A new experimental facility for investigating the formation and properties of gas hydrates under simulated seafloor conditions

Abstract

A seafloor process simulator (SPS) has been developed for experimental investigations of the physical, geochemical, and microbiological processes affecting the formation and stability of methane and carbon dioxide hydrates at temperatures and pressures corresponding to ocean depths of 2 km. The SPS is a corrosion-resistant pressure vessel whose salient characteristics are: (i) an operating range suitable for study of methane and carbon dioxide hydrates; (ii) numerous access and observation ports, and (iii) a large (0.0722 m3) internal volume. Initial experiments have shown that the SPS can be used to produce large amounts of high-purity methane hydrate over a wide range of experimental conditions.

Raman spectroscopy of a hydrated CO2/water composite

“…The SPS has a working pressure range up to 200 bar (∼ 2900 psi) and can be used to simulate ocean conditions at depths up to 2000 m (Phelps et al, 2001). It is made of corrosion-resistant, C-22 Hastelloy material, and contains 41 access ports and 6 sapphire windows for visual observation.…”

“…Co-flow injections were performed both in a 72-liter seafloor process simulator (SPS) pressure vessel and a small 450-ml (Parr, Inc) pressure vessel. The SPS has been described in detail previously (Phelps et al, 2001;Riestenberg et al, 2003).…”

Experimental study of gas hydrate formation and destabilisation using a novel high-pressure apparatus

“…Both kinds of apparatus previously mentioned enable the study of pure gas hydrates. Beside, there are laboratory facilities for investigating the properties of gas hydrate-bearing sediments or gas hydrates in porous media Eaton et al, 2007;Lee et al, 2002;Madden et al, 2009;Phelps et al, 2001;Waite et al, 2008;Winters et al, 2007). The apparatus presented here was developed keeping in mind the primary features required for an apparatus devoted to the study formation, accumulation and destabilisation of gas hydrate at the macroscopic level.…”

Experimental Simulation of the Exploitation of Natural Gas Hydrate

“…Some massive hydrate simulation reactors, such as the Seafloor Process Simulator (SPS) experimental platform at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, USA, whose reactor volume is 72 L [56] has been designed and adopted for studying the gas hydrate dissociation behavior with the depressurization method. In addition, Zhou et al [57] carried out an experiment with a 59.2 L reactor.…”