• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.10a
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• pp.192-195
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• 2008

Conventional gas deposits consist of pressurized gas held in porous and permeable reservoir rocks and its recovery takes place where the natural pressure of the gas reservoir forces gas to the surface. But gas hydrate is a crystalline solid, its prospects require reservoir rock properties approprate porosity, permeability with mapping of temperature and pressure conditions to define the hydrate stability zone. In this study, we have carried out to investigate the dissociation characteristics of methane hydrates and the productivities of dissociated gas and water with depressurization scheme. Also, it has been conducted the flowing behavior of the dissociated gas and water in porous rock and the efficiency of the production.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.151-151
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• 2011

Large amounts of natural gas, mainly methane, in the form of hydrates are stored on continental margins. When gas hydrates are dissociated by any environmental trigger, generation of excess pore pressure due to released free gas may cause sediment deformation and weakening. Hence, damage on offshore structures or submarine landslide can occur by gas hydrate dissociation. Therefore, geotechnical stability of gas hydrate bearing sediments is in need to be securely assessed. However, geotechnical characteristics of gas hydrates bearing sediments including small-strain elastic moduli have been poorly identified. Synthesizing gas hydrate in natural seabed sediment specimen, which is mainly composed of silty-to-clayey soils, has been hardly attempted due to their low permeability. Moreover, it has been known that hydrate loci in pore spaces and heterogeneity of hydrate growth in specimen scale play a critical role in determining physical properties of hydrate bearing sediments. In the presented study, we synthesized gas hydrate containing sediments in an instrumented oedometric cell. Geotechnical and geophysical properties of gas hydrate bearing sediments including compressibility, small-strain elastic moduli, elastic wave, and electrical resistivity are determined by wave-based techniques during loading and unloading processes. Significant changes in volume change, elastic wave, and electrical resistivity have been observed during formation and dissociation of gas hydrate. Experimental results and analyses reveal that geotechnical properties of gas hydrates bearing sediments are highly governed by hydrate saturation, effective stress, void ratio, and soil types as well as morphological feature of hydrate formation in sediments.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.10a
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• pp.186-187
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• 2008

Electrical resistivity in hydrate-bearing sediments is sensitive to porosity, gas hydrate saturation, gas content, pore fluid composition, and temperature, so electrical measurements such as well logs and electromagnetic surveys have been used to explore gas hydrate-bearing formation. The high pressure tomography cell is designed considering the effect of electrode configuration and electrical shielding on tomography measurements and the safety. The evolution of electrical conductivity during $CO_2$ hydrate formation and dissociation reflects the combined effects of concurrent changes that include ionization of dissolved $CO_2$, temperature-dependent ionic mobility, changes in the degree of saturation, ion exclusion, surface conduction, and porosity changes. Measurements during hydrate formation and dissociation require careful analysis to properly interpret signatures, in particular when out-of plane conductivity anomalies prevail.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.143-154
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• 2014

In this study, we simulated both dissociation of gas hydrate and mechanical deformation of hydrate-bearing sedimentary formation using geomechanical model. The geomechanical model analysis consists of two distinct codes of TOUGH+Hydrate and FLAC3D. The model is characterized by the fact that changes of temperature, pressure, saturation and their influence on the consequent evolution of effective stress, stiffness and strength of hydrate-bearing sediments during gas production could be well simulated. We compared the results of simulation for two different production methods, and showed that combination of depressurization and thermal stimulation results in the enhancement of production rate especially at early stage. We also presented that the hydrate dissociation-induced geomechanical deformation in unconsolidated clay is much larger than that in sandstone.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.295-306
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• 2021

A field scale productivity analysis is required for the development of gas hydrate in marine sedimentary layers to verify the field applicability of production techniques and to improve productivity. In this study, the productivity resulting from the application of depressurization using multi-wells for the development of gas hydrate in the Ulleung Basin, East Sea of Korea, was determined. A numerical analysis model reflecting the conditions of candidate sites for the Ulleung Basin was constructed, and the productivity and dissociation behavior were comparatively analyzed. The pressure propagation and gas hydrate dissociation region by the multi-wells were wider and the productivity was higher than that of a single well. Different depressurization effects according to the spacing of multi-wells affected productivity. The results provide basic data for productivity analysis when establishing a field test production plan for the Ulleung Basin.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.30 no.9
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• pp.67-75
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• 2014

Methane gas hydrate which is considered energy source for the next generation has an urgent need to develop reliable numerical simulator for coupled THM phenomena in the porous media, to minimize problems arising during the production and optimize production procedures. International collaborations to improve previous numerical codes are in progress, but they still have mismatch in the predicted value and unstable convergence. In this paper, FEM code for fully coupled THM phenomena is developed to analyze methane hydrate dissociation in the porous media. Coupled partial differential equations are derived from four mass balance equations (methane hydrate, soil, water, and hydrate gas), energy balance equation, and force equilibrium equation. Five main variables (displacement, gas saturation, fluid pressure, temperature, and hydrate saturation) are chosen to give higher numerical convergence through trial combinations of variables, and they can analyze the whole region of a phase change in hydrate bearing porous media. The kinetic model is used to predict dissociation of methane hydrate. Developed THM FEM code is applied to the comparative study on a Masuda's laboratory experiment for the hydrate production, and verified for the stability and convergence.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Mineral and Energy Resources Engineers
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• v.55 no.6
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• pp.670-687
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• 2018

This paper reviews the structures, physical and chemical properties, origins and global distribution, amount of energy resources, production technologies, and environmental impacts of gas hydrates to understand the gas hydrates as future energy sources. Hydrate structures should be studied to clarify the fundamentals of natural gas hydrates, hydrate distributions, and amount of energy sources in hydrates. Phase equilibria, dissociation enthalpy, thermal conductivity, specific heat, thermal diffusivity, and fluid permeability of gas hydrate systems are important parameters for the the efficient recovery of natural gas from hydrate reservoirs. Depressurization, thermal stimulation, inhibitor injection, and chemical exchange methods can be considered as future technologies to recover the energy sources from natural gas hydrates, but so far depressurization is the only method to have been applied in test productions of both onshore and offshore hydrates. Finally, we discuss the hypotheses of environmental impacts of gas hydrates and their contribution to global warming due to hydrate dissociation.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.34-41
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• 2010

Gas hydrates are solid solutions when water molecules are linked through hydrogen bonding and create host lattice cavities that can enclose many kinds of guest(gas) molecules. There are plenty of methane(gas) hydrate in the earth and distributed widely at offshore and permafrost. Several schemes, to produce methane hydrates, have been studied. In this study, depressurization method has been utilized for the numerical model due to it's simplicity and effectiveness. IMPES method has been used for numerical analysis to get the saturation and velocity profile of each phase and pressure profile, velocity of dissociation front progress and the quantity of produced gas. The values calculated for the sample length of 10m, show that methane hydrates has been dissolved completely in approximately 223 minutes and the velocity of dissociation front progress is 3.95㎝ per minute. The volume ratio of the produced gas in the porous media is found to be about 50%. Analysing the saturation profile and the velocity profile from the numerical results, the permeability of each phase in porous media is considered to be the most important factor in the two phase flow propagation. Consequently, permeability strongly influences the productivity of gas in porous media for methane hydrates.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.666-671
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• 2012

Gas hydrates are inclusion compounds formed when small-sized guest molecules are incorporated into the well defined cages made up of hydrogen bonded water molecules. Since large masses of natural gas hydrates exist in permafrost regions or beneath deep oceans, these naturally occurring gas hydrates in the earth containing mostly $CH_4$ are regarded as future energy resources. The heat of dissociation is one of the most important thermal properties in exploiting natural gas hydrates. The accurate and direct method to measure the dissociation enthalpies of gas hydrates is to use a calorimeter. In this study, the high pressure micro DSC (Differential Scanning Calorimeter) was used to measure the dissociation enthalpies of methane, ethane, and propane hydrates. The accuracy and repeatability of the data obtained from the DSC was confirmed by measuring the dissociation enthalpy of ice. The dissociation enthalpies of methane, ethane, and propane hydrates were found to be 54.2, 73.8, and 127.7 kJ/mol-gas, respectively. For each gas hydrate, at given pressures the dissociation temperatures which were obtained in the process of enthalpy measurement were compared with three-phase (hydrate (H) - liquid water (Lw) - vapor (V)) equilibrium data in the literature and found to be in good agreement with literature values.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.133-143
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• 2015

Gas hydrate is a solid substance composed of natural gas constrained in water molecules under low temperature and high pressure conditions. The existence of hydrates has been reported to be world-widely distributed, mainly at permafrost and deep ocean floor. Test productions of small amount of natural gas from the on-shore permafrost have been accomplished in U.S.A and Canada, but, world-first and the only production case from off-shore hydrate bearing sediments was in Nankai trough, Japan. In this study, we introduce key technologies in gas production from hydrates by analyzing the Japanese off-shore gas production project in Nankai trough in terms of depressurization- induced dissociation so as to utilize planned domestic gas production test in Ulleung basin.