Researchers Use Novel Microreactor To Study Formation of Methane Hydrate, an Icy Prison for Key Greenhouse Gas
BROOKLYN, New York – Researchers at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering are using a novel means of studying how methane and water form methane hydrate that allows them to examine discrete steps in the process faster and more efficiently.
NYU Tandon researchers led by Ryan Hartman, an assistant professor of biomolecular and chemical engineering who runs Tandon’s Flow Chemistry with Microsystems Laboratory, are using microfluidics — the precise control and manipulation of fluids by constraining them to sub-millimeter geometries — along with small changes in temperature to explore the indeterminate process by which methane gas becomes a solid hydrate when exposed to water.