New insights on gas hydrate formation in sand through magnetic resonance imaging

• Main Authors: Bagherzadeh, S. Alizera, Englezos, Peter, Moudrakovski, Igor L., Ripmeester, John A.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2011
• Subjects: hydrate formation; magnetic resonance imaging; kinetic; nucleation; porous media; Methane hydrate
• Online Access: https://nrc-publications.canada.ca/eng/view/accepted/?id=59d5d14b-3441-49f7-859e-60504664f46e; https://nrc-publications.canada.ca/eng/view/object/?id=59d5d14b-3441-49f7-859e-60504664f46e; https://nrc-publications.canada.ca/fra/voir/objet/?id=59d5d14b-3441-49f7-859e-60504664f46e

Methane hydrate was formed in an unconsolidated bed of silica sand and the process was monitored with magnetic resonance imagin g. The sand particle size and the water content were varied and their effect on hydrate nucleation and growth was observed. It was found that hydrate formation in porous media does not proceed in a uniform manner and nucleation of hydrate crystals occurs at different times and different positions inside the bed, a phenomenon which is referred to as multiple nucleation in space and time. Furthermore, hydrate formation was found to be faster in a bed with lower water content and smaller particle size. Peer reviewed: Yes NRC publication: Yes