

FOLLOWUS
College of Chemical Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing 211816, China
Corresponding author. E-mail address: guixia@njtech.edu.cn (X. Gui).
Received:03 July 2025,
Revised:2025-08-16,
Accepted:12 September 2025,
Online First:19 November 2025,
Published:2026-02
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Guo Jinyuan, Chen Xiao, Gui Xia. C3H8 synergistic flue gas (CO2+N2) replacement of CH4 hydrate[J]. Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering, 2026, 90(2): 18-32.
There are bottleneck problems in the binary replacement process of flue gas (CO
2
+N
2
)
such as the decreased stability of the sediment layer of hydrates after replacement and the decline in replacement efficiency. This paper innovatively proposes a pathway for the replacement of natural gas hydrates by flue gas with the synergistic effect of C
3
H
8
. The study reveals that doping a trace amount of C
3
H
8
(approximately 2% (mol)) can increase the dissociation enthalpy value of flue gas hydrates by nearly 20 kJ·mol
-1
. The crystal structure of the hydrates significantly transforms from the sI type to the sII type
which promotes the occupation of N
2
molecules in the small cages (with an increase of about 5%). This leads to a reduction of the phase equilibrium conditions by 15% to 25% through molecular scale pressure sharing. C
3
H
8
and N
2
have a synergistic effect on the re
covery of CH
4
hydrates. Compared with the flue gas without C
3
H
8
doping
the flue gas doped with 3.5% C
3
H
8
can increase the CH
4
recovery rate by approximately 4.5% and the N
2
sequestration rate by about 5%
while maintaining a high CO
2
sequestration rate. Since it is a surface reaction
doping an excessive amount of C
3
H
8
(more than 5%) does not significantly improve the CH
4
recovery rate. This study provides a new option for the design of engineering schemes and processes for the replacement-based exploitation of natural gas hydrates.
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