Research Projects

CCUs has been widely accepted as a feasible technique for reducing global warming. The success of CCUs projects relies on the transport of CO₂ captured from its source to the location of its utilization. Currently, the transportation of CO₂ is costly, and small-scale CCUs projects are not implementable due to lack of economical and efficient techniques for CO₂ transport. The project will focus on studies of carboxybetaine based zwitterionic surfactants as hydrate promoters for transport of CO₂ as gas hydrate. The transport of CO₂ in the form of gas hydrate using hydrate promoters will be an economical method as hydrate promoters can shift the hydrate stability zone from low temperature to ambient temperature for the same pressure condition, thus, removing the need for refrigeration and its subsequent capital expenditure. In the proposed work, carboxybetaine based zwitterionic surfactants will be synthesized, and their efficiency as hydrate promoters will be tested. Anionic and cationic surfactants have been found to act as hydrate promoters due to their capability to reduce the interfacial tension of CO₂ and water interface. Zwitterionic surfactants, which are more efficient in reducing the interfacial tension, will be more efficient as hydrate promoters. The shift of hydrate stability zone will be determined by gas hydrate setup. The experimental data will be used to determine the amount of CO₂ utilized for hydrate formation, the rate of hydrate formation and dissolution, and storage capacity. The synthesized hydrate promoter can be utilized for transportation of CO₂ in the form of gas hydrate using gas vessels and carried from the site of CO₂ source to its utilization or sequestration site. As the use of synthesized zwitterionic surfactants as hydrate promoters can reduce the amount of CAPEX and OPEX of CCUs projects, small-scale industries will be able to implement CCUs projects successfully.