We first demonstrated that boric acid, an inexpensive, easily handled inorganic compound, can be used to dramatically enhance methane uptake kinetics in the formation of methane hydrate under static conditions....

Chinese herbs are rich resources for the discovery of new environmentally friendly promoters for methane hydrate formation. We demonstrated that 20 out of 300 kinds of Chinese herbs were highly...

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Water (H 2 O) is an ideal methane storage medium by forming methane hydrate (also known as "burning ice") with a maximum gravimetric capacity of up to 154.9 mg g −1 for potential methane transportation. However, the formation rate of methane hydrate is very sluggish, which is the main obstacle for its potential commercial applications. Here we first demonstrate that an inorganic composite promoter (boric acid plus calcium hydroxide) is highly effective in promoting methane hydrate formation under static conditions with a gravimetric capacity of up to 131.8 mg g −1 which is very close to that of the organic surfactant sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS, the benchmark promoter). We also show that employing inorganic alkalis to enhance the promoting effect of boric acid is a common strategy for methane hydrate formation. Furthermore, we propose that the excellent promoting effect of the inorganic composite promoters is due to the combined effect of boric acid, monoborate anion, and metal cation. Our work opens the door to a new era of highly effective inorganic composite promoter research and paves the way for hydrate-based methane (or natural gas) storage and transportation.

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