Simulation of Gas Production from Multilayered Hydrate-Bearing Media with Fully Coupled Flow, Thermal, Chemical and Geomechanical Processes Using TOUGH + Millstone. Part 1: Numerical Modeling of Hydrates

Moridis, George J.; Queiruga, Alejandro F.; Reagan, Matthew T.

doi:10.1007/s11242-019-01254-6

Cited by 43 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 58 publications

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“…The T+H code is the most widely used code for simulation of the dynamic behavior of methane hydrate in sandy media. Validation and verification of the T+H code has been achieved through comparisons to laboratory and field observations because hydrate reaction in porous media is complex and strongly nonlinear with no analytical solution [48].…”

Section: The T+h Numerical Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the importance of phase saturation heterogeneity in the analysis of laboratory studies of hydrate dissociation

2019

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Methane hydrates (MHs) have been considered as the future source of energy because of its vast resource volume and high energy density. Energy recovery from MH-bearing sediments has attracted intensifying research activities. Fundamentally, heat transfer, fluid flow through porous media, and the kinetics of hydrate reaction are the three key processes controlling the behavior of MH dissociation and the associated fluid production. Earlier studies have suggested that heterogeneous spatial distribution of SH is inevitable in MHbearing samples synthesized in laboratory. In this paper, we extend our study to analyze numerically the simulation results from the two realizations of the samples (homogeneous and heterogeneous) to identify differences in the fluid production and to determine if they are sufficiently different. Additionally, we conduct a sensitivity analysis and a statistical analysis on the key transport and kinetic rate parameters that could affect hydrate dissociation and fluid production in the context of a heterogeneous hydrate-bearing sample, in an effort to provide insights that could lead to improved designs for laboratory experiments and (possibly) field applications. Our results suggest that the approximation of an artificial hydrate-bearing core with heterogeneous phase saturations by an assumption of uniform phase saturation distributions results in practically similar fluid production profile except for the very early stage with maximum 20.0% deviation in the water production. From the sensitivity and statistical analysis, we determine that gas production depends strongly on the kinetic rate constant, Kd 0 and the composite thermal conductivity of the hydrate-bearing sediments, λθ; while, water production is very sensitive to Kd 0 and the absolute permeability of the sandy medium, k. Understanding the effect of phase 2 heterogeneity and the relative importance of key parameters on the production behavior of hydrate-bearing sediments could provide basis for novel production technologies that lead to enhanced gas production and energy efficiency in the energy recovery process.

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Section: The T+h Numerical Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the importance of phase saturation heterogeneity in the analysis of laboratory studies of hydrate dissociation

2019

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“…Hydrate exploitation is a complex physical and chemical process, involving the chemical reaction kinetics (chemical field, C) in hydrate dissociation or formation, heat change during phase transformation (temperature field, T), gas and water flow in porous medium (hydrological field, H), geological deformation caused by hydrate dissociation (mechanical field, M), etc. 11 Primeval research on hydrate production mainly focused on the analysis of the mass and heat transfer process of hydrate dissociation and considers two or three field coupling models (TC, 12,13 HC, 14,15 and THC 16−20 ) to predict gas and water production of a hydrate reservoir. With the development of hydrate production tests all over the world in the 21st century, the thermal−hydrological− mechanical−chemical (THMC) coupling model appeared, which considered geological deformation, hydrate dissociation and reformation, heat transfer, and fluid flow during the process of hydrate dissociation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, as a result of some complex properties of the hydrate reservoir, the cementation of the hydrate-bearing sediment (HBS) and the support of the skeleton disappeared after solid hydrate was dissociated. These would lead to sand production, stratum deformation, and subsidence. − Therefore, it is of great significance to study the stratum deformation and subsidence during the process of gas production by depressurization at an offshore HBS.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of Stratum Subsidence Induced by Depressurization at an Offshore Hydrate-Bearing Sediment

Ding

et al. 2021

Energy Fuels

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Gas production from an offshore hydrate-bearing sediment (HBS) by depressurization will reduce the strength of cementation and increase the effective stress of hydrate reservoirs, which can result in some potential geohazards, such as wellbore instability and stratum subsidence. In this study, a thermal−hydrological−mechanical−chemical coupling numerical simulation model was established and applied in the example of the first offshore hydrate production test of Nankai Trough, Japan (2013). On the basis of the actual data of gas and water production, the evolution of pressure, temperature, and stratum subsidence during depressurization was analyzed. The factors influencing stratum subsidence were studied, such as producing pressure difference, permeability, and Young's modulus. The results have shown the following: (1) As a result of the combined effect of hydrate dissociation and increased effective stress, there is stratum subsidence near the production well. (2) The maximum subsidence (0.085 m) appeared at the upper part of the HBS near the wellbore after 6 days of production. The subsidence weakened rapidly far away from the production well. As production went on, the stratum subsidence near the wellbore at the upper part of the hydrate reservoir continued to deteriorate. After 1 year, the stratum subsidence rate was obviously slower. (3) The increase of production pressure difference and permeability and the decrease of Young's modulus led to the deterioration of stratum subsidence. The stratum subsidence should be considered during the production of the offshore hydrate reservoir.

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“…Grover et al proposed a variety of cross-sectional models with the use of a single well, and then the simulation results were fully compared with various in-situ measuring data acquired from the Messoyakha field [ 24 ]. Moridis et al [ 25 , 26 , 27 ] adopted the TOUGH + Millstone simulator (composed of two constituent codes: the TOUGH + HYDRATE and Millstone) for describing the flow, thermal, and chemical processes in hydrate-bearing media. Li et al [ 28 ] analyzed the dynamic properties of gas hydrate development from a large hydrate simulator through numerical simulation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical Investigation into the Gas Production from Hydrate Deposit under Various Thermal Stimulation Modes in a Multi-Well System in Qilian Mountain

Yuan

Zhang

et al. 2021

Entropy

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The primary objective of this study was to investigate the energy recovery performance of the permafrost hydrate deposit in the Qilian Mountain at site DK-2 using depressurization combined with thermal injection by the approach of numerical simulation. A novel multi-well system with five horizontal wells was applied for large-scale hydrate mining. The external heat is provided by means of water injection, wellbore heating, or the combinations of them through the central horizontal well, while the fluids are extracted outside from the other four production wells under constant depressurization conditions. The injected water can carry the heat into the hydrate deposit with a faster rate by thermal convection regime, while it also raises the local pressure obviously, which results in a strong prohibition effect on hydrate decomposition in the region close to the central well. The water production rate is always controllable when using the multi-well system. No gas seepage is observed in the reservoir due to the resistance of the undissociated hydrate. Compared with hot water injection, the electric heating combined with normal temperature water flooding basically shows the same promotion effect on gas recovery. Although the hydrate regeneration is more severe in the case of pure electric heating, the external heat can be more efficiently assimilated by gas hydrate, and the efficiency of gas production is best compared with the cases involving water injection. Thus, pure wellbore heating without water injection would be more suitable for hydrate development in deposits characterized by low-permeability conditions.

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Simulation of Gas Production from Multilayered Hydrate-Bearing Media with Fully Coupled Flow, Thermal, Chemical and Geomechanical Processes Using TOUGH + Millstone. Part 1: Numerical Modeling of Hydrates

Cited by 43 publications

References 58 publications

On the importance of phase saturation heterogeneity in the analysis of laboratory studies of hydrate dissociation

On the importance of phase saturation heterogeneity in the analysis of laboratory studies of hydrate dissociation

Analysis of Stratum Subsidence Induced by Depressurization at an Offshore Hydrate-Bearing Sediment

Numerical Investigation into the Gas Production from Hydrate Deposit under Various Thermal Stimulation Modes in a Multi-Well System in Qilian Mountain

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