Dynamic measurements of hydrate based gas separation in cooled silica gel

Hydrate based gas separation is a promising method for carbon dioxide capture. The purpose of this study is to analyze hydrates formation and dissociation characters when gas mixture flows through cooled silica gel. The additives mixture (THF/SDS) was used to saturate the silica gel partly, and gas mixture (CO2/H2) was injected into it to form hydrates. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) images were obtained using fast spin echo multi-slice pulse sequence. Hydrates saturations were calculated quantitatively using MRI data. The experimental results showed that the optimal initial solution saturation was 34.2% in this investigation. The gas component was analyzed to assess the separation efficiency. For hydrates dissociation processes at 1 atmospheric pressure, CO2 concentrations increased obviously. Half of the six cycles showed that more than 85.00 mol% CO2 contained in the capture gas, and the lowest CO2 concentration was 64.83 mol%. Hydrate blockages appeared frequently, which restricted the contact of gas and solution and caused the incomplete transformations of residual solution to hydrates. It was a key restricted factor for hydrate based CO2 capture.