A methane hydrate mound sits on the sea floor off British Columbia, 850 metres below the surface.Posted on 04/20/2008 5:29:12 PM PDT by BGHater
Methane hydrate deposits are vast potential energy source; researchers had problems with a consistent flow of thawed gas
A remote drilling rig high in the Mackenzie Delta has become the site of a breakthrough that could one day revolutionize the world's energy supply.
For the first time, Canadian and Japanese researchers have managed to efficiently produce a constant stream of natural gas from ice-like gas hydrates that, worldwide, dwarf all known fossil fuel deposits combined.
"We were able to sustain flow," said Scott Dallimore, the Geological Survey of Canada researcher in charge of the remote Mallik drilling program. "It worked."
For a decade now, Dallimore and scientists from a half-dozen other countries have been returning to a site on Richards Island on the very northwestern tip of the Northwest Territories to study methane gas hydrates.
A hydrate is created when a molecule of gas – in this case, methane or natural gas – is trapped by high pressures and low temperatures inside a cage of water molecules. The result is almost – but not quite – ice. It's more like a dry, white slush suffusing the sand and gravel 1,000 metres beneath the Mallik rig.
Heat or unsqueeze the hydrate and gas is released. Hold a core sample to your ear and it hisses.
More significant is the fact that gas hydrates concentrate 164 times the energy of the same amount of natural gas.
And gas hydrate fields are found in abundance under the coastal waters of every continent. Calculations suggest there's more energy in gas hydrates than in coal, oil and conventional gas combined.
Getting that energy to flow consistently and predictably, however, has been the problem. Using heat to release the gas works, but requires too much energy to be useful. Researchers have also been trying to release the methane by reducing the pressure on it.
Last month, the Mallik team became the first to use that method to get a steady, consistent flow.
"That went really well," said Dallimore. "We definitely demonstrated that these hydrates are responsive enough that you can sustain flow.
"We were able to take conventional technologies, modify them, and produce. That's a big step forward."
Although countries including India, China, Japan and the United States have undertaken major programs to identify gas hydrate fields, it's the first step in years toward making them productive.
The Mallik well produced fire from ice for six days at a rate lower than conventional gas but about equivalent to a coalbed methane well, Dallimore said.
This year's results prove the basic idea works, he said. The next step is a full-scale pilot project with every consideration that goes into a commercial production rig, including safety and environmental concerns, and questions regarding how much water and sediment are produced per unit of gas.
Dallimore suggests that as conventional natural gas prices increase and supplies diminish, gas hydrates could offer an alternative. They also emit less greenhouse gas than oil or coal.
So far, no Canadian agency is planning a full gas hydrate pilot project.
But Japan is planning one using data from the Mallik project. The United States Geological Survey is trying to start one with other agencies and energy companies.
"Everybody agrees this is what we need to do. It's just (a question of) where," said Brenda Pierce of the U.S. survey. "We're trying to look at doing this on the north slope of Alaska."
Commercial production of natural gas from hydrates is still a few years off, said Dallimore – but perhaps not too far off.
"This stuff may fit into that medium- to longer-term world for North America. For countries like Japan and North Korea, where they have no conventional resources, it may come up quicker."
A methane hydrate mound sits on the sea floor off British Columbia, 850 metres below the surface.
’ More significant is the fact that gas hydrates concentrate 164 times the energy of the same amount of natural gas.
And gas hydrate fields are found in abundance under the coastal waters of every continent. Calculations suggest there’s more energy in gas hydrates than in coal, oil and conventional gas combined.’
Wow.
Interesting what discoveries $75+ oil is bringing.
I gotta go unlock some ice cubes from the freezer...
slight understatement...
I don't recall seeing that before. If they mean 164 times the energy per volume then piping the stuff should be more than viable.
With this, the Arabs, and Hugo Chavez can pound sand and eat their oil. I hope that this can become economically viable.
Ain’t Free Market Capitalism grand?
Scientists unlock frozen natural gas
I knew it was cold, when my farts froze.
Just wait. The dhimms can’t wait to regulate this to the point that it will never be used. I’m sure that it will contribute terrible amounts of CO2 to Gorebull Warming.
Anyone know what the environmental impact statement process is like in Canada? Is there some exemption for experiments/exploitation that allowed this discovery?
these can run on methane
microturbines instead of big power plants
http://www.youtube.com/Microturbine
and.......the release of this stuff causes more greenhouse gases than a thousand cars......
Hopefully, we can get this crap off the ocean floor and use it instead of letting it just melt and bubble up into the atmosphere where it could warm the planet and kill all of us (just kidding, only the stupid people will die).
Actually, I seem to recall that there is some geologic record of these hydrates suddenly being released (say a submarine slide taking the cap off of one - ala Mt. Saint Helens) and causing a huge catasrophe of plant and animal life.
It would seem to me that we need to drill them to relieve the pressure so as to save Mother Earth.
Is Methane hydrate a fossil fuel or is it made by other process’?
Fossil. Decomposition of plankton and ocean organisms in an oxygen poor environment.
Actually, about a factor of four.
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