Dissociation Behavior of Methane Hydrate Inside Different Saturation Sediments in a Sustained Depressurization Process

Summary Methane hydrate is one of the important energy storage sources, naturally distributed in marine porous sediments. However, the dissociation behavior of hydrate inside different saturation sediments during sustained depressurization remains unclear. In this study, methane hydrate-bearing sediments were synthesized using initial water saturations varying between 9.5% and 56.9% and subsequently dissociated at a gas exhaust rate of 0.77 Ls/min. The results indicate that the dissociation of hydrates is closely related to the initial hydrate distribution until the sediments get iced when the sediment pressure declines below 2.5 MPa. Due to the exothermic reaction of ice formation, the dissociation of hydrates after icing accelerates significantly, and its limiting factor becomes the gas exhaust rate. In addition, both production and monitoring pipes were used in this study to evaluate the possible plugging within the sediments, and the plugging zone within the sediments can be located by examining the thermodynamic correlation between pressure and temperature responses. It was found that all experimental cases with high saturations (47.4% and more initial water) easily induce plugging between sediments and production/monitoring pipes, with the maximum pressure gap reaching up to 2.5 MPa. These findings may aid in ensuring the safety and efficiency of the hydrate exploitation process in the future.