The hydrate-based carbon dioxide (CO2) capture from the integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) synthesis gas using the bubble method is investigated with a set of visual equipment in this work. The gas bubble is created with a bubble plate on the bottom of the equipment. By the visual equipment, the hydrate formation and the hydrate shape are visually captured. With the move of the gas bubble from the bottom to the top of the reactor, gas hydrate forms firstly from the gas-liquid boundary around the bubble, then the hydrate gradually grows up and piles up in the bottom side of the bubble to form a hydrate particle. The gas hydrate shape is affected by the gas flow rate. The hydrate is acicular crystal at the low gas flow rate while the hydrate is fine sand-like crystal at the high gas flow rate. The bubble size and the gas flow rate have an obvious impact on the hydrate-based CO2 separation process. The experimental results show the gas bubble of 50 mu m and the gas flow rate of 6.75 mL/min/L are ideal for CO2 capture from IGCC synthesis gas under the condition of 3.0 MPa and 274.15 K. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.