Phase Equilibria and Kinetics of Methane Hydrate Formation and Dissociation in Krishna–Godavari Basin Marine Sediments

Abstract

Understanding the formation and dissociation behavior of methane gas hydrate in marine sediments is one of the important precursors for methane gas production from the hydrate deposits. The phase behavior of gas hydrates is influenced by the presence of sediments, composition of salts and water present in it. Krishna–Godavari (KG) Basin in India is one such reservoir which has a huge potential of methane gas hydrates. Here, we have investigated the phase equilibria, and the kinetics of methane hydrate formation, and dissociation in the presence of pure water, and in aqueous solution of 10 wt% (KG) basin sediment. We observed that the phase equilibrium conditions of methane hydrate in presence of 10 wt% sediment solution got shifted to slightly higher pressures at given temperature as compared to that in the bulk phase. It has also been observed that more number of methane gas molecules are consumed in 10 wt% sediment solution in the initial 30 minutes of time than in the pure water system, revealing the promotion effect of sediment surface. The number of moles of methane gas released during the dissociation of hydrate has found to be lesser in sediment solution than in pure water at any given time after initial 55 min of the start of dissociation.