Direct combustion of methane clatherates

Derek Dunn-Rankin, Ph.D.  
Professor & Chair
Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering
UC Irivine

Gas  hydrates  (clathrates)  are  ice-like  crystalline  solids  that  encapsulate  guest  gas  molecules.    It  has  become known that a significant methane storehouse is in the form of methane hydrates on the sea floor and  in  the  arctic  permafrost.    To  better  understand  the  important  implications  of  direct  utilization  of  fuel  clathrates,  this  presentation  describes  the  combustion  behavior  of  methane  as  it  is  released  from  the  clathrate cages of a methane hydrate, describing in particular the rate-of-ice melt and water evaporation during  the  hydrate  burn.    Experimental  and  theoretical  methods  are  used  to  estimate  the  heat  transfer  from  the  flame  into  the  hydrate  and  to  calculate  the  amount  of  energy  released  to  sustain  the  flame. Chemical  kinetic  effects  of  high  levels  of  water  vapor  on  the  fuel  side  of  diffusion  flames,  as  occurs  in  methane  hydrate combustion,  are  also  discussed.    Finally,  the  presentation  also  describes  briefly  the  development of a unique facility at UCI, the Deep Ocean Power Science Laboratory.  This facility is a joint effort  between  the  School  of  Engineering  and  the  School  of  Physical  Sciences  and  is  dedicated  to  exploring the opportunities for power science in the deep ocean environment.

Derek Dunn-Rankin is Professor and Chair in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of California, Irvine (UCI).  He is also co-Director for CAMP, the California Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation, a program designed to increase minority representation in science and technology.    Professor  Dunn-Rankin  received  his  Ph.D.  degree  (1985)  from  the  University  of  California,  Berkeley,  with  an  emphasis in  combustion  science.   He  was  a  post-doctoral  researcher  at  Sandia  National Laboratories Combustion Research Facility in Livermore until 1987, when he joined the faculty of Mechanical  Engineering  at  UCI.    Dr.  Dunn-Rankin’s  research  is  in  combustion  and  energy,  droplet  and  sprays,  and applications  of  laser  diagnostic  techniques  to  practical  engineering  systems,  with  recent  emphasis on electrical aspects of flames, and the direct combustion of methane hydrates.  He received a National  Science  Foundation  Presidential  Young  Investigator  Award  in  1989,  the  Society  of Automotive  Engineering  Ralph  R.  Teetor  Engineering  Educator  Award  in  1991, a  Fulbright  Scholar  Fellowship  in  1997, a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Fellowship in 2008, and the Oppenheim Prize of the Institute for the Dynamics of Explosions and Reactive Systems in 2013.