What is it about?

Gas hydrates are ice-like structures that trap gas molecules in water. Predicting their behaviour is essential for energy and gas production, but current models require many parameters. We have developed a new model that uses fewer parameters and accurately predicts the behaviour of multicomponent gas mixtures and systems with thermodynamic inhibitors. The model offers equivalent accuracy to existing tools but with 40% fewer parameters, making it valuable for industrial applications.

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Why is it important?

By reducing the number of parameters required to describe gas hydrate behaviour accurately, our model avoids overfitting and complexity, making it likely to perform better for unknown systems. This is a significant advantage over existing models, which often require more parameters to accurately describe gas hydrate behaviour, reducing their predictive power. This could have important implications for designing and operating systems involving gas hydrates, making them more accessible and cost-effective. Our work represents a significant step forward in our understanding of gas hydrate behaviour and its applications, and we look forward to seeing how it can be used to drive innovation and progress in these industries.

Perspectives

Writing this article was very rewarding and the culmination of years of work researching and developing an in-house hydrate model for use at my institution, the University of Western Australia. I am grateful to my supervisors (my co-authors) for their continued support in my research journey. I hope you found this article insightful and the outcomes helpful.

David Zhu
University of Western Australia

Read the Original

This page is a summary of: A Cage-Specific Hydrate Equilibrium Model for Robust Predictions of Industrially-Relevant Mixtures, Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, January 2023, Royal Society of Chemistry,
DOI: 10.1039/d3cp01465g.
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