• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.37-43
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• 2007

The MH21 Research Consortium has conducted a high-resolution 3D seismic survey and a seafloor geochemical survey, to explore methane hydrate reservoirs in the eastern Nankai Trough, offshore Japan. Excellent geological information about shallow formations was obtained from the high-resolution 3D seismic survey, which was designed to image the shallow formations where methane hydrates exist. The information is useful in constructing a geological and geochemical model, and especially to understand the complex geology of seafloor, including geochemical manifestations and the structure of migration conduits for methane gas or methane-bearing fluid. By comparing methane seep sites observed by submersibles with seismic sections, some significant relationships between methane hydrate reservoirs, free gas accumulations below the seafloor, and seafloor manifestations are recognised. Bathymetric charts and seafloor reflection amplitude maps, constructed from seismic reflections from the seafloor, are also useful in understanding the relationships over a vast area. A new geochemical seafloor survey targeted by these maps is required. The relationships between methane hydrate reservoirs and seafloor manifestations are becoming clearer from interpretation of high-resolution 3D seismic data. The MH21 Research Consortium will continue to conduct seafloor geochemical surveys based on the geological and geochemical model constructed from high-resolution 3D seismic data analysis. In this paper, we introduce a basis for exploration of methane hydrate reservoirs in Japan by fusion of 3D seismic exploration and seafloor geochemical surveys.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.19-30
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• 2021

The presence of the hydrate-bearing sediments in Ulleung Basin of South Korea has been confirmed from previous studies. Researches on gas production methods from the hydrate-bearing sediments have been conducted worldwide. As production mechanism is a complex phenomenon in which thermal, hydraulic, and mechanical phenomena occur simultaneously, it is difficult to accurately conduct the productivity and stability analysis of hydrate bearing sediments through lab-scale experiments. Thus, the importance of numerical analysis in evaluating gas productivity and stability of hydrate-bearing sediments has been emphasized. In this study, the numerical parametric analysis was conducted to investigate the effects of the bottom hole pressure and the depressurization rate on the gas productivity and stability of hydrate-bearing sediments during the depressurization method. The numerical analysis results confirmed that as the bottom hole pressure decreases, the productivity increases and the stability of sediments deteriorates. Meanwhile, it was shown that the depressurization rate did not largely affect the productivity and stability of the hydrate-bearing sediments. In addition, sensitivity analysis for gas productivity and stability of the sediments were conducted according to the depressurization rate in order to establish a production strategy that prevents sand production during gas production. As a result of the analysis, it was confirmed that controlling the depressurization rate from a low value to a high value is effective in securing the stability. Moreover, during gas production, the subsidence of sediments occurred near the production well, and ground heave occurred at the bottom of the production well due to the pressure gradient. From these results, it was concluded that both the productivity and stability analyses should be conducted in order to determine the bottom hole pressure when producing gas using the depressurization method. Additionally, the stress analysis of the production well, which is induced by the vertical displacements of sediments, should be evaluated.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.56-64
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• 2020

This study presents the hydrate induction time of PVCap according to subcooling temperature, salt concentration, and MEG concentration in order to analyze the inhibition effect of PVCap in various production environments of offshore gas fields. A high-pressure hydrate generator was made for the hydrate formation experiments. It was verified that the apparatus had sufficient reliability by comparing the results of hydrate equilibrium conditions and induction time from the apparatus with published reference data. As the subcooling temperature increased from 6.1℃ to 12.1℃, the induction time of PVCap concentration of 0.1~1 wt% decreased. When the salt concentration increased from 3 wt% to 7 wt%, the induction time was reduced by up to 78% under the condition of 0.5 wt% PVCap due to polymer structure degradation by salt effect. In the case of HHI (hybrid hydrate inhibitor) made by mixing MEG 10 wt% and PVCap, the change in induction time was not large compared to PVCap 1 wt% due to the under-inhibition effect. On the other hand, the hydrate inhibition efficiency of HHI with MEG 20wt% increased 1.7 times compared to PVCap.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.57 no.3
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• pp.378-386
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• 2019

In the present paper we report the calculation results of operation energy consumption for dissolved ions concentration technologies using vacuum evaporation (VE) and hydrate formation. Calculations were conducted assuming the tenfold concentration of saline water (0.35 wt% NaCl solution) of 1 mol/s at room temperature and atmospheric pressure employing vacuum evaporation at $69^{\circ}C$ and 30 kPa and hydrate-based concentration using $CH_4$, $CO_2$ and $SF_6$ as guest molecules. Operation energy consumption of VE-based concentration resulted in 47 kJ/mol, whereas those of hydrate-based concentration were 43, 32, and 28 kJ/mol for $CH_4$, $CO_2$ and $SF_6$ hydrates, respectively. We observe that hydrate-based concentration can a competitive option for dissolved ions recovery from energy consumption standpoint. However, the selection of guest gas is very critical, since it accordingly determines the hydration number, the hydrate formation energy, gas compression energy, etc. The selection of guest gas, separation of concentrated brine and water phases, and the enhancement of hydrate formation rate are the key factors for the commercialization of hydrated-based technology for concentrating dissolved ions.

• 한국지구물리탐사학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.10a
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• pp.33-36
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• 2011

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.06a
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• pp.360-363
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• 2006

Regester & Larkin(2005) suggest the issue and risk lifecycle analysis method in risk management, made up of the potential, emerging, current, crisis, and dormant stages. Investment on New & Renewable Energy is meaningful in effect ive risk management for diminishing or reducing the shock of a energy current, at the potential stage. In this study, we survey the risk of traditional fossil fuel projects and develop the risk analysis model for new & renewable energy projects specially geothermal energy resources and gas-hydrate resources.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.686-686
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• 2009

가스하이드레이트는 수소결합을 하는 물분자의 고체상 격자(Lattice)내에 포집되어 들어가는 기체분자로 구성된 결정화합물로서 외형적인 형태는 얼음과 거의 유사하다. 천연가스 하이드레이트 기술의 최대장점으로는 액화천연가스(LNG)는 초저온인 $-162^{\circ}C$의 저장조건이 필요하지만 천연가스하이드레이트(NGH)기술은 비교적 온화한 조건인 $-15^{\circ}C$에서 천연가스를 고체상태로 저장/이용할 수 있다는 것이다. 천연가스를 $-162^{\circ}C$에서 액화시킨 LNG상태로 생산, 수송, 저장하는 경우보다 고체상태인 NGH(Natural Gas Hydrate)로 만들어서 생산, 수송, 저장할 경우 천연가스의 생산, 수송, 저장, 재가스화 등의 일련의 공정과 비교해볼 때 LNG방법보다 약 24%이상의 경비를 절감을 할 수 있다고 보고되어지고 있다. 따라서, 천연가스의 수송 및 저장기술에서의 탁월한 경제성으로 인해 선진국에서는 가스하이드레이트에 대한 활발한 연구가 진행되고 있다. 특히 일본은 5Ton/Day용량의 NGH 생산플랜트를 건설하여 시운전 중에 있다. NGH기술의 주요 활용분야는 대용량의 가스매장량을 요구하여 LNG공정기술을 적용할 수 없는 중소형가스전 또는 한계가스전에 경제적으로 적용하는 해양수송분야와 천연가스 공급망이 갖춰져 있지 못한 지역에 NGH Pellet형태로 수송/재기화하여 활용하는 내륙운송이 분야가 있다. 국내에서는 지식경제부 국책과제인 ETI(Energy Technology Innovation)사업을 시작으로 국가경쟁력 제고 차원에서 이러한 기술의 기반구촉 및 실증화 사업이 진행되고 있다. 주요 내용으로는 NGH Process Flow, Overall NGH Process concept diagram, NGH Carrier outline, NGH Land Transportation chain 등이 포함되어 있다.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.152-157
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• 2012

This study investigates compressive strength of ice pellet strip which is potential medium for Natural Gas Hydrate(NGH) extruded from die holes of Twin-roll Press for Continuous Pelletizing(TPCP). Recently, the prototype of TPCP is newly developed where ice powder is continuously fed and extruded into strip-type pellet between twin rolls. The system is specifically designed for future expansion towards mass-production of ice pellet strips or solid form of natural gas hydrate. It is shown that the compressive strength of pellet strip heavily depends on factors in extrusion process such as disk size, surface smoothness, ring size, taper shape, feeding mechanism, and rotational speed. Here, the mechanism of TPCP, along with compressive strength of pellets is discussed in terms of its feasibility for producing NGH pellets in the future.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.39 no.10
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• pp.1002-1010
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• 2015

Natural gas hydrates are newly emerging as an environment-friendly source of energy to substitute for fossil fuels in the 21stcentury.NGHs are reported to holds much amounts of natural gas (up to 182 standard volumes of gas per volume of hydrate); they are easy to store and safe to carry at about minus 20 degree Celsius under atmospheric pressure because of the self-preservation phenomenon of gas hydrates. The transporting method by gas-ice-hydrate ship carriers has been introduced and developed by a variety of industry and research institutions. Our team has been conducted to develop NGH total systems, including a breakthrough NGH carrier for sea transportation, since 2011. The NGH pellet carrier does not require a separate cooling system for cargo, and the initial temperature is maintained through insulation of the cargo tanks throughout the transport to the final destination. The heat conducted from the exterior and passing through the insulation material of the hull should be cut off as much as possible, but heat inflow inside the cargo tank from an external source is inevitable during transport. In this study, the heat transfer in a cargo tank of a 115K NGH carrier was analyzed through simulation with a commercial CFD code to estimate the boil-off gas/boil-off rate on the developed carrier and understand major hazards that could significantly impact the safety of the vessel.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.133-140
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• 2009

This paper presents the experimental study to analyze the pressure and production behavior using depressurization and thermal methods in order to evaluate the hydrate productivity in the 2-D multi-well, plate-type apparatus which has 80 md permeability and 30% hydrate saturation. Injecting methane gas through multi-well allowed to set up the highly saturated hydrate system and combining two different sorts of sands made possible to build up the low permeability system. In this system, both depressurization and electric stimulation methods were applied. When operating pressure was low, according to the depressurization experiments results, the gas recovery was high, however strong pulses which appeared at initial stage of production would damage the operation system. Moreover, cases that hydrate reformed have occurred by endothermic reaction. We have conducted experiments four and six times for the depressurization magnitudes of 140 psi and 320 psi, respectively, to analyze production behavior for the method more in detail. For the cases that the depressurization magnitude was set as 140 psi, the unstable period appears in the results, but stabilized soon. In the experiment results for 320 psi the discontinuous and intermittent behavior has been observed. Thermal stimulation experiments was conducted with depressurizing 80 psi which is the case that shows stable behavior and low recovery. In the results, the gas recovery was high and the energy efficiency was low for long stimulating time. The energy efficiency and gas recovery increased for the soaking time of 1 minute after 2 minute-preheating. In the cases of which the soaking time exceeds 1 minute, energy loss by long soaking time caused low gas recovery and poor energy efficiency.