Reversible Methane Storage in a Polymer-Supported Semi-Clathrate Hydrate at Ambient Temperature and Pressure

Abstract

A key issue regarding the use of clathrates and semi-clathrate hydrates for practical gas storage is the pressure-temperature stability of the material. For many practical applications, the avoidance of cooling, gas overpressure, and mechanical mixing would be very desirable. Here, we show that porous emulsion-templated polymer supports greatly enhance methane uptake kinetics in tetra-iso-amylammonium bromide semi-clathrate hydrates without introducing complex mixing technologies. These systems show unprecedented thermal stability and can be decomposed upon demand to release the gas. Single crystal X-ray structure analysis of the semi-clathrates loaded with methane or krypton were obtained, confirming that the gases are stored in the dodecahedral A' and A'' cages

Hydrogen Bonding between Water and Tetrahydrofuran Relevant to Clathrate Formation

“…17,18 When considering clathrates as a condensed phase storage medium for gaseous molecules such as hydrogen, 19,20 methane, 13,[21][22][23] or CO 2 , 24-26 a lower pressure requirement has advantageous practical and energy implications.…”

Reversible methane storage in porous hydrogel supported clathrates

“…Tetrahydrofuran (THF) (Giavarini, 2008), cyclopentane (Sun et al, 2003;Zhang et al, 2004), and tetra-iso-amylammoinium bromide(TiAAB) (Wang et al, 2009) have also been used as hydrates promoters. The added promoter occupies some of the cavities in the clathrate structure, therefore reducing the volume available for the trapping of gas molecules (Carter et al, 2010).…”

Highly permeable macroporous polymers via controlled agitation of emulsion templates

“…This might enable polyHIPEs to find potential applications in many fields [10], for example since a polyHIPE's structure is similar to that of bone they have been explored for as scaffolds for tissue engineering applications [11][12][13][14]. They are also explored for potential applications in the energy sector in such varied roles as storage of hydrogen and methane clathrates [15,16], downwell filters in oil wells [7] or a polymer cement hybrids [17].…”