Posted on 09/18/2007 11:08:23 AM PDT by Zuben Elgenubi
By: Rae Nguyen
It's not often that you see burning snow on a warm sunny Thursday afternoon in a chemistry class at Cal State Fullerton. Somehow, UC Irvine Professor Kenneth Janda conquered this feat when he demonstrated how compacted methane ice vacuumed from a steel apparatus showed the possibility of alternative energy.
His seminar, explained in the wordy title, "Spectroscopy and Dynamics of Halogen Molecules Trapped in Clathrate-Hydrate Cages" is not for the faint of heart. Most who attended were already armed with a chemistry degree and had an understanding of the lecture.
Currently, Janda's research studies are under way to test why bromine crystals behave differently than water crystals.
Due to its slightly different energy in each hydrate cage and the rise of temperature, the hydrogen moves to a slightly bigger cage. Using spectroscopy to determine this, Janda said, "it may be the motion inside the cage that influences the stability of the crystal formation."
Spectroscopy is the study of bonding of intermolecular interactions through the use of light or other radiation.
"Water is difficult to model correctly as it disobeys the third law of thermodynamics," Janda said. "Pure liquid water does not freeze. It only freezes if there are impurities in the water."
Methane hydrates, calthrates or simply methane ice are deposits of methane crystallized in water and can be found along the coasts of every continent. A trillion kilograms of methane is frozen into ice sediments in the ocean.
Propane and methane is pressurized with ice pellets and is measured in temperatures. The ice starts to melt after the heat reaches zero degrees. When the heat hits 12 degrees, the pressure increases, and can store about 120 pounds per square inch of gas up to about 10 degrees Celsius and still be safe. Any more than 10 degrees would cause an explosion.
To demonstrate the burning of ice, Janda presented a rudimentary device hooked onto a backyard barbecue propane tank. The methane ice in the steel container is pressurized. Two chunks of cylindrical ice were lit with a lighter, to the delight and gasps of the audience.
Though the methane ice would not stay ablaze for the promised 15 minutes, Dr. Janda jokingly said if they lost National Science Foundation Collaborative Research in Chemistry funding, demonstrations like this would make cool party drinks.
"There is enough methane frozen in the ocean sediments to run the economy for several hundred years. Unless we figure what to do with the carbon dioxide that comes from harvesting the methane - like science, it's a double-edged sword," Janda said.
According to a United States geological survey, methane is relatively abundant and has a clean burning process that produces less carbon dioxide than other hydrocarbon fuels.
"And there is a worry if methane were to come up without being burned, it's even worse because it's a much worse greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide itself. We need to understand it."
Fu-Ming Tao, a physical chemistry professor at CSUF, explained how important it is to find alternative energy.
"Society has two crises: energy crisis - not having enough energy," Tao said. "After using coal and oil, what is there left to use? Second, the issue is global warming. The main problem is CO2 is primarily responsible for global warming. So, the ice can store CO2 away, why not release methane gas to use for energy?"
Graduate student Andrew Sanchez said that he has always fantasized about making a difference. He also said the seminar was a refresher and an important lesson to learn, echoing Janda's sentiment of global warming.
"To stop it, you have to understand it," Sanchez said.
Hmmm...interesting...
I don’t think I want Janda to be my professor.
Unless they are talking about a supercooled liquid. But that is so special case as to not count in the real world.
Other than the bit about pure water not freezing, it’s completely fascinating. I wonder if we get to do this in lab when we cover thermodynamics... I wish we could =)
Freezing point depression and boiling point elevation, exactly. Each compound affects the others vapor pressure and hydrogen bonding in the case of ethylene glycol.
Impurities freeze bonding together to form ice. Pure water does not freeze
He didn’t use a flux capacitor, per chance?
So pure water has a super cooled phase, a liquid phase, a gaseous phase, a plasma phase, and no solid phase?
Not to mention that glass is a liquid, not solid.
Pull my finger.
Thanks for the google link; didn’t know gas hydrites were a topic here before. Nice homepage too.
The same materials when subjected to pressure and time yield the renewable resource.....crude oil.
Can someone confirm this with some documentation? I never heard of this before.
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