EXPLICIT MODELLING OF GAS RECOVERY FROM DISSOCIATION OF GAS HYDRATES BY THERMAL STIMULATION

Abstract

In the present work, an explicit modelling of gas recovery from dissociation of gas hydrates by thermal stimulation is done. The dissociation method taken is thermal dissociation. The main objective of this research is to determine the relationship between injected hot fluid temperature, deformation of hydrate bed, saturation of hydrate bed and porosity of hydrate bed with cumulative gas production using Abaqus-CAE software. Abaqus software has the capabilities of solving heat transfer, flow and energy equations, but it requires inputs of various operating and design parameters. In this work, an extensive literature survey of the previous research related to dissociation of gas hydrates has been done to gain deep insight into the technology. Further, a mathematical model has been developed to simulate the production of methane gas from gas hydrates. The model was used to study the dynamic behaviour of the hydrate bed. The main conclusion of this work is that the increase in injected hot fluid temperature increases the cumulative gas production rate. Also, deformation of gas hydrate bed can adversely affect the gas production rate and hence recovery of methane gas. Also, saturation and porosity of hydrate bed affects the gas production rate, with increase in initial saturation and higher porosity of bed, gas recovery increase