Quantifying hydrate solidification front advancing using method of characteristics
Here, we develop a one-dimensional analytical solution based on the method of characteristics to explore hydrate formation from gas injection into brine-saturated sediments within the hydrate stability zone. Our solution includes fully coupled multiphase and multicomponent flow and the associated advective transport in a homogeneous system. Our solution shows that hydrate saturation is controlled by the initial thermodynamic state of the system and changed by the gas fractional flow. Hydrate saturation in gas-rich systems can be estimated by 1 – cl 0/cl e when Darcy flow dominates, where cl 0 is the initial mass fraction of salt in brine, and cl e is the mass fraction of salt in brine at three-phase (gas, liquid, and hydrate) equilibrium. Hydrate saturation is constant, gas saturation and gas flux decrease, and liquid saturation and liquid flux increase with the distance from the gas inlet to the hydrate solidification front. The total gas and liquid flux is constant from the gas inlet to the hydrate solidification front and decreases abruptly at the hydrate solidification front due to gas inclusion into the hydrate phase. The advancing velocity of the hydrate solidification front decreases with hydrate saturation at a fixed gas inflow rate. This analytical solutionmore »
- Publication Date:
- Grant/Contract Number:
- FE0010406
- Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Geophysical Research. Solid Earth
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 120; Journal Issue: 10; Journal ID: ISSN 2169-9313
- Publisher:
- American Geophysical Union
- Research Org:
- Univ. of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX (United States)
- Sponsoring Org:
- USDOE
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 58 GEOSCIENCES; hydrate saturation; hydrate solidification front; fractional flow; method of characteristics; phase diagram
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1468398
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1402374
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
- Accepted Manuscript (Publisher)
-
Accepted Manuscript (DOE)
- Publisher's Version of Record
- https://doi.org/10.1002/2015JB011985