Sunday, June 19, 2016
This year's Bunker Award winner, Jaruwan Amtawong, led a project to measure the effect of methanol as an accelerant for propane clathrate hydrate formation from ice particles exposed to propane gas. She found that for doping levels as low as one methanol molecule for every 10,000 water molecules, the formation reaction commenced at lower pressures and proceeded to higher percent yield compared to pure ice. This work may have important implications for the safe storage and transportation of small hydrocarbons. Jaruwan's first author paper on this work has just been published as a Journal of Physical Chemistry Letter. She will be attending Berkeley for her Ph.D. studies starting this fall.