Gas hydrates (GH) are an abundantly available natural resource that has trapped huge amounts of methane gas through millions of years where its quantity is estimated to be twice that of all other types of hydrocarbon sources put together. The efforts to produce from these reserves resulted in inferior yield compared to conventional counterparts due to the limited conductivity of the sediment and freezing problems. Sourcing fracturing technology to GH reserves is estimated to increase the yield during the initial periods of production, according to recent studies. This novel work focuses on testing traditional polymers fluids for low temperature scenarios and evaluate their compatibility with established GH inhibitors such as sodium chloride (NaCl). Dissolved Na and Cl ions slows down the hydrogen bonding with water molecules crucial for hydrate formation. Experiments have been conducted to analyze the stability of guar and xanthan gum-based linear and cross-linked gels for temperatures similar to GH reservoir conditions. The compatibility of NaCl as an inhibitor was also tested to determine the suitability of sea water for such operations to improve performance from offshore reserves. The inhibitor integrated linear gel samples followed similar viscosity and viscoelastic trends to that of the reference endorsing the inhibitor's compatibility with the polymers at low temperatures. The xanthan gum integrated guar-based linear gel samples indicated synergistic performance enhancement by showing viscosity performance increment at a rate of 34.2% (low conc.) to 96.6% (medium conc.) and viscoelastic performance enhancement at a rate of 70.6% (low conc.) to 250% (medium conc.) compared to reference guar-based gel. The NaCl integrated crosslinked samples proved its incompatibility by demonstrating rapid deswelling nature by liberating water according to its increase in concentration, along with leaving stable residue that can seriously damage the sediment's conductivity long term, whereas the linear gel samples gradually degraded after 48 h where the xanthan gum integrated samples showed better resistance to degradation compared to their guar-based counterparts. This work has produced excellent observations that can be benefitted for future endeavors in improving production from GH reserves.

中文翻译：

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用于极低温水力压裂应用的甲烷水合物抑制剂（NaCl）集成聚合物凝胶的性能评估

天然气水合物（GH）是一种储量丰富的自然资源，数百万年来捕获了大量的甲烷气体，其数量估计是所有其他类型碳氢化合物来源总和的两倍。由于沉积物的电导率有限和冻结问题，与传统的对应物相比，从这些储量中开采的努力导致产量较低。根据最近的研究，估计采用压裂技术来开采 GH 储量可以提高生产初期的产量。这项新颖的工作重点是测试传统聚合物流体在低温情况下的情况，并评估它们与氯化钠 (NaCl) 等现有 GH 抑制剂的兼容性。溶解的 Na 和 Cl 离子会减缓与水分子形成氢键的速度，而水分子对于水合物的形成至关重要。已经进行了实验来分析基于瓜尔胶和黄原胶的线性和交联凝胶在与 GH 储层条件相似的温度下的稳定性。还测试了氯化钠作为抑制剂的相容性，以确定海水是否适合此类作业，以提高海上储备的性能。抑制剂集成的线性凝胶样品遵循与参考相似的粘度和粘弹性趋势，这证明了抑制剂在低温下与聚合物的相容性。黄原胶集成瓜尔胶线性凝胶样品显示出协同性能增强，粘度性能增加了 34.2%（低浓度）至 96.6%（中浓度），粘弹性性能增加了 70.6%（低浓度）。与参比瓜尔胶相比，浓度）提高至 250%（中等浓度）。氯化钠集成交联样品通过随着其浓度的增加而释放水而表现出快速消溶性质，并留下稳定的残留物，从而长期严重损害沉积物的电导率，从而证明了其不相容性，而线性凝胶样品在 48 小时后逐渐降解，其中与基于瓜尔胶的样品相比，黄原胶集成样品表现出更好的抗降解性。这项工作产生了出色的观察结果，可有益于未来提高 GH 储备产量的努力。