The possibilities of hydrous methane
Hydrous methane is sometimes called "white gold." But what is it, exactly? It's the result of the decomposition of live matter which is usually stored in non-deep layers of our soil. Currently, the common source is under permafrost. Now, because of an increase in overall temperatures, hydrous methane is being released into the atmosphere, and contributing to the greenhouse effect. There's also a good amount of hydrous methane under the sea inside the upper layers under water. This, some say, is potentially easy to extract.Although rich in water, hydrous methane decomposes at normal temperatures in methane and water, and this makes it readily available for use as a fuel, with all the advantages (burns clean) and inconvenience (CO2 production) of natural gas. The process is very similar to the methane produced in landfills. Current investigations in Japan, Europe and by BMW are pursuing the efficient use of this gas and some estimates are that it could provide 100 years of natural gas at current usage levels.
[Source: Consumer Magazine]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
rgseidl 10:45AM (4/20/2008)
Methane hydrates are only stable below a certain temperature and above a certain pressure. The total amount stored this way is roughly 10x that of existing natural gas fields. Plus, the reserves are distributed around the world's continental shelves.
The main reason gas companies have not tapped into this vast resource is that they have in fact not yet figured out how to extract it safely. Drilling a hole into a methane hydrate field could lead to a sudden loss of pressure over a wide area, because the decomposition into water and methane reduces volume, quite possibly allowing the pressure wave to propagate rapidly.
A sudden fall in pressure could cause the rock above the methane + water stratum to collapse. If that were to happen, the result would be a massive earthquake and tsunami plus the uncontrolled release of vast quantities of methane through the new faults and fissures created by the collapse of the overburden. Geologically, such an event would be analogous to the formation of a caldera, in which the peak of a volcano collapses as the magma underneath cools and contracts.
This is radically different from methane produced in real time by anaerobic digestion at landfill sites, except that the types of bacteria responsible are similar.
A very different approach to mining hydrates would be to try and capture methane as it is released naturally by thawing permafrost, itself a consequence of global warming (already underway whatever the cause). The trouble is that the gas release is very slow and distributed over an extremely wide area, rendering such an approach uneconomical. You'd need to cover a truly vast area with plastic sheets.
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GreyFlcn 12:56PM (4/20/2008)
Thank you rgseidl.
_
More specifically, as this website bears the word "Green" in it's title. WTF are you guys thinking!!
http://webspace.qmul.ac.uk/dsgpollock/public_html/courses/environs/cuttings/warming/methane.pdf
This smarmy crap is what you'd expect from someone who really doesn't give a crap about the earth's climate. (Or is simply really naive)
Engaging in a zero-sum game to continue to status quo, REGARDLESS of the consequences, is both disgusting and pathetic.
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A.Brien 4:26PM (4/20/2008)
It's full of methane everywhere and we can make some too with sewage water to help depollute lake michigan, erie,ontario,missipi river , st-lawrence river, pacific ocean, atlantic ocean, golf of mexico, the land and air too. Instead of using methane to power the trucks and cars we use tar sands in canada, process that use a lot of methane and pollute the air, the water in a beautiful land and put heavy metal in the drinking water supply and destroy completely the land.
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Lad 8:22PM (4/20/2008)
Are we grasping at straws here now that the easy energy has been located and the sources are being depleted? we are now talking about processing tar sands and coal to extract oil. Are things becoming this dire or is the high price of oil making taking a chance on mining water trapped methane a possibility? Is the government telling us the truth about our energy situation? Is it worse than we think or know?
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Gordio 8:55PM (4/20/2008)
Hydrous methane is also one theory why dinosaurs were wiped out of this earth. Basically the story says there was a massive leakage, and a spark (lightning, or fire source) lit up the entire sky-filled-methane and a big part of the earth was drenched in fire.
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Lad 10:56PM (4/20/2008)
@Gordio:
Interesting! Well! to show you how far we have progressed in theory: When I was a kid, the theory was that oil was made from all the Dinosaurs that perished by a comet strike.
@Seidl:
I understand oil/gas engineers have perfected a method where they can drill at an fairly acute angle. I wonder if they approached the gas at an angle from a firm stable geological formation and back filled the removed material with plain water if that would work. Just a thought!
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rgseidl 10:29AM (4/21/2008)
@ JL Mealer -
the one degree rise you refer to applies to the average across the whole globe and is in fact very high for just one century. It doesn't sound like much at all, but to put it in perspective: during the last ice age, global average temperature is believed to have been just a few degrees cooler than today's.
Also not that the polar areas have warmed a great deal more quickly over the past century than the rest of the globe. All climate - like politics - is ultimately local.
Methane hydrates have long been trapped in the peat beds of the arctic tundra. However, the lines dividing seasonal from permafrost are receding toward the poles, causing increased exhalations from the soil. The quantities involved are not yet very large, but scientists are warning that they are on the rise. On land, this phenomenon is obviously a lot more significant in the northern hemisphere.
There are also vast hydrate reservoirs - some of them quite shallow - in Russia's northern continental shelf. The arctic ocean is now also warming as a result of the albedo change caused by the rapidly receding permanent ice cover. The concern is that this could lead to methane outgassing offshore, compounding the effect already seen on land.
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