Clathrates of natural gases, also called “gas hydrates”, are ice-like solids made up of water and gas molecules. They have become increasingly interesting in science and industry in the last decades, because of their potential as an energetic resource as well as because of their ability to block and damage pipelines (so-called “plugging”) under certain conditions. The mechanism of hydrate formation, however, is not fully explored yet, especially regarding the formation in the presence of substances other than gas and water molecules. Therefore, in this paper, the influence of substances with OH-molecular groups on methane hydrate formation has been thoroughly investigated in high-pressure experiments.

Hydrates of natural gases like methane have become subjects of great interest, mainly because of their potential as an energetic resource. Another important discussion topic is carbon dioxide and its function as greenhouse gas. Extracting methane from gas hydrates while simultaneously storing carbon dioxide in them (reformation) could be a promising means to solve both problems at the same time. Here, reformation of natural gas hydrates has been examined to realize technically feasible reformation processes and promising results regarding the saturation of hydrates with carbon dioxide have been achieved.

Hydrates of natural gases like methane have become subject of great interest over the last few decades, mainly because of their potential as energy resource. The exploitation of these natural gases from gas hydrates is seen as a promising mean to solve future energetic problems. Furthermore, gas hydrates play an important role in gas transportation and gas storage: in pipelines, particularly in tubes and valves, gas hydrates are formed and obstruct the gas flow. This phenomenon is called “plugging” and causes high operational expenditure as well as precarious safety conditions. In this work, research on the formation of gas hydrates under pipeline-like conditions, with the aim to predict induction times as a mean to evaluate the plugging potential, is described.

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Der unerwünschte Mitriss von Tropfen (Entrainment) in nachfolgende Apparate-und/oder Prozessbereiche stellt ein wesentliches Hemmnis für die Gestaltung und den Betrieb von energieeffizienten Gas-bzw. Dampf/flüssig-Trennprozessen, wie Rektifikation, Ab-und Desorption oder Verdampfung, dar. Ausgelöst durch Durchsatz-, Druck-und Temperaturschwankungen kommt es des Ö fteren zu Betriebszuständen, die zu Tropfenbildung und -mitriss führen. Dies resultiert in erheblichen energetischen und wirtschaftlichen Verlusten. Im Rahmen des Verbundprojekts TERESA wurden daher neue Ansätze untersucht, um Entrainment am Beispiel des Rektifikationsprozesses zu reduzieren.