Effect of Porosity to Methane Hydrate Formation in Quartz Sand

Natural gas hydrates are recognized as the potential source of methane gas as the current estimates of the global methane hydrates inventory range between 1000 and 10000 Giga Tonnes of carbon. The behavior of methane hydrate formation in porous media is investigated in the Tubular Hydrate Cell at 8 MPa and 276 K. The present work is focused on finding the optimum porosity of the quartz sand with the grain sizes of 600–800 µm that could accelerate the methane hydrate formation. The effect of different porosity (O of 0.32, 0.34, 0.37, and 0.4) on the methane hydrate induction time, methane hydrate saturation, and the time taken for methane hydrates to completely form in the unconsolidated sand is investigated. The result shows that the optimum value for porosity is 32% based on the fastest time taken for complete formation and largest value of methane hydrate saturation which is 33.35 h and 6.34%, respectively, at the specified operating conditions.