Environmental Science · Environmental Chemistry
A 10-month test on Alaska’s North Slope produced gas steadily from a gas-hydrate-bearing sand reservoir during its longest continuous operating period. The gas-to-water ratio averaged about 600 cubic meters per cubic meter, far above results from earlier short tests and computer simulations.
A 315-day gas-hydrate production test on Alaska’s North Slope produced gas at a higher-than-expected ratio to water. During about two months of continuous production, the gas rate showed no clear increase or decline, while monitoring detected changes linked to hydrate breakdown underground.
An extended test on Alaska’s North Slope extracted methane released from a gas-hydrate reservoir for 151 days. The produced gas was mostly secondary microbial methane, and the reservoir yielded an unexpectedly high amount of gas compared with water.
A 10-month gas-hydrate production test on Alaska’s North Slope produced gas at a stable rate for 60 days. But pump failures and problems with the system meant to keep sand out of the well limited depressurization and productivity, providing design lessons for future tests.
Researchers developed and tested a model for using compressed gas to carry rock chips out of a deep borehole on Mars. The model showed reasonable agreement with vacuum and full-system experiments, offering guidance for drilling into buried ice deposits.
