Effect of reservoir goaf on methane recovery and carbon dioxide sequestration in sandy and clayey hydrate reservoirs: An experimental study

Abstract

Carbon dioxide (CO₂) replacement is a promising technique for extracting natural gas hydrate (NGH, a promising clean energy source), capable of promoting energy development while mitigating the greenhouse effect. However, the improvement of NGH extraction efficiency in field engineering is hindered by the difficulty of CO₂ injection and diffusion. To overcome these difficulties, this study proposes combining CO₂ replacement with the solid fluidization method for the exploitation of NGH. The effects of solid fluidization mining goaf on methane (CH₄) recovery and CO₂ sequestration were experimentally investigated. The results indicate that the presence of a goaf in a sandy hydrate reservoir improves the CH₄ recovery ratio and CO₂ storage capacity due to its ability to provide a higher replacement driving force. However, the CO₂ sequestration ratio in the goaf-containing reservoir is lower than that in the intact hydrate reservoir due to the influence of free water content. Besides increasing the replacement driving force, the goaf in the clayey hydrate reservoir can also enhance the diffusion of the replacement medium. The enhancement of CH₄ recovery and CO₂ storage amount per unit sediment volume is 5.3% and 22.8%, respectively. Moreover, the CO₂ sequestration ratio in the goaf-containing hydrate reservoir is higher than that in the intact hydrate reservoir. These results provide theoretical support for the extraction of NGH via the CO₂ replacement method.

Keywords

Natural gas hydrate / Combustible ice / Clean energy / CO₂ sequestration / Hydrate exploitation / Reservoir goaf / Solid fluidization / Carbon sequestration / Carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS)

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