Discovery and Academic Interest

Consider the notable example of hydrate researcher D.N. Glew, who first published on ethylene oxide hydrates with Dow of Canada in 1959. Upon his retirement, his interest increased, as did his productivity in hydrates. In 2003, Glew published his 19th hydrate article in a series that provided the foundation for many new advances, including the new methane-I-water phase diagram discussed in Section 4, 

The discovery in 1934 of hydrates blocking energy flowlines led to a much more intensive period of hydrate research. Without knowledge of the hydrate structures, researchers generated methods to predict and to inhibit the conditions of hydrate formation in flowlines and to prevent them. Six major efforts, driven by pipeline discovery, hallmark this period. 

In 1934, Hammerschmidt, having discovered hydrate formation in pipelines, applied colligative physical chemistry to quantify prevention chemical effects, His discovery of alcohols, glycols, and other inhibitors and his 

The first systematic phase equilibrium study of hydrates was carried out at the US Bureau of Mines by Deaton and Frost for a number of natural gas hydrate systems. Although the separation methods were somewhat crude (e.g., a distinction could not be made between butane isomers), their hydrate formation pressure and temperature data continue to be foundations for prediction comparisons. 

In the 1940s, Katz had the insight that hydrates were ideal solid solutions rather than stoichiometric compounds. With the ideal solid solution concept, Katz and his students generated two experimentally based prediction methods for hydrate formation conditions, without the knowledge of different hydrate structures. 

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