Investigations Related to Hydrate Exploration and Recovery

The determination of in situ hydrates spawned a wave of research to measure hydrate properties needed for geological research and gas recovery. Several measurements were made of sonic velocity and thermal conductivity of hydrates in sediments (e.g., Stoll and Bryan, 1979 Pearson et al., 1984 Asher, 1987 Waite et al., 2005), while others measured the calorimetric properties (e.g., Rueff, 1985 Handa, 1986a,b,c,d Rueff et al 1988) needed to estimate dissociation energy. Davidson (1983) summarized hydrate properties as being similar to ice, with a few notable exceptions. Chapter 2 presents comparisons of physical property measurements of ice and hydrate. 

Along with the measurements of hydrate properties came several studies to determine the recoverability of gas from hydrates beneath the permafrost. Kamath and coworkers, in a research effort spanning over more than a decade, studied hydrate drilling and recovery in Alaska (Kamath, 1984 Kamath et al., 1984 Kamath and Godbole, 1987 Kamath and Holder, 1987 Roadifer et al., 1987a,b Godbole et al., 1988 Nadem et al., 1988 Sira et al., 1990 Kamath et al., 1991 Sharma et al., 1991, 1992). 

Soviet researchers indicated that thermal stimulation from above the ground was not economically viable. Trofimuk et al. (1982) suggested alternatives of pressure reduction, inhibitor injection, geothermal stimulation, or in situ combustion techniques. Recovery techniques modeled in the Western Hemisphere were by either pressure reduction or thermal stimulation. The first of these was by McGuire (1982), followed by Holder et al. (1984a), Burshears et al. (1986), and workers in the CSM laboratory (Selim and Sloan, 1985, 1987, 1989 Yousif et al., 1988, 1990). 

Hydrate dissociation models that were later developed to simulate hydrate recovery techniques include numerical models by Masuda et al. (1997), Moridis (2002), and Hong et al. (2003) analytical models by Makogon (1997) and Tsypkin (2000). The details of these models are given in Chapter 7. 

---