Numerical Investigation into the Gas Production from Hydrate Deposit under Various Thermal Stimulation Modes in a Multi-Well System in Qilian Mountain.

The primary objective of this study was to investigate the energy recovery performance of the permafrost hydrate deposit in the Qilian Mountain at site DK-2 using depressurization combined with thermal injection by the approach of numerical simulation. A novel multi-well system with five horizontal wells was applied for large-scale hydrate mining. The external heat is provided by means of water injection, wellbore heating, or the combinations of them through the central horizontal well, while the fluids are extracted outside from the other four production wells under constant depressurization conditions. The injected water can carry the heat into the hydrate deposit with a faster rate by thermal convection regime, while it also raises the local pressure obviously, which results in a strong prohibition effect on hydrate decomposition in the region close to the central well. The water production rate is always controllable when using the multi-well system. No gas seepage is observed in the reservoir due to the resistance of the undissociated hydrate. Compared with hot water injection, the electric heating combined with normal temperature water flooding basically shows the same promotion effect on gas recovery. Although the hydrate regeneration is more severe in the case of pure electric heating, the external heat can be more efficiently assimilated by gas hydrate, and the efficiency of gas production is best compared with the cases involving water injection. Thus, pure wellbore heating without water injection would be more suitable for hydrate development in deposits characterized by low-permeability conditions.

Numerical Investigation into the Development Performance of Gas Hydrate by Depressurization Based on Heat Transfer and Entropy Generation Analyses.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the dynamic properties of gas hydrate development from a large hydrate simulator through numerical simulation. A mathematical model of heat transfer and entropy production of methane hydrate dissociation by depressurization has been established, and the change behaviors of various heat flows and entropy generations have been evaluated. Simulation results show that most of the heat supplied from outside is assimilated by methane hydrate. The energy loss caused by the fluid production is insignificant in comparison to the heat assimilation of the hydrate reservoir. The entropy generation of gas hydrate can be considered as the entropy flow from the ambient environment to the hydrate particles, and it is favorable from the perspective of efficient hydrate exploitation. On the contrary, the undesirable entropy generations of water, gas and quartz sand are induced by the irreversible heat conduction and thermal convection under notable temperature gradient in the deposit. Although lower production pressure will lead to larger entropy production of the whole system, the irreversible energy loss is always extremely limited when compared with the amount of thermal energy utilized by methane hydrate. The production pressure should be set as low as possible for the purpose of enhancing exploitation efficiency, as the entropy production rate is not sensitive to the energy recovery rate under depressurization.

Fabrication of CuInS2-sensitized solar cells via an improved SILAR process and its interface electron recombination.

Tetragonal CuInS2 (CIS) has been successfully deposited onto mesoporous TiO2 films by in-sequence growth of InxS and CuyS via a successive ionic layer absorption and reaction (SILAR) process and postdeposition annealing in sulfur ambiance. X-ray diffraction and Raman measurements showed that the obtained tetragonal CIS consisted of a chalcopyrite phase and Cu-Au ordering, which related with the antisite defect states. For a fixed Cu-S deposition cycle, an interface layer of ß-In2S3 formed at the TiO2/CIS interface with suitable excess deposition of In-S. In the meantime, the content of the Cu-Au ordering phase decreased to a reasonable level. These facts resulted in the retardance of electron recombination in the cells, which is proposed to be dominated by electron transfer from the conduction band of TiO2 to the unoccupied defect states in CIS via exponentially distributed surface states. As a result, a relatively high efficiency of ~0.92% (V(oc) = 0.35 V, J(sc) = 8.49 mA cm(-2), and FF = 0.31) has been obtained. Last, but not least, with an overloading of the sensitizers, a decrease in the interface area between the sensitized TiO2 and electrolytes resulted in deceleration of hole extraction from CIS to the electrolytes, leading to a decrease in the fill factor of the solar cells. It is indicated that the unoccupied states in CIS with energy levels below EF0 of the TiO2 films play an important role in the interface electron recombination at low potentials and has a great influence on the fill factor of the solar cells.