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Published online 3 September 2008 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2008.1077

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Chemists create 'powdered methane'

Gas can be stored in dry water

Methane and natural gas are usually shipped around in pressurized pipelines and canisters. But chemists have now developed a new way to transport the gases: as a powder.

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  • I found only Colorado School of Mines (http://www.mines.edu/index_js.shtml). Which name is right?

    • 04 Sep, 2008
    • Posted by: Yulia Rudy
  • Nice article, fumed silica is very useful on Pharmaceutical Industry to give better flow properties to dusts, for example, a night infusion, but is very difficult to manage it, I couldnĀ“t imagine a very big factory trying to mix with water because a minimum presence of water itbecomes very dense, and dry dust is very light. Any where surely this dust could have a good flow as a fuel.

    • 05 Sep, 2008
    • Posted by: Juan Sordo
  • Is water released with methane when warming up the material? Would this cause any problem? Fumed silica has a very low density and might contaminate the gas during the separation process?

    • 18 Sep, 2008
    • Posted by: Rouhollah Alizadeh