A cylindrical electrical resistivity tomography array for three-dimensional monitoring of hydrate formation and dissociation

Priegnitz, Mike; Thaler, Jan; Spangenberg, Erik; Rücker, Carsten; Schicks, Judith M.

doi:10.1063/1.4825372

Cited by 54 publications

(49 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…52 The main five components of LARS are shown in Figure 5. Here we will focus on the formation mechanism rather than on the technical details which can be found in Schicks et al 52 and Priegnitz et al 54 The sediment sample with a diameter of 460 mm and a length of about 1300 mm can be set under simulated in situ conditions in the pressure vessel (1). The pore fluid pressure and confining pressure simulating the overburden is provided by ISCO syringe pumps, suitable for pressurization up to 25 MPa (2).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…was installed and used. 54 ERT does not provide the high spatial resolution of X-ray and NMR tomography, but these highly resolving methods are not practicable for a pressure system with a sample volume of more than 200 L. Ultrasonic velocity tomography would have been another alternative, but for technical and budget reasons it could not be realized in our system yet.…”

Section: Journal Of Chemical and Engineering Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

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Are Laboratory-Formed Hydrate-Bearing Systems Analogous to Those in Nature?

et al. 2014

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The intensive study of hydrate-bearing sandy sediments, a possible source of fossil energy for future generations, leads to an accumulation of information from field studies, laboratory studies, and modeling. This information is used to create conceptual models for hydrate deposit genesis helping to assess the value of laboratory experimental studies on artificially formed hydrate-bearing sediments. We present an experimental example on the simulation of hydrate formation from methane dissolved in water, which is assumed to be the most likely natural process for the genesis of highly concentrated hydrate in sandy sediments. Measurements of the concentration of dissolved methane, temperature, and electrical resistivity tomography are used to describe and characterize the hydrate formation process. It could be shown that the way in which hydrate forms in this laboratory experiment corresponds to the procedure assumed for natural scenarios. The main difference to nature is probably the high crystal growth rate which seems to result in an increased water−hydrate interface and a subsequent "aging" or recrystallization process affecting certain physical properties.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Journal Of Chemical and Engineering Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Are Laboratory-Formed Hydrate-Bearing Systems Analogous to Those in Nature?

et al. 2014

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“…The first two mechanisms have been modeled (Cook & Malinverno, 2013;Nole et al, 2016;You & Flemings, 2017), with some field (Davie & Buffett, 2003;Malinverno & Goldberg, 2015;You & Flemings, 2017) and experimental (Priegnitz et al, 2013;Spangenberg et al, 2005) verification. In thick sands, short-range diffusion generates high hydrate concentrations at the boundaries of the sand, but low concentrations in the center (Rempel, 2011;You & Flemings, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental Investigation of Gas Flow and Hydrate Formation Within the Hydrate Stability Zone

et al. 2018

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We form methane hydrate by injecting methane gas into a brine‐saturated, coarse‐grained sample under hydrate‐stable thermodynamic conditions. Hydrate forms to a saturation of 11%, which is much lower than that predicted assuming three‐phase (gas‐hydrate‐brine) thermodynamic equilibrium (67%). During hydrate formation, there are temporary flow blockages. We interpret that a hydrate skin forms a physical barrier at the gas‐brine interface. The skin fails periodically when the pressure differential exceeds the skin strength. Once the skin is present, further hydrate formation is limited by the rate that methane can diffuse through the solid skin. This process produces distinct thermodynamic states on either side of the skin that allows gas to flow through the sample. This study illuminates how gas can be transported through the hydrate stability zone and thus provides a mechanism for the formation of concentrated hydrate deposits in sand reservoirs. It also illustrates that models that assume local equilibrium at the core‐scale and larger may not capture the fundamental behaviors of these gas flow and hydrate formation processes.

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“…Note that the phase saturation estimated based on this method is only representative of the phase saturations in the reactor, with no consideration of its spatial distribution. The spatial distribution of the various phases can be determined by state-of-the-art instrumental techniques (e.g., X-ray CT scanning [15,27], MRI [48], Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) [32], etc.) that provide direct visualization data.…”

Section: Estimation Of the Average Phase Saturationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The laboratory study of Rees et al [29] provided further evidence of heterogeneity during MH formation in cores, with their results suggesting that hydrate preferentially grows in areas of low initial water saturation. Besides X-ray CT scanning, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) [30,31] and electrical resistivity tomography [32] have also been applied in the visualization of the phase distribution during MH formation and dissociation processes. All studies consistently point out to a non-uniform SH in the laboratory cores despite the difference in the size of the reactor and the MH formation method.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effectiveness of multi-stage cooling processes in improving the CH4-hydrate saturation uniformity in sandy laboratory samples

et al. 2019

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Laboratory-created samples of methane hydrate (MH)-bearing media are a necessity because of the rarity and difficulty of obtaining naturally-occurring samples. The hypothesis that the inevitable heterogeneity in the phase saturations of the laboratory samples may lead to unreliable and non-repeatable results provided the impetus for this study, which aimed to determine the conditions under which maximum uniformity can be achieved. To that end, we designed four experiments involving different multi-stage cooling regimes (in terms of their duration and number of stages) to induce MH formation under excess-water conditions. In the absence of direct visualization capabilities, we analysed the experimental results by means of numerical simulation, which provided high-resolution predictions of the spatial distributions of the phase saturations in the cores and enabled the estimation of the parameters controlling the kinetic MH-formation behaviour through history-matching. Analysis of the numerical results indicated that, under the conditions of the experiments and with the design of the reactor, significant heterogeneities in phase saturation distributions were observed in all cases, leading to the conclusion that it is not possible to obtain cores with uniform phase saturation. Additionally, contrary to expectations, heterogeneities increased with the number of cooling stages and the duration of cooling, and this was attributed to imperfect insulation of the upper part of the reactor. A set of simulations involving perfect insulation of the reactor top confirmed the validity of this assumption: (a) predicting the formation of high-uniformity MH-bearing cores that became more homogeneous as 1 The short version of the paper was presented at ICAE2018, Aug 22-25 (2018), Hong Kong. This paper is a substantial extension of the short version of the conference paper.2 the number of cooling stages and the length of the cooling period increased; and (b) providing important information for the improvement of the standard design of the experimental apparatus for the laboratory creation of MH-bearing cores using the excess water method.

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A cylindrical electrical resistivity tomography array for three-dimensional monitoring of hydrate formation and dissociation

Cited by 54 publications

References 14 publications

Are Laboratory-Formed Hydrate-Bearing Systems Analogous to Those in Nature?

Are Laboratory-Formed Hydrate-Bearing Systems Analogous to Those in Nature?

Experimental Investigation of Gas Flow and Hydrate Formation Within the Hydrate Stability Zone

Effectiveness of multi-stage cooling processes in improving the CH4-hydrate saturation uniformity in sandy laboratory samples

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