The people who want to use methane clathrates for energy are nuts. They are playing with fire and don't appear to know it. Or they are just flat out deniers (which I'm pretty sure is the case of the SI poster who I took this piece from). At least the author notes the problems that destabilizing the methane clathrates could pose (in bold, below--my bolding).
Investing in Combustible Ice
The Role of Flaming Ice as an Energy Solution
By Christian A. DeHaemer
Wednesday, October 7th, 2009
wealthdaily.com
Though methane clathrate may seem like something out of an episode of the X-files, the truth is flaming ice is real, abundant, and believed to have played a part in the massive climate shifts throughout earth's long history. What's more, there's enough of it to power the world for 1,000 years. . .
Combustible ice is a simple combination of methane and ice crystals. It is usually formed under sediments in the deepest parts of the ocean, where methane escaping from the earth's core runs into high pressure and low temperature and becomes trapped in the crystal structure of water ice.
What might be surprising than its earthly existence is the sheer abundance of methane calthrate. Some geologists estimate that there is twice as much of this compound than all known oil, natural gas and coal reserves on earth...
According to Forbes:
Timothy Collett, a research geologist at the U.S. Geological Survey, has estimated that there could be as much as 317 quadrillion cubic feet of methane gas stored in hydrates in the U.S.
To put this in perspective, the U.S. Department of Energy estimates that the country has 187 trillion cubic ft of natural gas reserves. Needless to say, the potential value of gas hydrates as a less-polluting and more secure supply of energy is immense.
There is a downside to all of this stored energy. The problem arises when temperature shifts or pressure changes and massive amounts of methane are released. The sudden release of these giant gas bubbles have been known to sink ships.
But more alarming than that, methane is 20 times worse than CO2 as a global warming agent. The sudden release of natural gas in extraction processes from methane clathrate deposits has been pointed to by climate scientists as a major cause of past and possible future climate changes.
According to the Independent:
Methane is about 20 times more powerful as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide and many scientists fear that its release could accelerate global warming in a giant positive feedback where more atmospheric methane causes higher temperatures, leading to further permafrost melting and the release of yet more methane.
The amount of methane stored beneath the Arctic is calculated to be greater than the total amount of carbon locked up in global coal reserves so there is intense interest in the stability of these deposits as the region warms at a faster rate than other places on earth.
So, I was a bit concerned when I read that not only has China recently discovered land-based methane clathrate... but that they have plans to exploit it.
According to the People's Daily:
China will likely make a breakthrough in developing gas hydrates, which have been recently discovered on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Zhang Hongtao, chief engineer of China's Ministry of Land and Resources, said that the discovery of gas hydrates is comparable to the discovery of the Daqing Oilfield 50 years ago.
With a combined permafrost area of 2.15 million sq km, China enjoys advantages in gas hydrates deposits.
Scientists estimate that the hydrates can provide the equivalent of 35 billion tons of crude oil in energy, enough for consumption for 90 years in China, whereas the deposits in Qinghai Province alone make up one quarter.
Extraction
There are two ways to get the methane out - heat the ice with hot water or remove the pressure. When you do either of these things, the lion's share of gas escapes into the atmosphere. That's not to say someone won't figure out a way to do it. In fact, the Japanese are working on a project that is set to go online in 2016..,
But so far there is only one field that has commercially produced gas from methane clathrates, the Messoyakha Gas Field, which supplies Norilsk, Russia, with energy.
So where does that bring us and our budding relationship with burning ice?
The new extracting methods for natural gas have added 58% to the known reserves in the United States. Combustible ice would give the world 1,000 years of clean burning energy. It could potentially fill the gap oil will leave in a few decades' time. |
