Abstract Offshore/onshore deposits of methane hydrates could represent a large potential future source of energy, provided the difficulties associated with their safe, environmental-friendly and economically-viable production can be resolved adequately. Examining hydrate dissociation at different length scales (e.g., molecular, single pore, pore network, core and field) is part of the goal to initially identify, and subsequently address such difficulties. The current study introduces a mathematical-modeling approach and is focused on the evolution of methane gas that occurs within a single pore and is the result of the dissociation of methane hydrate that was originally deposited within the pore. We examine the critical gas saturation, which is defined as the fraction of gas volume inside a single pore when a spherical gas bubble reaches the pore walls for the first time. Further, we obtain critical values for pore sizes above which the production of methane gas is possible. The results shown here correspond to the case of large pores where the depression of the dissociation temperature (due to the presence of small-sized pores) is ignored.

中文翻译：

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单孔尺度甲烷水合物分解过程中临界气体饱和度的研究：大孔隙的分析解决方案

摘要 甲烷水合物的海上/陆上沉积物如果能够充分解决与其安全、环境友好和经济可行的生产相关的困难，则可能是未来巨大的潜在能源。检查不同长度尺度（例如，分子、单孔、孔网络、岩心和油田）的水合物分解是最初识别并随后解决这些困难的目标的一部分。目前的研究引入了一种数学建模方法，重点关注单个孔隙内发生的甲烷气体的演化，这是最初沉积在孔隙内的甲烷水合物分解的结果。我们检查临界气体饱和度，定义为球形气泡第一次到达孔壁时单个孔内气体体积的分数。此外，我们获得了孔径的临界值，高于该值就可能产生甲烷气体。这里显示的结果对应于大孔的情况，其中忽略了解离温度的降低（由于小孔的存在）。