Page 279 - Managing Global Warming

Methane hydrate as 7

a “new energy”

†
†
Liang Cui*, Azizul Moqsud , Masayuki Hyodo , Subhamoy Bhattacharya* ,1
†
*University of Surrey, Guildford, United Kingdom, Yamaguchi University, Japan
1
Corresponding author: s.bhattacharya@surrey.ac.uk

Chapter Outline

7.1 Introduction 239
7.1.1 What is methane hydrate? 239
7.1.2 Where is the reserve and how much? 240
7.2 Production methods 242
7.2.1 Thermal recovery method 242
7.2.2 Depressurization method 243
7.3 Testing equipment and sample preparation 244
7.3.1 Triaxial testing apparatus 244
7.3.2 Specimen preparation 248
7.3.3 Generation of MH and experimental procedure 249
7.3.4 Triaxial compression tests 251
7.4 MH dissociation tests 252
7.4.1 Initial stress before MH dissociation started 253
7.4.2 Depressurization method 254
7.4.3 Thermal recovery 256
7.4.4 Experimental findings 256
7.5 DEM simulation of MH dissociation process 258
7.5.1 Reproduction of MH dissociation process using DEM 258
7.5.2 Micromechanism associated with MH dissociation 259
7.6 Conclusions 263
References 264

7.1 Introduction

7.1.1 What is methane hydrate?
Methane hydrate (MH) is a solid compound in which a large amount of methane gas
molecules (CH 4 ) are caged within a crystalline structure of water, as illustrated in
Fig. 7.1, under low temperature and high pressure, forming a solid similar to ice
[1]. It looks like ice, but starts burning when an open flame is brought close to it; meth-
ane hydrate is often called “fiery ice.” As found in previous investigations [2], a great

Managing Global Warming. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-814104-5.00007-7
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