Earth’s Cryosphere, 2020, vol. XXIV, No. 4, pp. 23-29
10.21782/EC2541-9994-2020-4(23-29)

ESTIMATION OF POTENTIAL GAS HYDRATE FORMATION IN FINELY DISPERSED SOILS AT NEGATIVE TEMPERATURES: EXPERIMENTAL MODELING

D.A. Davletshina, E.M. Chuvilin

Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, Skolkovo Innovation Center,
30, build. 1, Bolshoi boulevard., Moscow, 121205, Russia; e.chuvilin@skoltech.ru

The article presents results of the experimental modeling of potential methane hydrate formation in the pore space of finely dispersed sediments at negative temperatures. As demonstrated by the experimental results, accumulation of pore methane hydrate in ice-bearing clays saturated with gas is possible in significant amounts even at sufficiently low temperatures (−6.5 °С). The experiments were conducted using a specially designed system, which allows studying the kinetics of gas hydrate accumulation in pore space of the frozen sediments. This research enables evaluation of the effect of clay component on the rate of pore methane hydrate accumulation in frozen sands, and provides valuable insights about pore gas hydrate accumulation in clayey soils depending on ice saturation. The hydrate accumulation kinetics and structure and textural features of frozen hydrate-saturated clayey silt samples with different initial size of ice inclusions were investigated.

Key words: gas hydrates, frozen soils, hydrate formation, kinetics, clayey soils, hydrate saturation

Please cite as:

Davletshina D.A., Chuvilin E.M. Estimation of potential gas hydrate formation in finely dispersed soils at negative temperatures: experimental modeling. Earth’s Cryosphere, 2020, vol. XXIV, No. 4, pp.23-29,  DOI: 10.21782/EC2541-9994-2020-4(23-29)