Study on the Influence of Structural Parameters of Microwave Heating Device on the Heating Effect of Natural Gas Hydrate Reservoir

Abstract The investigation into microwave heating technology for enhancing gas production from hydrate reservoir has attracted wide attention. However, the initial microwave heating device structure still has limitations of low average temperature and uneven temperature distribution in the reservoir during microwave heating. This study has established the microwave heating simulation model, which is validated by the reservoir microwave heating experiment results. Based on the simulation results of microwave heating model, the optimized structure parameters of microwave heating device are obtained: the slots distribution method is cross-distribution, the slot shape is rectangle, the slot angle is 75°, and the slot length is 30 mm. Following microwave heating with the optimized structure for 10 hours, the average temperature within the 1-meter radius of the reservoir rises from 2 °C to 9.52 °C, the maximum temperature in the reservoir is 58.21 °C, and the temperature standard deviation is 9.15 °C. The results mentioned above indicate that the optimized structure can well increase the temperature in the gas hydrate reservoir and the temperature distribution is uniform. This study will further promote the application of microwave heating technology in the actual exploitation of natural gas hydrate.