Sensitivity analysis of thermal dissociation of natural gas hydrate

As a potential energy in the future, natural gas hydrate has become a new hot focus of the natural gas industry. Based on the mechanism of thermal dissociation, a mathematical model is set up and solved. Sensitivity analysis of hydrates production from thermally induced dissociation is conducted to determine the governing parameters. The results show that the thermal dissociation front of hydrates and the gas production are mainly influenced by porosity, injection temperature, initial hydrate saturation, initial hydrate temperature, thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity of the dissociated zone, while the thermal dissociation of hydrates is less sensitive to the thermodynamics properties of the hydrate zone. This study is useful to the future research of thermal dissociation of natural gas hydrates.