• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.11a
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• pp.58-61
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• 2006

n-Pentane and n-hexane, previously regarded as non-hydrate formers, are found to form structure H hydrate in mixtures with 2,2-dimethylbutane. Even though they are thought to be too large to fit into the largest cage of the structure H hydrate, powder XRD and NMR measurements show that they form gas hydrates in mixtures with other sH hydrate former. These findings are of fundamental interest and also will impact the composition and location of natural gas hydrates and their potential as global energy resource and climate change materials.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.71-84
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• 2013

Most gas hydrates (GH) occur in ocean sediments. Global GH reserves are estimated to be $10^{13}{\sim}20{\times}10^{15}m^3$, which is nearly 1,000 times the amount of current world energy consumption. Methane hydrate (MH) has the potential to be developed into future natural gas resources to replace traditional oil and gas resources, and thus MH production technologies such as depressurization, inhibitor injection, thermal stimulation, and $CO_2-CH_4$ substitution need to be further developed. MH production, which is expected to be in test production until 2014 in Korea, is focused on the development of GH production technologies for use in the commercial production of methane gas. This study compares MH production technology and its ability to meet the twin goals of being both effective and environmentally friendly while taking into consideration the complex phenomena of GH decomposition.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.34-41
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• 2010

Gas hydrates are solid solutions when water molecules are linked through hydrogen bonding and create host lattice cavities that can enclose many kinds of guest(gas) molecules. There are plenty of methane(gas) hydrate in the earth and distributed widely at offshore and permafrost. Several schemes, to produce methane hydrates, have been studied. In this study, depressurization method has been utilized for the numerical model due to it's simplicity and effectiveness. IMPES method has been used for numerical analysis to get the saturation and velocity profile of each phase and pressure profile, velocity of dissociation front progress and the quantity of produced gas. The values calculated for the sample length of 10m, show that methane hydrates has been dissolved completely in approximately 223 minutes and the velocity of dissociation front progress is 3.95㎝ per minute. The volume ratio of the produced gas in the porous media is found to be about 50%. Analysing the saturation profile and the velocity profile from the numerical results, the permeability of each phase in porous media is considered to be the most important factor in the two phase flow propagation. Consequently, permeability strongly influences the productivity of gas in porous media for methane hydrates.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.11-16
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• 2010

Methane hydrate is crystalline ice-like compounds which formed methane gas enters within water molecules composed cavity and each other from physically-bond at specially temperature and pressure condition. $1m^3$ of methane hydrate can be decomposed into the maximum of $216m^3$ of methane gas under standard condition. If these characteristics of hydrate are utilized in the opposite sense, natural gas can be fixed into water in the form of a hydrate solid. Therefore the use of hydrate is considered to be a great way to transport and store natural gas in large quantity. However, when methane hydrate is formed artificially, the amount of gas that is consumed is relatively low, due to the slow reaction rate between water and methane gas. Therefore for practical purposes in the application, the present investigation focuses on increasing the amount of gas consumed by adding chemically oxidized OMWCNTs to pure water. The results show that when 0.003 wt% of oxidation multi-walled carbon nanotubes was added to pure water, the amount of gas consumed was almost four times more than that of pure water indicating its effect in hydrate formation and the hydrate formation time decreased at alow subcooling temperature.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.34-40
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• 2009

$1m^3$ hydrate of pure methane can be decomposed to the maximum of $216m^3$ methane at standard condition. If these characteristics of hydrate are reversely utilized, natural gas is fixed into water in the form of hydrate solid. Therefore, the hydrate is considered to be a great way to transport and store natural gas in large quantity. Especially the transportation cost is known to be 18-24% less than the liquefied transportation. In the present investigation, experiments and theoretical calculation carried out for the formation of methane hydrate in NaCl 3.5wt% solution. The results show that the equilibrium pressure in seawater is more higher than that in pure water, and methane hydrate could be formed rapidly during pressurization if the subcooling is maintained at 9K or above in seawater and 8K or above in pure water, respectively. Also, amount of consumed gas volume in pure water is more higher that in seawater at the same experimental conditions. Therefore, it is found that NaCl acts as a inhibitor.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.11a
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• pp.122.1-122.1
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• 2011

The motivation for this work was the potential of hydrophobic amino acids such as glycine, L-alanine, and L-valine to be applied as thermodynamic hydrate inhibitors (THIs). To confirm their capabilities in inhibiting the formation of gas hydrates, three-phase (liquid-hydrate-vapor) equilibrium conditions for carbon dioxide hydrate formation in the presence of 0.1 to 3.0 mol% amino acid solutions were determined in the range of 273.05 to 281.45 K and 14.1 to 35.2 bar. From quantitative analyses, the inhibiting effects of the amino acids (on a mole concentration basis) decreased in the following order: L-valine > L-alanine > glycine. The application of amino acids as THIs has several potential advantages over conventional methods. First, the environmentally friendly nature of amino acids as compared to conventional inhibitors means that damage to ecological systems and the environment could be minimized. Second, the loss of amino acids in recovery process would be considerably reduced because amino acids are non-volatile. Third, amino acids have great potential as a model system in which to investigate the inhibition mechanism on the molecular level, since the structure and chemical properties of amino acids are well understood.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.259-264
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• 2011

Gas hydrate is formed by physical binding between water molecule and gas such as methane, ethane, propane, or carbon dioxide, etc., which is captured in the cavities of water molecule under the specific temperature and pressure. $1\;m^3$ hydrate of pure methane can be decomposed to the methane gas of $172\;m^3$ and water of $0.8\;m^3$ at standard condition. If this characteristic of hydrate is reversely utilized, natural gas is fixed into water in the form of hydrate solid. Therefore, the hydrate is considered to be a great way to transport and store of natural gas in large quantity. Especially the transportation cost is known to be 18~25% less than the liquefied transportation. However, when methane gas hydrate is artificially formed, its reaction time may be too long and the gas consumption in water becomes relatively low, because the reaction rate between water and gas is low. Therefore, for the practical purpose in the application, the present investigation focuses on the rapid production of hydrates and the increment of the amount of captured gas by adding zeolite into pure water. The results show that when the zeolite of 0.01 wt% was added to distilled water, the amount of captured gas during the formation of methane hydrate was about 4.5 times higher than that in distilled water, and the methane hydrate formation time decreased at the same subcooling temperature.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.06a
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• pp.507-510
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• 2007

Piston cores retrieved from the western Ulleung Basin, East Sea were analyzed to examine the potential for hydrocarbon generation and to determine the hydrocarbon indicators. 2D multi-channel reflection seismic and Chirp data were also investigated for mapping and characterizing the geophysical hydrocarbon indicators such as BSR (bottom simulating reflector), blank zone, pock-mark etc. High organic carbon contents and sedimentation rates that suggest good condition for hydrocarbon generation. High pressure and low temperature condition, and high residual hydrocarbon concentrations are favor the formation of natural gas hydrate. In the piston cores, cracks generally oriented to bedding may indicate the gas expansion. The seismic data show several BSRs that are associated with natural gas hydrates and underlying free gas. A number of vertical to sub-vertical blank zones were well identified in the seismic sections. They often show the seismic pull-up structures, probably indicating the presence of high velocity hydrates. Numerous pockmarks were also observed in the Chirp profiles. They may indicate the presence of free gas below the hydrate stability zone as well.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.597-599
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• 2007

Studies on the hydrocarbons in shallow sediments of the East Sea of Korea have been carried out by the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGAM) since 2000. 4946 L-km of 2D multichannel reflection seismic data, 3250 L-km of high-resolution Chirp profiles and 16 selected piston cores were analyzed to determine the presence of hydrocarbons in shallow sediments of the western deep-water Ulleung Basin. The seismic data show a number of blanking zones that probably reflect widespread fluid and gas venting. The blanking zones are often associated with velocity pull-up structures. These upwelling structures are interpreted to be the result of high-velocity natural gas hydrate. There are also several bottom-simulating reflectors that are associated with free gas and probably overlying gas hydrate. Numerous pockmarks were also observed in the Chirp profiles. They are seafloor depressions caused by the removal of near-seafloor soft sediments by escaping of fluid and gas. In piston cores, cracks generally oriented parallel to bedding suggest significant gas content some of which may have been contained in gas hydrate in situ.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.95-120
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• 2023

Methane (CH₄) is a key greenhouse gas in the atmosphere with 85 times greater greenhouse potent relative to carbon dioxide (CO₂). The atmospheric concentration of CH₄ is rapidly increasing due to the intensive usage of CH₄ and the thawing of the cryosphere. Additionally, with the current warming of ocean water, the dissociation of gas hydrates, an ice-like compound and the largest reservoir of CH₄ on Earth, is expected to occur, resulting in the release of CH₄ from the seafloor into the overlying water and atmosphere. Moreover, bottom water hypoxia is another concern that potentially introduces greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. With ongoing global warming and eutrophication, the size and duration of bottom water hypoxia are rapidly increasing. These low-oxygen conditions would relocate the redox zone shallower in sediment or in the water column, causing the release of CH₄ into the atmosphere and thereby intensifying global warming. However, there exists a gap in the understanding of CH₄ dynamics including its generation in relation to bottom water hypoxia. Therefore, this review article aims to understand the relationship between CH₄ and bottom water hypoxia and to draw attention to CH₄ investigation in Korea.