Fundamentals of Natural Gas and Species Flows from Hydrate Dissociation - Applications to Safety and Sea Floor Instability

摘要

Semi-analytical computational models for natural gas flow in hydrate reservoirs were developed and the effects of variations in porosity and permeability on pressure and temperature profiles and the movement of a dissociation front were studied. Experimental data for variations of gas pressure and temperature during propane hydrate formation and dissociation for crushed ice and mixture of crushed ice and glass beads under laboratory environment were obtained. A thermodynamically consistent model for multiphase liquid-gas flows trough porous media was developed. Numerical models for hydrate dissociation process in one dimensional and axisymmetric reservoir were performed. The computational model solved the general governing equations without the need for linearization. A detail module for multidimensional analysis of hydrate dissociation which make use of the FLUENT code was developed. The new model accounts for gas and liquid water flow and uses the Kim-Boshnoi model for hydrate dissociation.