Search

Natural gas hydrate (GH) is a significant potential energy source due to its large reserves, wide distribution, high energy density and low pollution. However, the gas production rate of past gas hydrate production tests is much lower than the requirement of commercial gas production. Reservoir stimulation technologies like hydraulic fracture provide one potential approach to enhance gas production from GH. The reservoir reformation behaviour of the hydrate-bearing sediments (HBS), particularly sediments with a high clay content, is a complex process during a hydraulic fracturing operation, which has been poorly understood and thus hardly predictable. This paper presents an experimental facility that was developed to analyze the hydraulic fracture mechanism in synthesized HBS. This facility can be used to form GH in sediments, conduct visual observation of hydraulic fracturing experiments, and measure the permeability of HBS under high pressure (up to 30 MPa) and low-temperature conditions (from 253.15 K to 323.15K). It is mainly composed of a pressure control and injection unit, a low temperature and cooling unit, a cavitation unit, a visual sapphire reactor, and a data acquisition and measurement unit. The hydraulic fracture module is consisting of a gas cylinder, fracturing pump, hopper, proppants warehouse and valves. The sapphire reservoir chamber is applied to observe and measure the fracture of HBS during hydraulic fracturing. The permeability test module is composed of a constant-flux pump and pressure sensors, which can evaluate the permeability performance before and after hydraulic fracture in HBS. The fundamental principles of this apparatus are discussed. Some tests were performed to verify hydraulic fracture tests and permeability tests could be practically applied in the HBS exploitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]