Using Submarine Heat Pumps for Efficient Gas Production from Seabed Hydrate Reservoirs

• Published in: Energies
• Main Authors: Yasuhiko H. Mori, Jun-ichi Ochiai, Ryo Ohmura
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2012
• Subjects: gas hydrate; methane hydrate; heat pump; energy; fuel; Technology; T; Methane hydrate
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.3390/en5030599; https://doaj.org/article/f131b67813ff4cadb7efdd878d5e2cac

This article reports our novel idea about the thermal stimulation of seabed hydrate reservoirs for the purpose of natural gas production. Our idea is to use submarine heat pumps, which are to be placed near the hydrate reservoir and work to recover thermal energy from the surrounding seawater and supply it into the reservoir. Although the heat pumps need an electricity supply from the sea surface level, they can provide thermal energy which is several times that of the consumed electricity in quantity. As a consequence, the use of submarine heat pumps has a distinct thermodynamic advantage over other thermal stimulation techniques already proposed in the literature.