Can toluene or xylene form clathrate hydrates?
Résumé
In this communication, we examine the possibility of clathrate hydrate formation of toluene and o-, m-, or p-xylene with methane as help gas. An isochoric pressure-search method was used to measure hydrate phase equilibrium boundaries. The reliability of this method is tested by generating hydrate phase equilibrium boundary data for the methane-benzene-water system and comparing them with experimental data reported in the literature. The acceptable agreements demonstrate the reliability of the technique used in this work. The new experimental data of hydrate phase equilibrium boundary for the methane-(toluene/(o/m/p)- xylene)-water systems are compared with some selected experimental data from the literature for the methane-water system to study the possibility of shifting the hydrate phase equilibrium boundary of the latter system by the presence of toluene and o-, m-, or p-xylene. It is shown that toluene and o-, m-, or p-xylene have little or almost no effect on the hydrate phase equilibrium boundary of the methane-water system.