ENERGY NEWS
Japan starts Methane Mining
Ready for more global warming, submarine earthquakes, and tsunamis? Why not? Methane will be cheap.
Also known as Fire Ice, Methane Hydrates or Methane Clathrates.
They is a huge reservoir of fuel trapped inside ice crystals deep in the ocean floor, under layers of sediments. They could hold up to 15 times the amount of gas in shale deposits, and represent more carbon than all the world's fossil fuels combined. Japan has already started extraction.
They is a huge reservoir of fuel trapped inside ice crystals deep in the ocean floor, under layers of sediments. They could hold up to 15 times the amount of gas in shale deposits, and represent more carbon than all the world's fossil fuels combined. Japan has already started extraction.
RISKS
Methane use as fuel would result in accelerated global warming. There is also the risk of drilling and pipeline accidents deep in the ocean and along lower margins of continental slopes where land meets ocean.
William Harris writes: Even if you can situate a rig safely, methane hydrate is unstable once it's removed from the high pressures and low temperatures of the deep sea.
Methane begins to escape even as it's being transported to the surface. Unless there's a way to prevent this leakage of natural gas, extraction won't be efficient. It will be a bit like hauling up well water using a pail riddled with holes.
Methane begins to escape even as it's being transported to the surface. Unless there's a way to prevent this leakage of natural gas, extraction won't be efficient. It will be a bit like hauling up well water using a pail riddled with holes.
Believe it or not, this leakage may be the least of the worries. Many geologists suspect that gas hydrates play an important role in stabilizing the seafloor. Drilling in these oceanic deposits could destabilize the seabed, causing vast swaths of sediment to slide for miles down the continental slope.
Evidence suggests that such underwater landslides have occurred in the past (see sidebar), with devastating consequences. The movement of so much sediment would certainly trigger massive tsunamis similar to those seen in the Indian Ocean tsunami of December 2004. How Frozen Fuel Works
R.P. Siegel writes: How much of this push into more and more risky forms of energy production, is based on true need, in the absence of viable alternatives, and how much of it is, as I have suggested before, the actions of a very deep-pocketed energy industry using the prospect of lower prices to forestall any movement away from their products, regardless of the risks; be it offshore drilling, tar sands oil pipelines, fracking and now methane hydrates.
All of these energy sources have been known for 40-50 years, but were considered either too risky or not economically viable at the time. What is driving the transformation of that viewpoint? Is it desperation or is it greed, or perhaps some combination of the two?
--------------------------------------------
Also read: Game Over for the Environment - http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/plugged-in/2013/03/19/methane-hydrates-bigger-than-shale-gas-game-over-for-the-environment/
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for visiting my blog. Your comments are always appreciated, but please do not include links.