Narrow Results

A pilot CO₂ hydrate slurry production system was built and tested. The density of CO₂ hydrate slurry was experimentally investigated and the relation between the density and the solid fraction has been established. The apparent viscosity of water, CO₂ solution and CO₂ hydrate slurry was investigated with a XL7-100 online resonant viscometer. We find that when the solid mass fraction in slurry increases, the density and apparent viscosity of CO₂ slurry also increase. CO₂ hydrate solid particles contribute only slightly to the viscosity increase when the solid mass fraction increased from 1.59% to 28% from our experimental results. Higher solid mass fraction can be achieved when more CO₂ gas is injected into the loop under suitable hydrate formation conditions. The pure hydrate's dissociation enthalpy was evaluated by Micro Differential Scanning Calorimetry system. The enthalpy of CO₂ hydrate slurry mainly depends on solid mass fraction. Real-time coupled multielectrode array sensor probes were applied to measure the maximal localized corrosion rate of three different materials subjected to CO₂ hydrate slurry and saturated CO₂ solution in the temperature range of 274.15–291.15 K and pressure range of 2.5–3.0 MPa. For a long-term usage in a mixture of CO₂ saturated aqueous solution and hydrate slurry environment, carbon steel materials are to be unacceptable from the corrosion resistance point of view. In contrast, stainless steel type 304L and copper 110 have presented very low corrosion rates.

The desiccant cooling mechanism is one of the alternate methods to control the air humidity compared to the conventional air conditioning system. An experimental investigation has been carried out in the current research using a hybrid desiccant in a liquid desiccant dehumidification system. Triethylene glycol (TEG) mixed with different proportions of magnesium chloride (MgCl₂) has been used as the hybrid desiccants. The performance of the dehumidifier was measured using the parameter moisture removal rate and enthalpy effectiveness. The blends of TEG and MgCl₂ gave a better moisture removal rate (MRR) as compared to 100% TEG. The MRR and moisture effectiveness increased with the increasing desiccant flow rate and air flow rate for all of the blend ratios. The blend with 25% MgCl₂ and 75% TEG concentration had relatively high MRR and dehumidification effectiveness. The study reveals that if an optimized blend of TEG and MgCl₂ is used as the desiccant instead of a neat TEG, it will overcome the high viscosity problems of TEG and become one of the promising candidates for sustainable energy sources.