Open Access Review Article Arora et al., J Pet Environ Biotechnol 2014, 5:2 DOI: 10.4172/2157-7463.1000170 Volume 5 • Issue 2 • 1000170 J Pet Environ Biotechnol ISSN: 2157-7463 JPEB, an open access journal Abstract The increasing demand of fossil fuels resources and their continuous consumption has created a necessity for exploring the alternative resources of energy like gas hydrates. Gas hydrates exist under oceans and in permafrost regions. They are also known as methane hydrates or methane clathrates. These are stable at high pressure and low temperature. These are formed when methane gas comes in contact with sediments saturated with water. Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Bacillus subtilis were found in gas hydrates samples investigations from Gulf of Mexico and these microbes generated biosurfactants like Rhamnolipid and Surfactin. The current paper reports the effects of biosurfactants such as Rhamnolipid, Surfactin, Snomax, Emulsan, Phospholipids, Hydroxystearic acid etc. on Gas Hydrate formation. Effects of Biosurfactants on Gas Hydrates Amit Arora 1 , Swaranjit Singh Cameotra 2 *, Rajnish Kumar 3 , Pushpendra Kumar 4 , Chandrajit Balomajumder 1 1 Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, India 2 Institute of Microbial Technology, Chandigarh, India 3 Chemical Engineering and Process Development Division, National Chemical Laboratory, Pune, India 4 Keshav Dev Malviya Institute of Petroleum Exploration, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Dehradun, India Keywords: Gas hydrates; Rhamnolipid; Surfactin; Snomax; Emulsan; Hydroxystearic acid; Phospholipid Introduction Gas hydrates belong to a class of inclusion compounds and are known as clathrates. In these class of compounds host molecules like water encapsulates the guest molecules like methane, ethane, propane, CO 2 etc. and forms a molecular cage. In these types of compounds only intermingling of molecules takes place and there is no chemical reaction occurs as such. Water molecules form hydrogen bonding and forms a polyhedral cavity and the guest molecules occupies the void. Te CO 2 sequestration can help in releasing the methane captured in gas hydrates below the sea foors. Te amount of energy released when CO 2 gas hydrates gets formed is more than the amount of energy required to dissociate methane gas hydrates, So, CO 2 sequestration in gas hydrates can achieve two objectives at one time i.e. it can reduce the global warming and give the energy [1]. Te gas hydrate reserves around the globe have organic carbon contained in them almost double than the amount contained in all fossil fuels on Earth as shown in Figure 1. Molecular Structure Te common structure formed by gas hydrates is structure I which is formed by gases like methane and molecules like propane, natural gas form structure II. Te Structure I consist of 2 small cages made up by 12 pentagonal surfaces called “5 12 ” and 6 larger cages of again 12 pentagonal and two hexagonal surfaces called 5 12 6 2 [3]. Te unit cell consists of water molecules = (12x5 12 +2x5 12 6 2 = 46) [4]. Structure II consist of 16 small cages made up by 12 pentagonal surfaces called “5 12 ” and 8 larger cages of again 12 pentagonal and four hexagonal surfaces called 5 12 6 4 [3]. Te unit cell consists of water molecules = (16x5 12 +8x5 12 6 4 = 136) [4]. Te hydrate cavities of structure I and structure II as shown in Figure 2. For methane hydrate in structure I complete flling of both the large (5 12 6 2 ) and small (5 12 ) cavities by methane molecules will give hydrate i.e. CH 4 •5.75H 2 O. However complete flling of occupancy is not possible which leads to a hydrate ratio of around 1:6 (i.e. CH 4 •6H 2 O), which is equivalent to 96% cage occupancy [5,6], based on this 1 m 3 of methane gas hydrate can occupy 167 m 3 of methane at STP. Physical Properties of Gas Hydrates Gas Hydrates are non-stoichiometric compounds Gas Hydrates *Corresponding author: Swaranjit Singh Cameotra, Senior Principal Scientist, Institute of Microbial Technology, Sector 39A, Chandigarh -160036, India, Tel: +91-9041036750; E-mail: ssc@imtech.res.in Received March 14, 2014; Accepted April 17, 2014; Published April 25, 2014 Citation: Arora A, Cameotra SS, Kumar R, Kumar P, Balomajumder C (2014) Effects of Biosurfactants on Gas Hydrates. J Pet Environ Biotechnol 5: 170. doi:10.4172/2157-7463.1000170 Copyright: © 2014 Arora A, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Soil 7.45% Dissolved OM in water 5.21% Land biota 4.41% Peat 2.66% Others 0.37 % Fossil Fuels 26.62% Gas Hydrates 53.24% Figure 1: Distribution of organic carbon on Earth (Total 18,777 Gt) [2], Gt = Giga tonne. Journal of Petroleum & Environmental Biotechnology J o u rn a l o f P et r o l e u m & E n v iro n m en ta l Bi o t e c h n o l o g y ISSN: 2157-7463