Pages 341-342
This study investigates the possibility of the airlift system that is used to recover Methane-Hydrate (MH) from the seabed. As the first step of this study, we calculated unsteady two-phase flow in single-dimension using a numerical procedure based on finite difference method. The optimum depth of gas injection point was found from the relation between the power requirement and superficial velocity of liquid phase. The dynamic and control characteristics of the airlift system for recovering MH were calculated. The decomposition rate of gas hydrate was measured by using R141-b hydrate instead of MH. The effect of methane gas, which is generated by decomposition during passing through the recovery pipe, was investigated. These results show that there is the possibility of establishing the high performance recovery system using the proposed airlift system.
