The determining factor of hydrate dissociation rate in the sediments with different water saturations

Xiao-Yan Li, Xiao-Sen Li, Yi Wang, Jian-Wu Liu and Heng-Qi Hu

Energy, 2020, vol. 202, issue C

Abstract: In nature, gas hydrate is mainly distributed in permafrost region and deep ocean sediments. For these two types of hydrate reservoirs, water contents in the sediments were different. The water content has a large influence on the characteristics of heat transfer and fluid flow in the sediments, thereby affecting the hydrate dissociation behavior. In this paper, the experiments of hydrate dissociation by depressurization in sediments with different water saturations were conducted. The influences of water saturation on the pressure, the temperature, the gas production, the water production, and the hydrate dissociation rate were analyzed. The experimental results showed that, in the depressurization stage (DS), the rate of pressure dropping and the amount of hydrate reformation increased with the raise of the water saturation in the sediments. In the constant pressure stage (CPS), although the heat conduction rate of the sediments increased with the increase of the water saturation, the mass transport rate of the gas released from hydrate dissociation was limited due to the increase of water saturation. As a result, the hydrate dissociation rate decreased with the increase of the water saturation in the sediments. According to these experimental results, during the hydrate dissociation in the sediments with different water saturations, the hydrate dissociation rate is determined by the mass transport rate of the gas released from the hydrate dissociation. For the hydrate reservoirs with the high-water saturation, the hydrate dissociation rate is largely limited by the diffusion rate of gas released from hydrate dissociation. Hence, the key factor to improve the hydrate dissociation rate in the sediments with high water saturation is to increase the diffusion rate of gas in the sediments.

Keywords: Hydrate dissociation; Depressurization; Determining factor; Mass transport; Gas diffusion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544220307970
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:202:y:2020:i:c:s0360544220307970

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2020.117690

Access Statistics for this article

Energy is currently edited by Henrik Lund and Mark J. Kaiser

More articles in Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().