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Dissociation mechanism of methane hydrate by CaCl2: an experimental and molecular dynamics study

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Abstract

The formation of gas hydrate is a serious threat to the safe and effective completion of deepwater drilling and transportation operations, although it is considered as a potential energy resource. The inorganic salts are generally used as thermodynamic inhibitors; CaCl2 as a common additive in drilling fluids exhibits unique properties. In this study, we explored the dissociation mechanism of CH4 hydrate in CaCl2 solutions at the macroscopic and microscopic scale using experiment and molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. The experimental results showed that CaCl2 accelerated the dissociation rate of CH4 hydrate. The dissociation rate of CH4 hydrate increased with the increase of CaCl2 concentration at large depressurization pressure and was mainly affected by pressure when the depressurization pressure was lower. MD simulations were used to give an atomic scale interpretation of the macroscopic results obtained from the experiment. The results showed that the addition of CaCl2 destroyed the resistance liquid film formed during CH4 hydrate dissociation, thus accelerating the dissociation process, in good agreement with experimental results.

Highlights

• The amount of CaCl2 affects CH4 hydrate dissociation at large depressurization pressure.

• The dissociation of CH4 hydrate at low depressurization pressure is dependent on pressure.

• Ca2+ destroys effectively the resistance liquid film produced during hydrate dissociation.

• MD simulation results are in agreement with those of the experiment.

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Data availability

All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this manuscript. More data are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51874343, U1762212, 51874332, 51874342), Natural Science Foundation of Shan Dong Province (ZR2017MEE027), the Graduate Innovation Foundation of China University of Petroleum (YCX2019012), “PCSIRT” (IRT_14R58), and Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Oilfield Chemistry.

Funding

National Natural Science Foundation of China (51874343, U1762212, 51874332, 51874342), Natural Science Foundation of Shan Dong Province (ZR2017MEE027), the Graduate Innovation Foundation of China University of Petroleum (YCX2019012), “PCSIRT” (IRT_14R58), and Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Oilfield Chemistry.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Petroleum Engineering, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao, 266580, People’s Republic of China

    Tingji Ding, Ruihe Wang, Jiafang Xu, Moussa Camara & Weidong Zhou

  2. Key Laboratory of Unconventional Oil & Gas Development, Ministry of Education, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao, 266580, People’s Republic of China

    Ruihe Wang, Jiafang Xu & Weidong Zhou

  3. School of Material Science & Engineering, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao, 266580, People’s Republic of China

    Jun Zhang

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  1. Tingji Ding
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Contributions

Tingji Ding, Ruihe Wang, Jiafang Xu, Moussa Camara, Weidong Zhou, and Jun Zhang designed the research; Tingji Ding, Jiafang Xu, Moussa Camara, and Jun Zhang performed the research; Tingji Ding, Ruihe Wang, Jiafang Xu, Moussa Camara, Weidong Zhou, and Jun Zhang analyzed the data; Tingji Ding, Ruihe Wang, Jiafang Xu, and Moussa Camara wrote the paper.

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Correspondence to Ruihe Wang or Jiafang Xu.

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Ding, T., Wang, R., Xu, J. et al. Dissociation mechanism of methane hydrate by CaCl2: an experimental and molecular dynamics study. J Mol Model 28, 109 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00894-022-05070-6

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