Environmentally Friendly Production of Energy from Natural Gas Hydrates

Dear Colleagues,

Natural gas is considered a clean energy source that enables human society to transition from a fossil fuel-dominated phase to a sustainable and renewable energy-dominated phase. Fortunately, natural gas hydrates could become an important source of natural gas in the near future. It was estimated that the global reserves of natural gas hydrates are as high as 3 × 10¹⁵ m³, which is about double the reserves of conventional fossil fuels (such as oil, gas, and coal). In the stable structure of gas hydrate, natural gas is firmly fixed in the center of the cage structure that is composed of water molecules. Once its stable state is disturbed, natural gas escapes from the cage structure, allowing it to be extracted and utilized. At present, the commonly used development strategies mainly include depressurization, thermal stimulation, inhibitor injection, and CO₂ replacement. Unfortunately, there will be many environmental challenges during its long-term development process using these strategies. For example, inhibitors injected into hydrate-bearing sediments can contaminate pore fluids and cause damage to the reservoir. Therefore, exploring strategies for producing energy from natural gas hydrates in an environmentally friendly and efficient manner has become particularly important.

This Special Issue on “Environmentally Friendly Production of Energy from Natural Gas Hydrates” seeks high-quality research focusing on environmentally friendly production strategies for natural gas hydrates. Topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

(1) Impact of hydrate development on the environment and ecology, including analysis of engineering geological issues, methane leakage, reservoir damage, and contamination by chemical reagents.
(2) Development of environmentally friendly chemicals for hydrate development, such as drilling fluid additives, fracturing fluid additives, and various inhibitors.
(3) Application of industrial waste (such as power plant flue gas and waste heat) or low-quality energy (such as geothermal energy) in the efficient development of hydrates.
(4) Economic and technical evaluation of various environmentally friendly production strategies for natural gas hydrates.

Dr. Qingchao Li
Dr. Qiang Li
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Processes is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• natural gas hydrate
• production strategy
• additives
• inhibitors
• wellbore stability
• sand production
• reservoir damage
• geothermal
• economic and technical evaluation