Combustible ice is essentially frozen natural gas - a hydrate. natural gas, and one of latest sources energy. New deposits discovered in China reveal a huge source equivalent to at least 35 billion tons of oil, enough to power China for 90 years.
Scientists have found flammable ice on high altitude on ice-covered plateaus, as well as underwater in marine sediments. Natural gas hydrates are essentially frozen methane and water and can literally burn, giving a new meaning to ice and fire. Researchers have yet to study deeper the new kind fuel before it can be commercialized. The US Department of Energy is also interested in this issue, researchers suggest that the hydrate must undergo a phase change and melt into methane and water before it can be effectively burned. If it melts on its own as the earth warms, the methane could be released into the atmosphere - potentially causing even more harm than simply burning it.
One cubic meter of combustible ice contains 164 cubic meters of regular natural gas and is supposed to contain few impurities - meaning it will release fewer pollutants when burned.
China has become the first country in the world to begin offshore production of natural gas hydrate, which is seen as a new energy source and could eventually become worthy competitor oil and natural gas.
Despite the fact that the cost of producing new fuel is still quite high, there is no doubt that we are witnessing another round of energy diversification, which, like shale oil and gas, will soon make itself felt.
What is gas hydrate?
It is a crystalline compound that is formed from water and gas when required temperature and pressure. It looks like regular ice. To the touch – smooth and cold. Has no smell. Burns with a yellowish-blue flame.
In one cubic meter gas hydrate contains much more energy than a cubic meter of natural gas. One cubic meter of “combustible ice” is equal to 164 cubic meters of natural gas in the gaseous state.
A car can travel about 500 kilometers on 1 liter of gas hydrate, while a car can travel only 3 kilometers on 1 liter of natural gas.
Inexhaustible storage energy
The results of geological studies indicate that the world's reserves of gas hydrates range from 12 to 20 thousand gigatons. Predicted hydrocarbon reserves may increase in the future, since not all areas potentially rich in “ flammable ice».
Large reserves of natural gas hydrate lie in sea depths from 500 to 2500 meters. A lot of “flammable ice” is also found in the Arctic depths.
According to geologists, gas hydrate reserves exceed in volume all known energy sources on the planet. There is still no complete picture of how much natural gas hydrate is contained in the bowels of the earth, but even based on conservative estimates, we can confidently say that this is the largest energy reserve currently available to humanity.
The energy potential of methane hydrate is greater than that of oil, coal, shale and peat combined. If found acceptable technologies For inexpensive and environmentally friendly production, this fuel should last for many centuries.
According to geologists, in the Arctic latitudes of Siberia and North America In hydrate deposits, the gas concentration ranges from 60 to 80%, which is much higher than in offshore fields, where the gas fill typically does not exceed 20%. At the same time, marine deposits are much larger than Arctic continental deposits.
Gas hydrate deposits have already been discovered off the coast of the USA, Canada, Mexico, Japan, South Korea, India, China, in the Mediterranean, Black, Caspian and South China seas. There are also reserves of methane hydrate in the shelf zone near Ukraine.
Geologists suggest that natural gas hydrate deposits are located at significantly large areas than those already known.
The question remains unresolved: how to reduce the cost of production, and how to use these resources without disturbing the ecological balance in environment?
The race for “flammable ice” has begun
Many developed countries are already seriously considering natural gas hydrate as a very promising area for energy in the near future.
The first industrial production of methane from hydrates was established in Siberia. At the Messoyakovsky gas field in Russia, natural gas has been produced from methane hydrate for many years. A gas pipeline has been laid from the field to Norilsk.
Despite the leadership in the production of hydrocarbons from shale rocks, the United States is seriously interested in the production of gas hydrates. Congress allocated the first $50 million to develop a program to include new fuels in the country's energy mix. According to American experts, the country's energy demand will increase by 30% in the next five years, so any new options for obtaining fuel will be very useful.
The Japanese are actively developing a new type of fuel. Japan does not have oil and gas, the entire volume has to be imported, but this country has large reserves of methane, which is located on the seabed. The Japanese set themselves the goal of reaching the level of commercial, industrial production of gas hydrate, obtaining a new, almost inexhaustible source of energy. To reach as quickly as possible desired result, Japan is simultaneously developing mining technologies both from the seabed and in the Arctic latitudes.
Test drilling in the Canadian Arctic showed that the extracted ice was 80% filled with gas. Full-scale development of the field, which is located 70 kilometers from the Japanese coast, is planned to begin in 2018.
According to JOGMEC, with the existing methane hydrate reserves on the country's shelf, Japan can cover its natural gas needs for 100 years into the future.
The Chinese also announced their success in entering the industrial production of hydrates. China was the first to manage to lift “flammable ice” from the seabed. The field is located at the bottom of the South China Sea, 285 kilometers from Hong Kong. Since May of this year, 16 thousand cubic meters of natural gas from hydrates have been extracted from the field every day.
Canada, which has large reserves of energy resources, is also working on developing industrial technology for the extraction of methane hydrate, both independently and jointly with the Japanese.
New technologies are needed to extract “combustible ice”
Not a single country in the world has yet been able to achieve a well-functioning industrial technology production of new fuel. The difficulty in extracting gas hydrate is that, according to researchers, there are huge gas bubbles under the layer of methane ice.
Depressurization of such a bubble and the release of a large volume of methane into the atmosphere can lead to environmental disaster large scale. Therefore, a search is underway for a technology that will make it possible to produce gas without allowing it to leak into the atmosphere.
It is only a matter of time before technologies reach a commercial level. At first, oil and gas from shale rocks also could not compete with traditional production due to their high costs.
But in two decades, Americans have advanced so much that the cost of shale production has dropped to traditional levels. This has made it possible for shale hydrocarbons to become a successful competitor in the global energy market.
The appearance of gas hydrate indicates one important trend - gas is becoming the most important energy resource. First of all, because there is a lot of it. Methane hydrate reserves exceed existing volumes of traditional and shale gas 50 times, this is enough for more than one century of active operation.
In the future, methane gas will replace traditional petroleum products, and now the time has come to create new engines and equipment that will run on methane. The successes of Japanese and Chinese geologists may signal the imminent advent of a new energy era.
Sergey Savenko
Energy is “our everything” on a human scale. More precisely, energy resources. Wars are fought over them, they are accused of exacerbating global environmental problems, without them cannot exist modern society. Therefore, the search for alternative energy sources is at the top of the agenda in many countries. Thus, China this week shocked the world with the official announcement that for the first time it was possible to extract natural gas hydrate, or “combustible ice,” from the ocean floor.
This achievement is already equated in importance to the discovery of shale gas extraction technology in the United States, and the new energy resource is credited with the role of catalyst for the global energy revolution. According to Chinese researchers, there is many times more of this unique fuel in the world than oil, gas and coal combined. This means that with the help of “combustible ice” it will be possible to solve the problem of non-renewable resources. Moreover, the Chinese government website says that “natural gas hydrate is the richest alternative energy source that will play a strategic role in the future.”
Over the past week, more than 120 cubic meters have already been produced from a well located in the South China Sea at a depth of 1200 m. m of “combustible ice” - a mixture of water and gas, reminiscent of a loose snowball. And while some are discussing whether in the future this energy resource will replace all traditional fuel sources, others are in no hurry to call everyone for an energy revolution.
By the way, research on this resource has long been known to science. Soviet scientists expressed their assumptions about the existence of “combustible ice” at the bottom of the World Ocean, and in last years Attempts to organize gas hydrate exploration were made not only by China, but also by the United States and Japan. But, as we see, it was the first one who succeeded.
Dmitry Nikolaevich Redka, candidate of technical sciences, assistant toDepartment of Quantum Electronics and Optical-Electronic Devices, St. Petersburg Electrotechnical University "LETI"
“Essentially, 'flammable ice' is a crystalline compound formed from water and natural gas. That is, it is still the same familiar gas, familiar to us, but in a different “packaging”. Therefore, we must understand that we are not seeing a fundamentally new energy resource, but a non-standard chemical form. And before talking about its revolutionary nature, it is necessary to answer a number of questions. Firstly, it is unknown in what volumes this “combustible ice” can be mined in the future. Next, what modifications can be made with it? What is the best way to extract and transport it? How economically justified and profitable will all this be? The answers here may be ambiguous. However, an attempt to find a new energy resource or a more efficient and safe way receipt of natural gas can only be met positively.”
