Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, Vol.59, No.31, 14115-14125, 2020
Investigation of the Effect of NaCl on the Kinetics of R410a Hydrate Formation in the Presence and Absence of Cyclopentane with Potential Application in Hydrate-Based Desalination
Serious issues regarding the scarcity of freshwater encouraged researchers to work on various methods for seawater desalination. Hydrate-based desalination (HBD) is a novel method that has received investigators' attention due to its outstanding properties. According to the literature, refrigerant hydrates have great potential to be employed in the HBD process because of their highly moderate phase equilibrium. The main purpose of the current study is to investigate the influence of different concentrations of NaCl (0, 1, 3.5, 5, and 8 wt %) on the major kinetic parameters of R410a refrigerant hydrate formation in the presence and absence of cyclopentane with the concentration of 0.5 mol % as a coformer. The experiments were performed in a stirred laboratory reactor at an initial temperature of 278.15 K and initial pressures of 0.9 and 1 MPa. The measurements of induction time and mole of gas consumption show that NaCl increases the induction time and decreases the amount of gas consumption. However, the addition of 0.5 mol % cyclopentane decreases the induction time slightly and increases the final amount of gas consumed. Besides, despite the fact that cyclopentane decreases the initial rate of gas uptake, it could promote the amount of gas consumption during hydrate formation. The results of the water-to-hydrate conversion ratio illustrated that NaCl with concentrations up to 5 wt % exhibits an insignificant decrease of water-to-hydrate conversion, while 8 wt % NaCl decreases this parameter down to 51.48%. Moreover, the positive effect of cyclopentane on the growth stage was revealed by determination of the apparent rate constant of hydrate growth. This study provides useful data for designing and understanding the HBD process via R410a hydrate formation.