Measurements of Water Permeability in Unconsolidated Porous Media with Methane Hydrate Formation

Bo Li, Xiao-Sen Li, Gang Li, Jia-Lin Jia and Jing-Chun Feng
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Bo Li: Key Laboratory of Renewable Energy and Gas Hydrate, Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China
Xiao-Sen Li: Key Laboratory of Renewable Energy and Gas Hydrate, Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China
Gang Li: Key Laboratory of Renewable Energy and Gas Hydrate, Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China
Jia-Lin Jia: Key Laboratory of Renewable Energy and Gas Hydrate, Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China
Jing-Chun Feng: Key Laboratory of Renewable Energy and Gas Hydrate, Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China

Energies, 2013, vol. 6, issue 7, 1-15

Abstract: Permeability is one of the key factors that determine the fluids flow capacity and production potential of hydrate deposits. In this study, an experimental setup is developed to investigate the flow properties of the porous media, and the permeabilities to water are measured in the unconsolidated porous media with or without hydrate deposition in the pores. A specialized method of precisely controlling the amount of injected methane gas is employed to form methane hydrate in the core sample, and the hydrate formation process is described by the change characteristics of the gas and hydrate saturations. It is found that the residual gas plays an obstructive role in the water flow and it tends to slightly reduce the water permeability in the porous media, especially under high pressure conditions. After hydrate formation in the core sample, relatively steady flow state can be obtained under suitable water injection rate Q at which hydrate dissociation rate is very slow. The absolute permeability of the porous sample is reduced from 49.2 to 1.2 Darcies when the hydrate saturation increases from 0 to 9.3% in this study, indicating a strong dependence of k on the hydrate saturation.

Keywords: permeability; methane hydrate; porous media (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

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