2-D Numerical Simulation of Natural Gas Hydrate Decomposition Through Depressurization by Fully Implicit Method

Natural gas hydrate, as a potential energy resource, deposits in permafrost and marine sediment with large quantities. The current exploitation methods include depressurization, thermal stimulation, and inhibitor injection. However, many issues have to be resolved before the commercial production. In the present study, a 2-D axisymmetric simulator for gas production from hydrate reservoirs is developed. The simulator includes equations of conductive and convective heat transfer, kinetic of hydrate decomposition, and multiphase flow. These equations are discretized based on the finite difference method and are solved with the fully implicit simultaneous solution method. The process of laboratory-scale hydrate decomposition by depressurization is simulated. For different surrounding temperatures and outlet pressures, time evolutions of gas and water generations during hydrate dissociation are evaluated, and variations of temperature, pressure, and multiphase fluid flow conditions are analyzed. The results suggest that the rate of heat transfer plays an important role in the process. Furthermore, high surrounding temperature and low outlet valve pressure may increase the rate of hydrate dissociation with insignificant impact on final cumulative gas volume.