Natural gas hydrate as a potential energy resource: From occurrence to production

Natural gas hydrate reservoirs have been strongly suggested as a potential energy resource. However, this potential is expected to be limited by geological factors, reservoir properties, and phase-equilibria considerations. Accordingly, sufficient understanding and accurate analyses for the complex surroundings in a natural gas hydrate system have to occur before methane recovery. In this paper, we discuss the formation and structure patterns of global natural gas hydrate, including the origins of hydrocarbon, crystal structures, and unique structure transition. We also summarize two important anomalies related to methane occupancy and chlorinity which were revealed very recently. Furthermore, we review the geological and chemical surroundings of the shallow hydrate deposits, the so-called brine patch discovered in the Cascadia Margin and Ulleung Basin, which are significantly related to tectonic conduits for methane gas and positive chlorinity.

[1]  William P. Dillon,et al.  Natural gas hydrates: occurrence, distribution, and detection , 2001 .

[2]  J. Brooks,et al.  Isotopic Analysis of Core Gases at Sites 565-570, Deep Sea Drilling Project Leg 84 , 1985 .

[3]  J. E. Andrews,et al.  Initial Reports of the Deep Sea Drilling Project , 1973 .

[4]  Hitoshi Tomaru,et al.  Three-dimensional distribution of gas hydrate beneath southern Hydrate Ridge: Constraints from ODP Leg 204 , 2004 .

[5]  Ji-hoon Kim,et al.  Compositional and structural identification of natural gas hydrates collected at site 1249 on ocean drilling program leg 204 , 2005 .

[6]  R. Huene,et al.  Initial reports of the deep sea drilling project: National Science Foundation, Washington, D.C., 1969, 672 pp., U.S. $ 10.25 , 1971 .

[7]  Y. Baek,et al.  A seismic survey to detect natural gas hydrate in the East Sea of Korea , 2005 .

[8]  Michael J. Whiticar,et al.  Biogenic methane formation in marine and freshwater environments: CO2 reduction vs. acetate fermentation—Isotope evidence , 1986 .

[9]  N. Ross Chapman,et al.  The origin of thermogenic gas hydrates on the northern Cascadia Margin as inferred from isotopic (13C/12C and D/H) and molecular composition of hydrate and vent gas , 2005 .

[10]  Sun-Hwa Yeon,et al.  Structure transition and swapping pattern of clathrate hydrates driven by external guest molecules. , 2006, Journal of the American Chemical Society.

[11]  Wenyue Xu,et al.  Comment on “Gas hydrate growth, methane transport, and chloride enrichment at the southern summit of Hydrate Ridge, Cascadia margin off Oregon” by Torres et al. [Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 226 (2004) 225–241] , 2005 .

[12]  M. Haeckel,et al.  Rising methane gas bubbles form massive hydrate layers at the seafloor , 2004 .

[13]  T. Collett.  Natural Gas Hydrate as a Potential Energy Resource , 2000 .

[14]  Ji-hoon Kim,et al.  Inferences on gas transport based on molecular and isotopic signatures of gases at acoustic chimneys and background sites in the Ulleung Basin , 2012 .

[15]  J. Chanton,et al.  Thermogenic gas hydrates in the northern Cascadia margin , 2004 .

[16]  Jonny Rutqvist,et al.  Numerical Studies on the Geomechanical Stability of Hydrate-Bearing Sediments , 2009 .

[17]  J. Gieskes,et al.  Interstitial Water Chemistry of Gas-Hydrate-Bearing Sections on the Middle America Trench Slope, Deep Sea Drilling Project Leg 84 , 1985 .

[18]  Jürgen Mienert,et al.  Gas hydrates: relevance to world margin stability and climate change , 1998 .

[19]  Edward T. Peltzer,et al.  Gas hydrate measurements at Hydrate Ridge using Raman spectroscopy , 2007 .

[20]  William R. Bryant,et al.  Association of gas hydrates and oil seepage in the Gulf of Mexico , 1986 .

[21]  Myong-Ho Park,et al.  Molecular and isotopic signatures in sediments and gas hydrate of the central/southwestern Ulleung Basin: high alkalinity escape fuelled by biogenically sourced methane , 2011 .

[22]  Ian R. MacDonald,et al.  Evidence of structure-H hydrate, Gulf of Mexico Continental slope , 1994 .

[23]  G. Rehder,et al.  Methane sources, distributions, and fluxes from cold vent sites at Hydrate Ridge, Cascadia Margin , 2005 .

[24]  Huen Lee,et al.  Generalized Cage Occupancy Behavior in the Binary Clathrate Hydrates , 2010 .

[25]  W. Borowski,et al.  Gas hydrate growth, methane transport, and chloride enrichment at the southern summit of Hydrate Ridge, Cascadia margin off Oregon , 2004 .

[26]  Gregor Rehder,et al.  Distribution and height of methane bubble plumes on the Cascadia Margin characterized by acoustic imaging , 2003 .

[27]  Keun-Pil Park,et al.  Sequestering carbon dioxide into complex structures of naturally occurring gas hydrates , 2006, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[28]  T. Lorenson,et al.  Gas hydrates from the continental slope, offshore Sakhalin Island, Okhotsk Sea , 1993 .

[29]  W. Borowski,et al.  Sources of Biogenic Methane to Form Marine Gas Hydrates In Situ Production or Upward Migration? a , 1993 .

[30]  E. Sloan,et al.  A third-surface effect on hydrate formation , 1988 .

[31]  G. Lee,et al.  Seismic indicators of gas hydrate and associated gas in the Ulleung Basin, East Sea (Japan Sea) and implications of heat flows derived from depths of the bottom-simulating reflector , 2009 .

[32]  Bruce A. Buffett,et al.  A numerical model for the formation of gas hydrate below the seafloor , 2001 .

[33]  Keun-Pil Park,et al.  Swapping Phenomena Occurring in Deep-Sea Gas Hydrates , 2008 .

[34]  T. Lorenson,et al.  The Global Occurrence of Natural Gas Hydrate , 2013 .

[35]  J. Brooks,et al.  Thermogenic Gas Hydrates in the Gulf of Mexico , 1984, Science.

[36]  Sun-Hwa Yeon,et al.  Structural, Mineralogical, and Rheological Properties of Methane Hydrates in Smectite Clays , 2009 .

[37]  W. Borowski,et al.  Co-existence of gas hydrate, free gas, and brine within the regional gas hydrate stability zone at Hydrate Ridge (Oregon margin): evidence from prolonged degassing of a pressurized core , 2004 .

[38]  R. Hesse.  Pore water anomalies of submarine gas-hydrate zones as tool to assess hydrate abundance and distribution in the subsurface , 2003 .

[39]  P. Egeberg,et al.  THERMODYNAMIC AND PORE WATER HALOGEN CONSTRAINTS ON GAS HYDRATE DISTRIBUTION AT ODP SITE 997 (BLAKE RIDGE) , 1999 .

[40]  Ji-hoon Kim,et al.  Gas hydrates in the western deep-water Ulleung Basin, East Sea of Korea , 2009 .

[41]  Frank R Rack,et al.  Proceedings of the Ocean Drilling Program, 204 Initial Reports , 2003 .

[42]  Alexei V. Milkov,et al.  Gas hydrate systems at Hydrate Ridge offshore Oregon inferred from molecular and isotopic properties of hydrate-bound and void gases , 2005 .

[43]  G. Ivanova,et al.  GAS HYDRATES OF THE SOUTHERN CASPIAN , 1992 .

[44]  Michael J. Whiticar,et al.  Carbon and hydrogen isotope systematics of bacterial formation and oxidation of methane , 1999 .

[45]  N. Ross Chapman,et al.  Complex gas hydrate from the Cascadia margin , 2007, Nature.

[46]  J. Brooks,et al.  Observations of gas hydrates in marine sediments, offshore northern California , 1991 .

[47]  Youngjune Park,et al.  Effect of interlayer ions on methane hydrate formation in clay sediments. , 2009, The journal of physical chemistry. B.

[48]  K. Kvenvolden,et al.  Potential effects of gas hydrate on human welfare. , 1999, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[49]  C. Paull,et al.  Ion Exclusion Associated with Marine Gas Hydrate Deposits , 2013 .

[50]  Joo Myung Kang,et al.  CO2 hydrate behavior in the deep ocean sediments; phase equilibrium, formation kinetics, and solubility , 2002 .

[51]  M. Holland,et al.  Core lithologies and their constraints on gas-hydrate occurrence in the East Sea, offshore Korea: Results from the site UBGH1-9 , 2011 .

[52]  P. Flemings,et al.  Passing gas through the hydrate stability zone at southern Hydrate Ridge, offshore Oregon , 2006 .

[53]  B. Buffett,et al.  Formation of gas hydrate from dissolved gas in natural porous media , 2000 .

[54]  G. Bohrmann,et al.  Hydrocarbon gases in deposits from mud volcanoes in the Sorokin Trough, north-eastern Black Sea , 2003 .

[55]  J. Ripmeester,et al.  Molecular cage occupancy of clathrate hydrates at infinite dilution: experimental determination and thermodynamic significance. , 2010, Journal of Physical Chemistry B.

[56]  E. Lindahl,et al.  Titratable amino acid solvation in lipid membranes as a function of protonation state. , 2009, The journal of physical chemistry. B.

[57]  B. Dugan,et al.  Effects of multiphase methane supply on hydrate accumulation and fracture generation , 2010 .

[58]  Minjun Cha,et al.  Recovery of methane from gas hydrates intercalated within natural sediments using CO(2) and a CO(2)/N(2) gas mixture. , 2012, ChemSusChem.

[59]  R. Sassen,et al.  Thermogenic vent gas and gas hydrate in the Gulf of Mexico slope: Is gas hydrate decomposition significant? , 2001 .

[60]  S. Dallimore,et al.  Scientific Results from JAPEX/JNOC/GSC Mallik 2L-38 Gas Hydrate Research Well, Mackenzie Delta, Northwest Territories, Canada , 1999 .

[61]  The formation of natural gas hydrates in water-based drilling fluids , 1992 .

[62]  M. Torres,et al.  Fluid and chemical fluxes in and out of sediments hosting methane hydrate deposits on Hydrate Ridge, OR, I: Hydrological provinces , 2002 .

[63]  Sun-Hwa Yeon,et al.  Abnormal methane occupancy of natural gas hydrates in deep sea floor sediments , 2011 .

[64]  Martin Schoell,et al.  Multiple origins of methane in the Earth , 1988 .

[65]  Alexei V. Milkov,et al.  Thermogenic gas hydrates and hydrocarbon gases in complex chemosynthetic communities, Gulf of Mexico continental slope , 1999 .

[66]  John S. Tse,et al.  A new clathrate hydrate structure , 1987, Nature.

[67]  A. Petrov,et al.  The Northwest Territories, Canada , 2015 .

[68]  M. Hovland,et al.  On the self-sealing nature of marine seeps , 2002 .

[69]  J. Greinert,et al.  Gas hydrate destabilization: enhanced dewatering, benthic material turnover and large methane plumes at the Cascadia convergent margin , 1999 .

[70]  Peter Englezos,et al.  Phase equilibrium data on carbon dioxide hydrate in the presence of electrolytes, water soluble polymers and montmorillonite , 1994 .

[71]  S. Guggenheim,et al.  New gas-hydrate phase: Synthesis and stability of clay–methane hydrate intercalate , 2003 .

[72]  J. Tse,et al.  Laboratory analysis of a naturally occurring gas hydrate from sediment of the Gulf of Mexico , 1986 .

[73]  Ji-hoon Kim,et al.  Occurrence of near-seafloor gas hydrates and associated cold vents in the Ulleung Basin, East Sea , 2009 .