A group of researchers have developed a technology for preparing artificial methane hydrates using activated coal materials as nano-reactors. One of the keys of this research was that scientists were able to reduce the process to form methane hydrates, which takes a long time in nature, to just a few minutes.

The group of the University of Alicante worked on design and synthesis of the material. Afterwards, neutron scattering experiments were performed at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (Oxford, Reino Unido) and X-ray diffraction experiments were also performed at the Materials Science Powder Diffraction (MSPD) beamline of the . Both studies confirmed the methane hydrate formation and gave insight into the structure of the synthesized nanocrystals.

Results of this research are a step forward to understanding the artificial synthesis process of these natural structures, and a new pathway into the use of fuels such as natural gas for transport (instead of petrol and diesel), or for long-distance transport of natural gas, due to their high energy density and their stability when temperatures are higher than liquid natural gas.

This research has been led by the Laboratory of Advanced Materials of the University of Alicante and has also included the participation of the Instituto de Tecnología Química (ITQ-UPV-CSIC), the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (USA), the Institut Català d'Investigació Química (ICIQ), the Research Center for Exotic Nanocarbons (Japan) and the ALBA Synchrotron.

Reference: "Methane hydrate formation in confined nanospace can surpass nature" Mirian E. Casco, Joaquín Silvestre-Albero, Anibal J. Ramírez-Cuesta, Fernando Rey, Jose L. Jordá, Atul Bansode, Atsushi Urakawa, Inma Peral, Manuel Martínez-Escandell, Katsumi Kaneko & Francisco Rodríguez-Reinoso Nature Communications 6:6432 (2015), doi: 10.1038/ncomms7432

Link to Universidad de Alicante website

Structure of the methane hydrate. Wikipedia