Investigations into methane hydrate formation, accumulation, and distribution in sediments with different contents of illite clay

Chang Chen, Yu Zhang, Xiaosen Li, Jiayuan He, Fei Gao and Zhaoyang Chen

Applied Energy, 2024, vol. 359, issue C, No S0306261924000448

Abstract: Fine-grained sediments are widely distributed in naturally occurring hydrate-bearing sediments (HBS). However, the effects of silty and clayey minerals on the kinetics of methane hydrate (MH) formation and distribution are less well understood than in sandy sediments. In this study, a series of experiments were designed, which involves the kinetics and morphological observations to investigate the MH formation in clayey silty sediments with mass fractions of illite ranging from 0 to 50 wt%. The evolution of MH accumulation and distribution were analyzed based on temperature and electrical resistance measurements. The experimental results showed that the mass fraction of illite has a critical effect on MH nucleation, formation rate and distribution within the sandy sediment. The effect of illite on the gas uptake rate is primarily observed in the early MH formation stages, in which the MH formation rate in the system with 10 wt% illite exhibits approximately 1.66 times higher than that of pure sandy sediment. However, as the illite mass fraction increases from 20 wt% to 40 wt%, the MH formation rate decreases, only to increase significantly when the mass fraction reaches 50 wt%, which may be due to changes in the sediment skeletal structure. In the pure sandy system, MH primarily accumulates in the upper layer of the sediment. As the illite mass fraction increases, MH content in the lower layer of the sediment gradually increases. In morphological observations, several new cracks appeared after MH formation in highly silty and clayey sediments, increasing the MH formation rate. The electrical resistance of sediments exhibits a close relationship with hydrate saturation, and it basically increases proportionately with hydrate saturation until certain inflection points. After these points, the electrical resistance shows a significant increase. Moreover, the hydrate saturation at the inflection points tends to increase with higher illite mass fractions due to a more dispersed water distribution.

Keywords: Methane hydrate formation; Illite clay; Hydrate distribution; Hydrate morphology; Electrical resistance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2024.122661

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