The status of exploitation techniques of natural gas hydrate

Natural gas hydrate (NGH) has been widely considered as an alternative form of energy with huge potential, due to its tremendous reserves, cleanness and high energy density. Several countries involving Japan, Canada, India and China have launched national projects on the exploration and exploitation of gas hydrate resources. At the beginning of this century, an early trial production of hydrate resources was carried out in Mallik permafrost region, Canada. Japan has conducted the first field test from marine hydrates in 2013, followed by another trial in 2017. China also made its first trial production from marine hydrate sediments in 2017. Yet the low production efficiency, ice/hydrate regeneration, and sand problems are still commonly encountered; the worldwide progress is far before commercialization. Up to now, many gas production techniques have been proposed, and a few of them have been adopted in the field production tests. Nevertheless, hardly any method appears really promising; each of them shows limitations at certain conditions. Therefore, further efforts should be made on the economic efficiency as well as sustainability and environmental impacts. In this paper, the investigations on NGH exploitation techniques are comprehensively reviewed, involving depressurization, thermal stimulation, chemical inhibitor injection, CO₂–CH₄ exchange, their combinations, and some novel techniques. The behavior of each method and its further potential in the field test are discussed. The advantages and limitations of laboratory studies are also analyzed. The work could give some guidance in the future formulation of exploitation scheme and evaluation of gas production behavior from hydrate reservoirs.