Some Remarks on the Phase Transformation of Gas Hydrates in Porous Sediments at Negative Celsius Temperatures

Abstract

The article presents a solution to the problem of the phase transition of methane hydrate — methane-gas + ice in porous hydrate-containing sediments at a negative Celsius temperature in the medium. The numerical solution of the resulting system of differential equations of piezoand thermal conductivity makes it possible to effectively simulate the change in pressure and temperature in both time and space in a medium of any dimension during its heating or decompression. In this case, the medium is not subdivided into parts with varying phase states of methane hydrate. Instead, its sediment substance is considered as a single entity, with its physical properties changing in magnitude when the hydrates undergo phase transformation. As an example, the problem of the thermobaric regime of a heating spherical cavern containing ice, hydrate and free methane has been solved. This cavern is situated within a continuous gas-tight underground ice. The solution shows that although the temperature of the sphere surface increases considerably, the decomposition of hydrate only occurs in an extremely thin shell located directly between the surface and the displaced inward phase boundary.
Over time, the stability conditions of hydrates establish anew but at a higher gas pressure and medium temperature. This phenomenon of severely limited decomposition of the hydrate in a closed gas-insulated space, nevertheless leading to an increase in pressure in it, is, apparently, the basic process that provides the “self-preservation” of methane hydrates.