Thermophysical properties of natural gas hydrates: A review

Abstract

As a promising new energy source, natural gas hydrates (NGHs) have attracted wide attention. The thermophysical properties of NGHs are of great significance to their exploitation. This work summarizes the progress of laboratory measurements and models of NGH thermophysical parameters, such as phase equilibrium, thermal conductivity, dissociation enthalpy, thermal diffusivity, and specific heat capacity. The advantages and disadvantages of measurement methods, numerical models, typical experimental data, and characteristics are discussed. The measurement accuracy of hydrate phase equilibrium is closely related to the estimation (or prediction) of the temperature (pressure), at which gas hydrate may decompose, as well as the heating rate, pores, residual water, ice and additive, etc., affect the sample quality as well as the thermal conductivity. The randomness of hydrate nucleation and growth leads to the uncertainty of hydrate distribution in sediments, which directly affects the accuracy of thermophysical property prediction models. Moreover, some future perspectives are suggested.

Keywords

• Phase equilibrium
• Dissociation enthalpy
• Thermal conductivity
• Thermal diffusion
• Specific heat capacity