Formation Behavior and Controlling Factor of Methane Hydrate in Porous Media

In order to study the formation behavior and controlling factor of methane hydrate in porous media, the formation experiments of methane hydrate in porous media at the constant pressure were carried out in the temperature range of 274.15 - 276.15 K and the pressure range of 6 - 8 MPa. The silica gels with the mean pore diameter of 12.95 nm, 17.96 nm and 33.20 nm were used as the porous media for the experiments. The experimental results indicated that the hydrate formation rate and the final gas consumption in porous media increases with the increase of the formation pressure, the decrease of the formation temperature. Based on the shrinking core model, the kinetic models for hydrate formation in silica gels under the reaction control and gas diffusion control were built, respectively. The methane hydrate formation is controlled by the gas diffusion process in silica gels with the mean pore diameter of 12.95 nm and 17.96 nm, and is controlled by the reaction process in silica gels with the mean pore diameter of 33.20 nm.