule, and some molecules are too small (smaller than argon) or too big
to exist in any of the gas hydrate structures. If larger gas molecules are available,
at least two other gas hydrate structures are known. These are structure II,
holding molecules up to the size of propane and isobutane, and structure H,
holding even larger molecules like isopentane and neohexene. Actually, more than
one cavity size exists in a structure, and thus, a mixture of gases can be
accommodated. Because the gas molecules are held within a crystal lattice, they
may be held closer together than in the gaseous state, at least at lower pressures,
so gas hydrate can act as a concentrator of gas. For example, a unit volume
of methane hydrate at one atmosphere (and 0 °C) can hold 163 volumes of
methane gas at the same conditions.
Assignment 8

FIGURE 1. Diagrammatic concept of a structure I gas hydrate cage

holding a methane molecule. H, O, and C represent hydrogen, oxygen,

and carbon atoms. Double lines, filled or unfilled, represent chemical

bonds.

Many gas hydrates are stable in the deep ocean conditions, but methane
hydrate is by far the dominant type, making up >99% of gas hydrate in the
ocean floor. The methane is almost entirely derived from
microbial methanogenesis, predominantly through the process of carbon
dioxide reduction. In some areas, such as the Gulf of Mexico, gas hydrates
are also created by other thermogenic ally formed hydrocarbon gases and
other clathrate-forming gases such as hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide.
Such gases escape from sediments at depth, rise along faults, and form gas
hydrate at or just below the seafloor, but on a worldwide basis these are of
minor volumetric importance compared to methane hydrate. Methane
hydrate exists in several forms in marine sediments. In coarse-grained
sediments it often forms as disseminated grains and pore fillings, whereas
in finer silt/clay deposits it commonly appears as nodules and veins. Gas
hydrate also is observed as surface crusts on the seafloor

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