INNOvation of clathrates HYDrates for carbon capture and energy gas storage – INNOHYD

As part of a group specialised on the development on clathrate hydrates based technology, we, Mines Saint-Etienne, want to develop fundamental knowledge about non equilibrium thermodynamics. The principal objectives of our INNOHYD project are to:

• Furnish valuable data of mixed clathrate hydrates in presence of promoters and salts for energy management issues and water treatment,
• Provide collaborative software for phase equilibrium simulation under equilibrium and non-equilibrium conditions,
• Develop emergent on-going hydrate-based technology laboratory resources.

SPIN Centre, EMSE, have a history of competence both scientifically and technologically, with Clathrate hydrates. We have published many articles, and participated to diverse studies on carbon capture, flow-assurance, hydrate-based air-conditioning system, and water treatment. SPIN centre is one of the only laboratories worldwide, able to provide storage capacity data for gas capture, and working on hydrate non-equilibrium crystallization. To amass further success, we propose to hire a PhD candidate, improve our actual apparatus, add new analysis tools (RAMAN), and provide community with new data and software development.

In the future identified perpectives of energy management (natural gas storage, carbon capture, hydrogen storage and separation, water treatment), INNOHYD project program is to:
•Acquire data for mixed hydrates, including:
o Mixed gas hydrates without additives from CO2/CH4/N2 mixtures, and, eventually H2, in order to complete the small existing database providing hydrate composition, storage capacities, and hydrate volume.
o Establish new data in presence of electrolytes (Na+, K+, Mg2+, Ca2+, Cl-, SO42-),
o Improve current apparatus for phase analysis with RAMAN spectroscopy.
o Test additives to obtain complete and trustworthy data.
• Develop some thermodynamic models to provide tools for process engineering.
• Strengthen in-house (EMSE) free software GasHyDyn. To do that, we need to:
o Optimize molecules parameters for standard models,
o Obtain practical correlations for storage capacities and hydrate volume as a function of the conditions,
o Couple existing models with approaches involving electrolytes. This also involves salt co-precipitation.
• First test of gas capture at pilot-scale in bubble column (also as perspective in the end)

In the end, benefits of this projects are :
• Emerging hydrate-based solutions for energy capture and storage,
• Improved alternative CO2 capture and storage solutions,
• Novel ideas for water treatment and strategic material recovery processes.
• New collaborative software for process simulation under equilibrium and non-equilibrium conditions.
In a few words, this project will support industry, and scientific community by providing valuable data, and simulation tools.

Industrial perspectives in this field are:
• Carbon capture,
• Natural gas storage,
• Hydrogen purification and storage,
• Water desalination,
• Wastewater treatment,
• Strategic metal recovery from wastewater,
• Integrated hydrate-based facility: gas capture + refrigerated transportation + water treatment/desalination.