New technology of gas hydrate recovery and constraints on commercial recovery

Gas hydrate as a new type of clean alternative energy plays a very important role in alleviating energy crisis,so its formation and recovery mechanism have aroused worldwide attention.The conventional gas hydrate recovery methods include thermal stimulation,depressurization and chemical reagent,which haven’t been successfully applied to commercial recovery to date because of various technical or cost drawbacks.As the development of science and technology and the deepening of gas hydrate study,some new recovery methods have been concerned in recent years,including CO2 replacement,solid mining (i.e.hydraulic hoisting) and microwave heating.These methods overcome the drawbacks of conventional recovery methods and may become the main technology in future commercial recovery of gas hydrate.This paper analyzes the formation and properties of gas hydrate,discusses the recovery methods,and assumes that there are three main factors constraining large-scale commercial recovery of gas hydrate:insufficient knowledge about the formation and control mechanism,high cost,and potential environmental problem and geologic hazard.This study provides some certain direction and inspiration to future gas hydrate recovery.