EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF LEAKAGE-TYPE METHANE HYDRATE FORMATION

Natural gas hydrate is regarded as a kind of potential clean energy for the future. Compared with the diffusion-type hydrate, the scale of leakage type hydrate is larger and therefore more valuable for mining and using. This experiment simulates the generation process of leakage-type methane hydrate in a reaction cylinder designed by the authors (the volume is 7.5 L). We investigated the variations of the temperature pressure resistivity and flow rate during the hydrate formation, and then calculated the rate of methane hydrate formation. We also take photos to monitor the generation process for visual research on the hydrate generation. It indicates that the leakage type methane hydrate forms quickly under the initial condition of 3.5 ℃, 6.2 MPa and flux of leakage of 14.7 mol/ (m²·s). The maximum of the generation rate reached to 0.12 mol/s; and the resistivity peaked at 2.2 Ω·m.