Biosurfactant as a Promoter of Methane Hydrate Formation: Thermodynamic and Kinetic Studies.

Arora, Amit and Cameotra, Swaranjit Singh and Kumar, Rajnish and Balomajumder, Chandrajit and Singh, Anil Kumar and Santhakumari, B and Kumar, Pushpendra and Laik, Sukumar (2016) Biosurfactant as a Promoter of Methane Hydrate Formation: Thermodynamic and Kinetic Studies. Scientific reports, 6. p. 20893. ISSN 2045-2322

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Abstract

Natural gas hydrates (NGHs) are solid non-stoichiometric compounds often regarded as a next generation energy source. Successful commercialization of NGH is curtailed by lack of efficient and safe technology for generation, dissociation, storage and transportation. The present work studied the influence of environment compatible biosurfactant on gas hydrate formation. Biosurfactant was produced by Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain A11 and was characterized as rhamnolipids. Purified rhamnolipids reduced the surface tension of water from 72 mN/m to 36 mN/m with Critical Micelle Concentration (CMC) of 70 mg/l. Use of 1000 ppm rhamnolipids solution in C type silica gel bed system increased methane hydrate formation rate by 42.97% and reduced the induction time of hydrate formation by 22.63% as compared to water saturated C type silica gel. Presence of rhamnolipids also shifted methane hydrate formation temperature to higher values relative to the system without biosurfactant. Results from thermodynamic and kinetic studies suggest that rhamnolipids can be applied as environment friendly methane hydrate promoter.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Open Access Article Copyright of this article belongs to NPG.
Subjects:	Q Science > QR Microbiology
Depositing User:	Dr. K.P.S.Sengar
Date Deposited:	17 Feb 2016 10:49
Last Modified:	30 Sep 2016 05:24
URI:	http://crdd.osdd.net/open/id/eprint/1831

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