Molecular insights into the growth/dissociation of CO2/CH4 mixed hydrate: Effects of temperature, addition of NaCl, and CO2

Recovering CH4 from hydrate reservoirs by injecting CO2 has the potential to mitigate climate change by sequestering CO2 in hydrate form. However, complete CH4 recovery via this route is impractical, leading to CO2/CH4 mixed hydrate formation. Understanding the stability of these mixed hydrates under different environmental conditions is essential for optimizing long-term CO2 storage. Therefore, we perform molecular dynamics simulations of CO2/CH4 mixed hydrates under four conditions: (i) Lw-H phases only, (ii) with additional CO2 molecules, (iii) with Na+/Cl- ions, and (iv) with both CO2 and salt ions in the aqueous phase. Simulations are performed at 30.5 bar and 250 and 273 K to investigate the tendency of the hydrate to either grow or dissociate. At 250 K, additional CO2 molecules lead to the growth of CO2 hydrate, while NaCl inhibits CO2 hydrate growth by tightly binding water molecules in specific orientations, limiting their availability for hydrate formation. Nanobubble formation and the salting-out effect of NaCl on guest solubility are also observed. We observe that CO2 molecules occupy both small and large cages in the grown CO2 hydrate structure, with some unoccupied small and large cavities also present in the structure. At 273 K, hydrate dissociation occurs in all cases, highlighting the dominant influence of temperature. Here, NaCl shows a bubble-dependent influence on dissociation, i.e., enhanced dissociation in the presence of a CO2 nanobubble and slower dissociation otherwise. The study presented here helps gain insights into efficient CO2 storage in a hydrate reservoir.