China: Study of CO2 storage in gas hydrates in oceanic sediments

Gas hydrates, also known as clathrate hydrates, are solid crystalline of hydrogen-bonding water network encapsulating gas molecules which usually are hydrophobic natural gas, especially CH4 and CO2 within cages created by the water lattice. The big challe nge is to understand the possibility to extract methane from hydrates and store carbon dioxide there in stead. One of the areas which can shed the light on this problem is mechanical properties of hydrates. The project will focus on studying the compressi bility, Young modulus, Poisson ration and other properties in order to understand the stability conditions of, in particular, CO2 hydrates. We have the facilities to study these properties with the help of molecular simulations in Norway and experimental ly in China. This will allow to understand the problem from different perspectives. The project aims to extend the collaboration between NTNU and CUG started in 2009 by a sabbatical of Chinese partner in Norway.