In light of the 60-year anniversary
of the publishing of “Clathrate
Solutions” by van der Waals and Platteeuw in 2019, we present
a critical review of the famed solid solution model first disclosed
in 1959. First, we lay out the groundwork in the 1950s aimed at the
development of a phenomenological approach to clathrate modeling.
Then we review the statistical thermodynamics fundamentals of the
model, considering van der Waals and Platteeuw’s earlier works,
to obtain a consistent interpretation of the model. We turn our focus
to clathrate hydrates and discuss the major contributions that led
to the current state-of-the-art of gas hydrate thermodynamic modeling.
Finally, we present some of the areas in clathrate thermodynamics
that we foresee as the new frontiers in this subject. We expect this
review to help newcomers to clathrate science in elucidating some
subtle aspects of the model and to intrigue clathrate experts with
a fresh look on this well-established solid solution model.
Diverse engineering fields request flash calculations like isothermal flash, isenthalpic flash, and isentropic flash. They can be cast as minimization of a thermodynamic state-function and solved by Michelsen's Q-function approach. Flash calculations for open systems, i.e. systems where chemical potentials are specified instead of the mole numbers for some components, also belong to this scope. By analyzing the construction of Q-functions through Legendre transforms, we extend this approach to the flash for open systems in the absence or presence of chemical reactions, resulting in general formulations for various specifications. For systems without reactions, the classical framework using mole numbers as independent variables is employed; for those with reactions, the modified-RAND framework is employed. We present examples for open systems at constant temperature and pressure. Using the Q-function minimization, we can solve multicomponent non-reactive or reactive systems at a specified chemical potential with quadratic convergence over a wide range of conditions.
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