A dissociation behavior of methane hydrate-bearing sediment using high-speed X-ray CT scanner

To use methane hydrate as an energy resource, it is necessary to establish decomposition methods for efficiently extracting methane gas from the methane hydrate-bearing layer. A core holder was installed in a High-Speed X-ray CT scanner to observe the dissociation behavior of methane hydrate-bearing sediment. Artificial methane hydrate-bearing sediment was made and dissociated by the depressurization method. The pressure in the sediment decreased immediately, and the sediment temperature decreased in proportion to the dissociation pressure. The CT luminance value decreased with the decomposition because hydrates in the sediment pore space were replaced from hydrates with methane gases. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the 15th International Offshore and Polar Engineering Conference (Seoul, Korea 6/19/2005).