This illustration was created for the article Toward Economical Seawater-Based Methane Hydrate Formation at Ambient Temperature: A Combined Experimental and Computational Study in the ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering journal.
Exploitation of natural gases such as methane is now seen as a clean and transitional fossil energy towards zero carbon. Finding efficient and low-cost storage of these gases is a key issue in this context.
To store methane in a stable, recoverable, compact and safe solid form, it is possible to enclose it in “ice” cages also known as clathrate hydrates. However, the synthesis of these structures is a long and expensive process.
This study explores the use of green, affordable materials such as zeolites, certain amino acids and seawater as kinetic promoters of the reaction.
Role: Illustration
Commissioned by: Ahmed Omran – ENSI Caen