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Pore capillary pressure and saturation of methane hydrate bearing sediments

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Abstract

To better understand the relationship between the pore capillary pressure and hydrate saturation in sediments, a new method was proposed. First, the phase equilibria of methane hydrate in fine-grained silica sands were measured. As to the equilibrium data, the pore capillary pressure and saturation of methane hydrate were calculated. The results showed that the phase equilibria of methane hydrates in fine-grained silica sands changed due to the depressed activity of pore water caused by the surface group and negatively charged characteristic of silica particles as well as the capillary pressure in small pores together. The capillary pressure increased with the increase of methane hydrate saturation due to the decrease of the available pore space. However, the capillary-saturation relationship could not yet be described quantitatively because of the stochastic habit of hydrate growth.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Civil Engineering Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, 266510, China

    Shicai Sun & Yufeng Liu

  2. Qingdao Institute of Marine Geology, Qingdao, 266071, China

    Changling Liu & Yuguang Ye

  3. State Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas Reservoir Geology and Exploitation, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu, 610500, China

    Shicai Sun

Authors
  1. Shicai Sun
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  2. Changling Liu
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  3. Yuguang Ye
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  4. Yufeng Liu
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Correspondence to Shicai Sun.

Additional information

Foundation item: The Open Fund of State Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas Reservoir Geology and Exploitation, Southwest Petroleum University under contract No. PLN1206; the National Natural Science Foundation of China under contract No. 51376114; the Ministry of Land and Resources research of China in the Public Interest under contract No. 201111026; the Open Fund of Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Depositional Mineralization & Sedimentary Minerals, Shandong University of Science & Technology under contract No. DMSM201007; the National Basic Research Program (973 program) of China under contract No. 2009CB219503.

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Sun, S., Liu, C., Ye, Y. et al. Pore capillary pressure and saturation of methane hydrate bearing sediments. Acta Oceanol. Sin. 33, 30–36 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13131-014-0538-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13131-014-0538-y

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