Natural Gas Production from Methane Hydrate Deposits Using CO2 Clathrate Sequestration : State-of-the-Art Review and New Technical Approaches

Abstract EN

This paper focuses on reviewing the currently available solutions for natural gas production from methane hydrate deposits using CO2 sequestration.

Methane hydrates are ice-like materials, which form at low temperature and high pressure and are located in permafrost areas and oceanic environments.

They represent a huge hydrocarbon resource, which could supply the entire world for centuries.

Fossil-fuel-based energy is still a major source of carbon dioxide emissions which contribute greatly to the issue of global warming and climate change.

Geological sequestration of carbon dioxide appears as the safest and most stable way to reduce such emissions for it involves the trapping of CO2 into hydrocarbon reservoirs and aquifers.

Indeed, CO2 can also be sequestered as hydrates while helping dissociate the in situ methane hydrates.

The studies presented here investigate the molecular exchange between CO2 and CH4 that occurs when methane hydrates are exposed to CO2, thus generating the release of natural gas and the trapping of carbon dioxide as gas clathrate.

These projects include laboratory studies on the synthesis, thermodynamics, phase equilibrium, kinetics, cage occupancy, and the methane recovery potential of the mixed CO2–CH4 hydrate.

An experimental and numerical evaluation of the effect of porous media on the gas exchange is described.

Finally, a few field studies on the potential of this new gas hydrate recovery technique are presented.