Amino acid-assisted effect on hydrate-based CO2 storage in porous media with brine

Amirun Nissa Rehman; Cornelius Borecho Bavoh; Mohd Yusuf Khan; Bhajan Lal

doi:10.1039/d4ra00330f

Amino acid-assisted effect on hydrate-based CO₂ storage in porous media with brine

RSC Adv. 2024 Mar 19;14(13):9339-9350. doi: 10.1039/d4ra00330f. eCollection 2024 Mar 14.

Authors

Amirun Nissa Rehman¹, Cornelius Borecho Bavoh², Mohd Yusuf Khan¹, Bhajan Lal³

Affiliations

¹ Interdisciplinary Research Center for Hydrogen Technologies and Carbon Management, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals Dhahran 31261 Saudi Arabia amirunrehman2728@gmail.com.
² Department of Chemical and Petrochemical Engineering, University of Mines and Technology P.O. Box 237 Tarkwa Ghana.
³ Chemical Engineering Department, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS Bandar Seri Iskandar 32610 Perak Darul Ridzuan Malaysia.

Abstract

CO₂ storage as hydrates in porous media is a promising method for storing carbon dioxide (CO₂). However, the sluggish formation kinetics of hydrates urge the need to focus on the use of additives (promoters) to accelerate hydrate kinetics. This study investigates the effect of amino acid solutions in brine on CO₂ hydrate formation and dissociation kinetics in quartz sand particles QS-2 (0.6-0.8 mm) with 38% porosity. The amino acids l-methionine (l-meth), l-isoleucine (l-iso), and l-threonine (l-threo) were studied at 0.2 wt% using an autoclave hydrate reactor at 4 MPa and 274.15 K in the presence and absence of salt (3.3 wt% NaCl) in 100% water saturation. The hydrate dissociation kinetics was studied at a temperature of 277.15 K. These conditions represent the normal seabed temperature range in Malaysia and hence were used for testing CO₂ hydrate formation and dissociation kinetics in quartz sand in this study. Further, CO₂ hydrate formation and dissociation experiments were conducted with sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) and brine systems as standards for comparison. The findings reveal the best kinetics for l-meth exhibiting the highest CO₂ hydrate storage capacity. l-meth recorded a gas-to-hydrate conversion ratio of about 93% at 0.2 wt% in quartz sand with brine. Moreover, l-meth exhibited the lowest hydrate dissociation rate compared to l-iso and l-threo systems, thereby enhancing CO₂ hydrate stability in quartz sand. Comparatively, l-meth enhanced the storage capacity by 36% and reduced the induction time by more than 50% compared to conventional promoter SDS in quartz sand with brine, suggesting it to be favorable for CO₂ storage applications. CO₂ hydrate nucleation time was predicted in quartz sand with and without the best-studied amino acid l-meth system with high prediction accuracy and an absolute average deviation of 2.4 hours. The findings of this study substantiate the influence of amino acids in promoting the storage capacity of CO₂ in sediments as hydrates.