Experimental investigation of methane hydrate decomposition by depressurizing in porous media with 3-Dimension device

In order to simulate the behavior of gas hydrate formation and decomposition,a 3-Dimension experimental device was built,consisting of a high-pressure reactor with an inner diameter of 300 mm,effective height of 100 mm,and operation pressure of 16 MPa.Eight thermal resistances were mounted in the porous media at different depthes and radiuses to detect the temperature distribution during the hydrate formation/decomposition.To collect the pressure,temperature,and flux of gas production data,the Monitor and Control Generated System（MCGS） was used.Using this device,the formation and decomposition behavior of methane hydrate in the 20 ～ 40 mesh natural sand with salinity of 3.35 wt% was examined.It was found that the front of formation or decomposition of hydrate can be judged by the temperature distribution.The amount of hydrate formation can also be evaluated by the temperature change.During the hydrate decomposition process,the temperature curves indicated that the hydrate in the top and bottom of reactor dissociated earlier than in the inner.The hydrate decomposition front gradually moved from porous media surface to inner and kept a shape of column form,with different moving speed at different surface position.The proper decomposition pressure was also determined.

Effect of rapidly depressurizing and rising temperature on methane hydrate dissociation

Two methods, rapidly depressurizing to 0.1 MPa at a constant temperature and rising temperature under equilibrium P, T conditions, were used to study the dissociation of pure CH4 hydrate formed below the ice point. At a constant temperature with rapidly depressurizing to 0.1 MPa, CH4 hydrate dissociated rapidly at initial dissociation and then the dissociation rate gradually decreased. However, the dissociation of CH4 hydrate at temperatures of 261 to 266 K was much faster than that at temperatures of 269 to 272 K, indicating its anomalous preservation. Under an equilibrium P, T conditions, rising temperature had extensively controlling impact on dissociation of CH4 hydrate at equilibrium pressures of 2.31, 2.16 and 1.96 MPa. In this study, we report the effect of pressure on CH4 hydrate dissociation, especially the effect of equilibrium pressure on dissociation at various melting temperatures. And we find that the ice particles size of CH4 hydrate formed may dominant the CH4 hydrate dissociation. Dissociation of CH4 hydrate formed from ice particles of smaller than 250 μm may not have an anomalous preservation below the ice point, while particles larger than 250 μm may have more extensive anomalous preservation.

Experimental Study on Mechanism of Depressurizing Dissociation of Methane Hydrate under Saturated Pore Fluid

Sediment-hosted hydrate reservoir often contains saturated pore fluid, which changes the heat transfer and mass transfer characteristics of the hydrate reservoir. The exploitation of hydrate under saturated pore fluid using depressurization is simulated experimentally to investigate the influence of particle size of porous media, dissociation temperature, pressure drop and injected fluid type on gas production behavior. Homogeneous methane hydrate was firstly formed in frozen quartz sand. With the formed hydrate sample, hydrate dissociation experiments by depressurization were conducted. The test results showed that the gas production rate of hydrate under saturated pore fluid was substantially influenced by the particle size, the pressure drop and the injected fluid type, while it was influenced little by the dissociation temperature. The hydrate dissociates faster under larger pressure drop and in the presence of smaller porous media within the experimental region. The dissociation rate increases with an increasing fluid salinity in the initial stage, while it decreases in the later stage. The increase of gas diffusion resistance resulted from ionic hydration atmosphere in saturated chloride solution impeded the dissociation of hydrate. It can be solved by increasing the pressure drop and decreasing the fluid salinity in the process of gas recovery from hydrate reservoir.

Mechanical Modeling and Analysis of Stability Deterioration of Production Well During Marine Hydrate Depressurization Production

Different from oil and gas production,hydrate reservoirs are shallow and unconsolidated,whose mechanical properties deteriorate with hydrate decomposition.Therefore,the formations will undergo significant subsidence during depressurization,which will destroy the original force state of the production well.However,existing research on the stability of oil and gas production wells assumes the formation to be stable,and lacks consideration of the force exerted on the hydrate production well by formation subsidence caused by hydrate decomposition during production.To fill this gap,this paper proposes an analytical method for the dynamic evolution of the stability of hydrate production well considering the effects of hydrate decomposition.Based on the mechanical model of the production well,the basis for stability analysis has been proposed.A multi-field coupling model of the force state of the production well considering the effect of hydrate decomposition and formation subsidence is established,and a solver is developed.The analytical approach is verified by its good agreement with the results from the numerical method.A case study found that the decomposition of hydrate will increase the pulling-down force and reduce the supporting force,which is the main reason for the stability deterioration.The higher the initial hydrate saturation,the larger the reservoir thickness,and the lower the production pressure,the worse the stability or even instability.This work can provide a theoretical reference for the stability maintaining of the production well.

Rate-limiting factors in hydrate decomposition through depressurization across various scales:A mini-review

Natural gas hydrate is an energy resource for methane that has a carbon quantity twice more than all traditional fossil fuels combined.However,their practical application in the field has been limited due to the challenges of long-term preparation,high costs and associated risks.Experimental studies,on the other hand,offer a safe and cost-effective means of exploring the mechanisms of hydrate dissociation and optimizing exploitation conditions.Gas hydrate decomposition is a complicated process along with intrinsic kinetics,mass transfer and heat transfer,which are the influencing factors for hydrate decomposition rate.The identification of the rate-limiting factor for hydrate dissociation during depressurization varies with the scale of the reservoir,making it challenging to extrapolate findings from laboratory experiments to the actual exploitation.This review aims to summarize current knowledge of investigations on hydrate decomposition on the subject of the research scale(core scale,middle scale,large scale and field tests)and to analyze determining factors for decomposition rate,considering the various research scales and their associated influencing factors.

Numerical Simulation on Production Trials by Using Depressurization for Typical Marine Hydrate Reservoirs:Well Type and Formation Dip

Natural gas hydrate has huge reserves and is widely distributed in marine environment.Its commercial development is of great significance for alleviating the contradiction between energy supply and demand.As an efficient research method,numerical simulation can provide valuable insights for the design and optimization of hydrate development.However,most of the current production models simplify the reservoir as a two-dimensional(2D)horizontal layered model,often ignoring the impact of formation dip angle.To improve the accuracy of production prediction and provide theoretical support for the optimization of production well design,two three-dimensional(3D)geological models with different dip angles based on the geological data from two typical sites are constructed.The vertical well,horizontal well and multilateral wells are deployed in these reservoirs with different permeabilities to perform production trial,and the sensitivity analysis of dip angles is also carried out.The short-term production behaviors in high and low permeability reservoirs with different dip angles are exhibited.The simulation results show that 1)the gas and water production behaviors for different well types in the two typical reservoirs show obviously different variation laws when the short-term depressurization is conducted in the inclined formation;2)the inclined formation will reduce the gas production and increase the water extraction,and the phenomena becomes pronounced as the dip angle increases,particularly in the low-permeability reservoirs;3)and the impact of formation dip on hydrate recovery does not change significantly with the variation of well type.

Optimization of Gas Production from Hydrate-Bearing Sediments with Fluctuation Characteristics

As an important source of low-carbon,clean fossil energy,natural gas hydrate plays an important role in improving the global energy consumption structure.Developing the hydrate industry in the South China Sea is important to achieving‘carbon peak and carbon neutrality’goals as soon as possible.Deep-water areas subjected to the action of long-term stress and tectonic movement have developed complex and volatile terrains,and as such,the morphologies of hydrate-bearing sediments(HBSs)fluctuate correspondingly.The key to numerically simulating HBS morphologies is the establishment of the conceptual model,which represents the objective and real description of the actual geological body.However,current numerical simulation models have characterized HBSs into horizontal strata without considering the fluctuation characteristics.Simply representing the HBS as a horizontal element reduces simulation accuracy.Therefore,the commonly used horizontal HBS model and a model considering the HBS’s fluctuation characteristics with the data of the SH2 site in the Shenhu Sea area were first constructed in this paper.Then,their production behaviors were compared,and the huge impact of the fluctuation characteristics on HBS production was determined.On this basis,the key parameters affecting the depressurization production of the fluctuating HBSs were studied and optimized.The research results show that the fluctuation characteristics have an obvious influence on the hydrate production of HBSs by affecting their temperatures and pressure distributions,as well as the transmission of the pressure drop and methane gas discharge.Furthermore,the results show that the gas productivity of fluctuating HBSs was about 5%less than that of horizontal HBSs.By optimizing the depressurization amplitude,well length,and layout location of vertical wells,the productivity of fluctuating HBSs increased by about 56.6%.

Enhanced gas production and CO_(2) storage in hydrate-bearing sediments via pre-depressurization and rapid CO_(2) injection

Carbon emission reduction and clean energy development are urgent demands for mankind in the coming decades.Exploring an efficient CO_(2) storage method can significantly reduce CO_(2) emissions in the short term.In this study,we attempted to construct sediment samples with different residual CH_(4) hydrate amounts and reservoir conditions,and then investigate the potentials of both CO_(2) storage and enhanced CH_(4) recovery in depleted gas hydrate deposits in the permafrost and ocean zones,respectively.The results demonstrate that CO_(2) hydrate formation rate can be significantly improved due to the presence of residual hydrate seeds;However,excessive residual hydrates in turn lead to the decrease in CO_(2) storage efficiency.Affected by the T-P conditions of the reservoir,the storage amount of liquid CO_(2) can reach 8 times that of gaseous CO_(2),and CO_(2) stored in hydrate form reaches 2-4 times.Additionally,we noticed two other advantages of this method.One is that CO_(2) injection can enhance CH_(4) recovery rate and increases CH_(4) recovery by 10%-20%.The second is that hydrate saturation in the reservoir can be restored to 20%-40%,which means that the solid volume of the reservoir avoids serious shrinkage.Obviously,this is crucial for protecting the goaf stability.In summary,this approach is greatly promising for high-efficient CO_(2) storage and safe exploitation of gas hydrate.

Numerical Investigation of Combined Production of Natural Gas Hydrate and Conventional Gas

Natural gas hydrate(NGH)is generally produced and accumulated together with the underlying conventional gas.Therefore,optimizing the production technology of these two gases should be seen as a relevant way to effectively reduce the exploitation cost of the gas hydrate.In this study,three types of models accounting for the coexistence of these gases are considered.Type A considers the upper hydrate-bearing layer(HBL)adjacent to the lower conventional gas layer(CGL);with the Type B a permeable interlayer exists between the upper HBL and the lower CGL;with the type C there is an impermeable interlayer between the upper HBL and the lower CGL.The production performances associated with the above three models are calculated under different conditions,including only a depressurized HBL(only HBL DP);only a depressurized CGL(only CGL DP);and both the HBL and the CGL being depressurized(HBL+CGL DP).The results show that for Type A and Type B coexistence accumulation models,when only HBL or CGL is depressurized,the gas from the other layer will flow into the production layer due to the pressure difference between the two layers.In the coexistence accumulation model of type C,the cumulative gas production is much lower than that of Type A and Type B,regardless of whether only HBL DP,only CGL DP,or HBL+CGL DP are considered.This indicates that the impermeable interlayer restricts the cross-flow of gas between HBL and CGL.For three different coexistence accumulation models,CGL DP has the largest gas-to-water ratio.

Influences of pore fluid on gas production from hydrate-bearing reservoir by depressurization

In addition to the temperature and pressure conditions,the pore fluid composition and migration behavior are also crucial to control hydrate decomposition in the exploitation process.In this work,to investigate the effects of these factors,a series of depressurization experiments were carried out in a visible one-dimensional reactor,using hydrate reservoir samples with water saturations ranging from 20%to 65%.The results showed a linear relationship between gas production rates and gas saturations of the reservoir,suggesting that a larger gas-phase space was conducive to hydrate decomposition and gas outflow.Therefore,the rapid water production in the early stage of hydrate exploitation could release more gas-phase space in the water-rich reservoir,which in turn improved the gas production efficiency.Meanwhile,the spatiotemporal evolution of pore fluids could lead to partial accelerated decomposition or secondary formation of hydrates.In the unsealed reservoir,the peripheral water infiltration kept reservoir at a high water saturation,which hindered the overall production process and caused higher water production.Importantly,depressurization assisted with the N2 sweep could displace the pore water rapidly.According to the results,it is recommended that using the short-term N2 sweep as an auxiliary means in the early stage of depressurization to expand the gas-phase space in order to achieve the highest production efficiency.

Hydraulic modeling and optimization of jet mill bit considering the characteristics of depressurization and cuttings cleaning

A jet mill bit(JMB)is proposed to increase the drilling efficiency and safety of horizontal wells,which has the hydraulic characteristics of depressurization and cuttings cleaning.This paper fills the gap in the hydraulic study of the JMB by focusing on the hydraulic modeling and optimization of the JMB and considering these two hydraulic characteristics.First,the hydraulic depressurization model and the hydraulic cuttings cleaning model of the JMB are developed respectively.In the models,the pressure ratio and efficiency are chosen as the evaluation parameters of the depressurization capacity of the JMB,and the jet hydraulic power and jet impact force are chosen as the evaluation parameters of cuttings cleaning capacity of the JMB.Second,based on the hydraulic models,the effects of model parameters[friction loss coefficient,target inclination angle,rate of penetration(ROP),flow ratio,and well depth]on the hydraulic performance of the JMB are investigated.The results show that an increase in the friction loss coefficient and target inclination angle cause a significant reduction in the hydraulic depressurization capacity,and the effect of ROP is negligible.The flow ratio is positively related to the hydraulic cuttings cleaning capacity,and the well depth determines the maximum hydraulic cuttings cleaning capacity.Finally,by combining the hydraulic depressurization model and hydraulic cuttings cleaning model,an optimization method of JMB hydraulics is proposed to simultaneously maximize the jet depressurization capacity and the cuttings cleaning capacity.According to the drilling parameters given,the optimal values of the drilling fluid flow rate,backward nozzle diameter,forward nozzle diameter,and throat diameter can be determined.Moreover,a case study is conducted to verify the effectiveness of the optimization method.

Design and feasibility analysis of a new completion monitoring technical scheme for natural gas hydrate production tests

As a prerequisite and a guarantee for safe and efficient natural gas hydrates(NGHs)exploitation,it is imperative to effectively determine the mechanical properties of NGHs reservoirs and clarify the law of the change in the mechanical properties with the dissociation of NGHs during NGHs production tests by depressurization.Based on the development of Japan’s two offshore NGHs production tests in vertical wells,this study innovatively proposed a new subsea communication technology-accurate directional connection using a wet-mate connector.This helps to overcome the technical barrier to the communication between the upper and lower completion of offshore wells.Using this new communication technology,this study explored and designed a mechanical monitoring scheme for lower completion(sand screens).This scheme can be used to monitor the tensile stress and radial compressive stress of sand screens caused by NGHs reservoirs in real time,thus promoting the technical development for the rapid assessment and real-time feedback of the in-situ mechanical response of NGHs reservoirs during offshore NGHs production tests by depressurization.

Corex-3000 taphole maintenance technology and practice

Short taphole length is one of the most troublesome problems of Baosteel's Corex - 3000 after its startup.Owing to the melter gasifier process,the char bed floated up and down as the level of hot metal and slag in hearth changing.These cause a lot of problems such as the heavy erosion of taphole areas and hard cast house work.The high second tapping flow is a noticeable characteristic of Corex process.The reasons of short taphole is analysed,and countermeasures are put into practice,some improvements are carried out in module 2 Corex -3000.

The status of exploitation techniques of natural gas hydrate

Natural gas hydrate(NGH)has been widely considered as an alternative form of energy with huge potential,due to its tremendous reserves,cleanness and high energy density.Several countries involving Japan,Canada,India and China have launched national projects on the exploration and exploitation of gas hydrate resources.At the beginning of this century,an early trial production of hydrate resources was carried out in Mallik permafrost region,Canada.Japan has conducted the first field test from marine hydrates in 2013,followed by another trial in 2017.China also made its first trial production from marine hydrate sediments in 2017.Yet the low production efficiency,ice/hydrate regeneration,and sand problems are still commonly encountered;the worldwide progress is far before commercialization.Up to now,many gas production techniques have been proposed,and a few of them have been adopted in the field production tests.Nevertheless,hardly any method appears really promising;each of them shows limitations at certain conditions.Therefore,further efforts should be made on the economic efficiency as well as sustainability and environmental impacts.In this paper,the investigations on NGH exploitation techniques are comprehensively reviewed,involving depressurization,thermal stimulation,chemical inhibitor injection,CO2–CH4 exchange,their combinations,and some novel techniques.The behavior of each method and its further potential in the field test are discussed.The advantages and limitations of laboratory studies are also analyzed.The work could give some guidance in the future formulation of exploitation scheme and evaluation of gas production behavior from hydrate reservoirs.

Numerical Study on Dissociation of Gas Hydrate and Its Sensitivity to Physical Parameters

The natural gas hydrate resource is tremendous. How to utilize the gas from hydrates safely is researchers＇ concern. In this paper, a one-dimensional model is developed to simulate the hydrate dissociation by depressurization in hydratebearing porous medinm. This model can De used to explain the effects of the flow of multiphase fluids, the endothermie process of hydrate dissociation, the variation of permeability, the convection and conduction on the hydrate dissociation. Numerical results show that the hydrate dissociation can be divided into three stages： a rapid dissociation stage mainly governed by hydrate dissociation kinetics after an initially slow dissociation stage governed mainly by flow, and finally a slow dissociation stage. Moreover, a numerical approach of sensitivity analysis of physical parameters is proposed, with which the quantitative effect of all the parameters on hydrate dissociation can be evaluated conveniently.

Resistivity in Formation and Decomposition of Natural Gas Hydrate in Porous Medium

A new one-dimensional system for resistivity measurement for natural gas hydrate(NGH)exploitation is designed,which is used to study the formation and decomposition processes of NGH.The experimental results verify the feasibility of the measurement method,especially in monitoring the nucleation and growth of the NGH. Isovolumetric formation experiment of NGH is performed at 2°C and 7.8 MPa.Before the NGH formation,the initial resistivity is measured to be 4-7Ω·m,which declines to the minimum value of 2-3Ω·m when NGH begins to nucleate after the pressure is reduced to 3.3 MPa.As the NGH grows,the resistivity increases to a great extent,and finally it keeps at 11-13Ω·m,indicating the completion of the formation process.The NGH decomposition experiment is then performed.When the outlet pressure decreases,NGH begins to decompose,accordingly,the resistivity declines gradually,and is at 5-9Ω·m when the decomposition process ends,which is slightly higher than the resistivity value before the formation of NGH.The occurrence and distribution uniformity of NGH are determined by the distribution and magnitude of the resistivity measured on an one-dimensional sand-packed model.This study tackles the accurate estimation for the distribution of NGH in porous medium,and provides an experimental basis for further study on NGH exploitation in the future.

Dissociation characteristics of methane hydrate using depressurization combined with thermal stimulation

Methane hydrate is considered as a potential energy source in the future due to its abundant reserves and high energy density.To investigate the influence of initial hydrate saturation,production pressure,and the temperature of thermal stimulation on gas production rate and cumulative gas production percentage,we conducted the methane hydrate dissociation experiments using depressurization,thermal stimulation and a combination of two methods in this study.It is found that when the gas production pressures are the same,the higher the hydrate initial saturation,the greater change in hydrate reservoir temperature.Therefore,it is easier to appear the phenomenon of icing and hydrate reformation when the hydrate saturation is higher.For example,the reservoir temperature dropped to below zero in depressurization process when the hydrate saturation was about 37%.However,the same phenomenon didn’t appear as the saturation was about 12%.This may be due to more free gas in the reservoir with hydrate saturated of 37%.We also find that the temperature variation of reservoir can be reduced effectively by combination of depressurization and thermal stimulation method.And the average gas production rate is highest with combined method in the experiments.When the pressure of gas production is 2 MPa,compared with depressurization,the average of gas production can increase 54%when the combined method is used.The efficiency of gas production is very low when thermal stimulation was used alone.When the temperature of thermal stimulation is 11℃,the average rate of gas production in the experiment of thermal stimulation is less than 1/3 of that in the experiment of the combined method.

Study of effective parameters for enhancement of methane gas production from natural gas hydrate reservoirs

Natural gas hydrate resources have become the major source of energy in the second half of 21st century.Gas production and fluid behavior in natural gas hydrate reservoirs are different from conventional ones.There are three major methods for methane decomposition such as depressurization,thermal stimulation and inhibitor injection.However,CO2 substitution can also be introduced as an alternative method to inject in sediments containing gas hydrate.All these methods tend to imbalance equilibrium condition via temperature and pressure variation in order to fulfill hydrate decomposition process.This study aims to simulate depressurization method for gas production from a hydrate gas bearing layer.Hence,a sensitivity analysis of reservoir parameters includes porosity,permeability,hydrate saturation,hydrate thickness layer;pressure and temperature of single well hydrate model were investigated to determine how these parameters impact on gas production.Results show that depressurization is an efficient method for gas production from hydrate bearing sediments.Through sensitivity analysis,it has been concluded that if properties of a hydrate layer such as porosity and permeability become greater,methane production will be increased significantly.Moreover,results investigate that the rate of hydrate dissociate is strongly dependent on pressure reduction,and it has a reverse relationship with bottomhole pressure and reservoir temperature.

The simulation of gas production from oceanic gas hydrate reservoir by the combination of ocean surface warm water flooding with depressurization

A new method is proposed to produce gas from oceanic gas hydrate reservoir by combining the ocean surface warm water flooding with depressurization which can efficiently utilize the synthetic effects of thermal, salt and depressurization on gas hydrate dissociation. The method has the advantage of high efficiency, low cost and enhanced safety. Based on the proposed conceptual method, the physical and mathematical models are established, in which the effects of the flow of multiphase fluid, the kinetic process of hydrate dissociation, the endothermic process of hydrate dissociation, ice-water phase equilibrium, salt inhibition, dispersion, convection and conduction on the hydrate disso- ciation and gas and water production are considered. The gas and water rates, formation pressure for the combination method are compared with that of the single depressurization, which is referred to the method in which only depres- surization is used. The results show that the combination method can remedy the deficiency of individual producing methods. It has the advantage of longer stable period of high gas rate than the single depressurization. It can also reduce the geologic hazard caused by the formation defor- mation due to the maintaining of the formation pressure by injected ocean warm water.

2-D Numerical Simulation of Natural Gas Hydrate Decomposition Through Depressurization by Fully Implicit Method

Natural gas hydrate, as a potential energy resource, deposits in permafrost and marine sediment with large quantities. The current exploitation methods include depressurization, thermal stimulation, and inhibitor injection. However, many issues have to be resolved before the commercial production. In the present study, a 2-D axisymmetric simulator for gas production from hydrate reservoirs is developed. The simulator includes equations of conductive and convective heat transfer, kinetic of hydrate decomposition, and multiphase flow. These equations are discretized based on the finite difference method and are solved with the fully implicit simultaneous solution method. The process of laboratory-scale hydrate decomposition by depressurization is simulated. For different surrounding temperatures and outlet pressures, time evolutions of gas and water generations during hydrate dissociation are evaluated, and variations of temperature, pressure, and multiphase fluid flow conditions are analyzed. The results suggest that the rate of heat transfer plays an important role in the process. Furthermore, high surrounding temperature and low outlet valve pressure may increase the rate of hydrate dissociation with insignificant impact on final cumulative gas volume.