CO2 Capture by Injection of Flue Gas or CO2-N2 Mixtures into Hydrate Reservoirs: Dependence of CO2 Capture Efficiency on Gas Hydrate Reservoir Conditions.

Injection of flue gas or CO2-N2 mixtures into gas hydrate reservoirs has been considered as a promising option for geological storage of CO2. However, the thermodynamic process in which the CO2 present in flue gas or a CO2-N2 mixture is captured as hydrate has not been well understood. In this work, a series of experiments were conducted to investigate the dependence of CO2 capture efficiency on reservoir conditions. The CO2 capture efficiency was investigated at different injection pressures from 2.6 to 23.8 MPa and hydrate reservoir temperatures from 273.2 to 283.2 K in the presence of two different saturations of methane hydrate. The results showed that more than 60% of the CO2 in the flue gas was captured and stored as CO2 hydrate or CO2-mixed hydrates, while methane-rich gas was produced. The efficiency of CO2 capture depends on the reservoir conditions including temperature, pressure, and hydrate saturation. For a certain reservoir temperature, there is an optimum reservoir pressure at which the maximum amount of CO2 can be captured from the injected flue gas or CO2-N2 mixtures. This finding suggests that it is essential to control the injection pressure to enhance CO2 capture efficiency by flue gas or CO2-N2 mixtures injection.