Clathrate hydrates have characteristic properties that render them attractive for a number of industrial applications. Of particular interest are the following two cases: (i) the incorporation of large amounts of gas molecules into the solid structure has resulted in considering hydrates as possible material for the storage/transportation of energy or environmental gases, and (ii) the selective incorporation of guest molecules into the solid structure has resulted in considering hydrates for gas-mixture separations. For the proper design of such industrial applications, it is essential to know accurately a number of thermodynamic, structural and transport properties. Such properties can either be measured experimentally or calculated at different scales that span the molecular scale-up to the continuum scale. By using clathrate hydrates as a particular case study, we demonstrate that performing studies at multiple length scales can be utilised in order to obtain properties that are essential to process design. ... Read more

The world is facing today a number of challenges related to energy efficiency and security, climate change, water management and supply, and others. Basic and applied research can provide the necessary tools to address effectively these challenges. In most cases, a better understanding and accurate modeling at different levels of the underlying system is necessary. The unprecedented increase of computing power at relatively low price in recent years, the development of efficient computational algorithms and accurate models, and the design of sophisticated experimental techniques allow us today to calculate, model, and measure phenomena at the microscopic (molecular) level and predict the macroscopic properties ... Read more