Research Progress on the Driving Force of Gas Hydrate Formation

Predicting the driving force accurately is the key process to hydrate nucleating and growing of hydration reaction. The nucleating and growing process of hydrate is relevant to temperature, pressure and component of reactant, and the property of reaction tank and intermiscibility of reactant have notable effect on the formation process of hydrate with its nucleating position, the induction time, growth rate and hydration rate. However, the present driving force model of hydrate cannot predict nucleating area, induction time, growth rate and the reaction limit, and also can't explain the influence of some factors such as cooling rate, temperature disturbance and inlet way on the hydration reaction, it is uncertain of the process to gas hydrate nucleation. We introduced some driving force models, analyzed their merits and demerits, and looked into the distance of research direction to driving force in the future.