Dissociation heat transfer characteristics of methane hydrates

Knowledge of the interfacial heat transfer phenomenon during the dissociation of gas hydrates is essential in modeling the hydrate dissociation process. Such knowledge has applications in natural gas processing, storage, or transportation; in the drilling and recovery of oil and gas in the presence of gas hydrates; in the desalination of sea water; and in the production of natural gas from hydrate reservoirs. The process of hydrate dissociation is a unique phenomenon in which gas and water are simultaneously produced at the dissociated hydrate surface and play an important role in the mechanism of heat transfer to hydrates. An earlier study of propane hydrate dissociation showed that hydrate dissociation is a heat-transfer-limited process and somewhat similar to the nucleate boiling of liquids. In the present study, heat transfer limitations for methane hydrate dissociation were studied for two reasons. First, a comparison of the results of this study with propane hydrate was desired. Second, the effect of hydrate structure and gas molecule type on the rate of heat transfer during hydrate dissociation was sought.