HR: 1340h
AN: OS23A-1037    [Abstracts]
TI: Numerical simulation of hydrate formation morphology in cylindrical experimental sand columns
AU: * Seol, Y
EM: yseol@lbl.gov
AF: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, One Cyclotron Rd., Berkeley, CA 94702, United States
AU: Kneafsey, T J
EM: tjkneafsey@lbl.gov
AF: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, One Cyclotron Rd., Berkeley, CA 94702, United States
AU: Moridis, G M
EM: gjmoridis@lbl.gov
AF: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, One Cyclotron Rd., Berkeley, CA 94702, United States
AB: Using X-ray computed tomography (CT), formation of methane hydrate in columns of moist sand was observed under various conditions of initial water saturation, porosity, pressure, and temperature. Contrary to many studies in porous media that assumed methane hydrate forms uniformly throughout the media, x-ray CT observations of laboratory studies involving hydrate formation showed nonuniform patterns that included circular bands, centered around the core axis, locally concentrations, or uniformly disseminations. Nucleation and accumulation of methane hydrate in porous media can be affected by many factors such as porosity, water saturation, relative permeability, heat conductivity, and inhibiting salts. However, there is no clear explanation on how or why these various patterns of heterogeneous distribution of hydrate formation take place. We conducted numerical simulations using TOUGH+Hydrate to investigate the nonuniform hydrate formation in moist sand, and compared the numerical predictions to the experiment results. The simulations were able to generate the various patterns of hydrate formation and to provide an understanding of the dynamic processes governing the hydrate formation. We conducted sensitivity analyses with respect to the initial water saturation, inhibitor concentration, and porosity, and we evaluated the impact of those parameters on the hydrate formation patterns.
DE: 0495 Water/energy interactions (1878)
DE: 1847 Modeling
DE: 4203 Analytical modeling and laboratory experiments
SC: Ocean Sciences [OS]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting