A system has been designed to study the process of generating alternative sources of natural gas.

The proprietary setup developed by Nizhny Novgorod scientists for investigating the process of forming alternative sources of natural gas—gas hydrates—was first presented in 2024 at the First Russian Gas Hydrate Conference.

“We based our design on similar equipment produced in Europe but engineered it so that the installation could be entirely assembled from domestic components,” says research assistant and engineer Ekaterina Stepanova from the engineering chemistry research laboratory at the N.I. Lobachevsky Institute of Chemistry.

The gas hydrate research installation is intended for measuring the equilibrium pressure and temperature of hydrate formation for individual gases or gas mixtures. Its operation principle relies on measuring the actual conditions under which hydrates form from the tested mixture, which is supplied to a sealed cell with water using installed sensors. The setup consists of three 40-milliliter cells, a thermostat, pressure and temperature sensors, a stepper motor, a mixing system using a stainless steel ball, shut-off valves, and fittings, as well as a controlling personal computer.

“A gas hydrate is a solid crystalline structure that looks like ice, but it contains gas within it. Gas hydrates are quite common in nature, and in our laboratory, we examine technogenic hydrates using our designed setup. The results of these studies could later be applied in the oil and gas industry,” clarifies Ekaterina Stepanova.

Natural gas hydrates are an unconventional form of energy fuel, as natural gas exists in a non-standard state for it, specifically: gas molecules are trapped within crystalline frameworks made of water molecules, which maintain their stability under high pressure and low temperatures. In addition to energy potential, technogenic gas hydrates exhibit several properties that allow them to be used for gas separation, desalination of water, and gas transportation.

Work on creating the proprietary setup for studying the gas hydrate formation process began in the fall of 2022 by Nizhny Novgorod scientists. The foundation for its creation was reverse engineering a German setup that operates on the principle of "oscillating cells."

This work was carried out by scientists from the N.I. Lobachevsky Institute of Chemistry at NNGU with financial support from the Russian Science Foundation, as well as under the Strategic Academic Leadership Program “Priority 2030” of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of Russia.

Results have been published in a leading chemistry journal, Chemical Engineering and Processing — Process Intensification.