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Fiery Ice From The Sea: A New World Energy Source?
Science Daily ^ | 11/5/2002

Posted on 11/06/2002 1:51:07 PM PST by ckilmer

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Source:

Office Of Naval Research

Date:

11/5/2002

Fiery Ice From The Sea: A New World Energy Source?

If you know anything about methane gas – and the Office of Naval Research thinks you should – it probably has something to do with swamp gas, and a faintly unpleasant sulfurous smell that rises from country marshes on sultry, summer evenings, or perhaps – for more romantic types – stories of Will-o'-the-Wisp, the flickering lights seen at night above that very same swamp (mundanely, methane igniting spontaneously with traces of odorous hydrogen sulfide found in the bog's rotting organic matter).

Forget it.

Start thinking about methane hydrates - a crystalline form of methane gas and pure water that exists when pressures are sufficiently high, or temperatures sufficiently low. If you manage to keep that pressure high or that temperature low, it looks like a lump of ice. There are mega-tons of the stuff at the bottom of the ocean all over the world and in the Arctic permafrost (about 300,000 trillion cubic feet of it) and it is the cleanest and most abundant source of energy in the world. There is at least twice as much of it around as fossil fuels (some say 10 times as much). And, when burned as a fuel, it releases less carbon dioxide pollution than anything else around.

So why aren't we using it?

Plain and simple, methane hydrates are hard to get at, and once gotten at, hard to transport. Its crystalline form will change to gas when pressures are lowered, or temperatures rise (like when it's brought to the sea surface) and in doing so it will expand 164 times, representing definite storage and transport issues. There are geo-political considerations, too – who owns it? What about global warming (because extra methane, when released, is another addition to the greenhouse gases)? And, naturally occurring submarine landslides, which in turn create tsunamis and cause costly damage to pipelines and undersea cables, may be caused by hydrate dissociation and sediment failure; that is, landslides may occur if the substrate becomes lubricated when the crystalline form reverts to gas and water. If we exploit the resource, are we exacerbating the problem?

All these issues are being addressed in a series of international conferences entitled 'Fiery Ice from the Sea.' "Many technological problems need to be resolved," says Nick Langhorne, science officer in ONR's London office, "And these need a coordinated international effort. There will always be nuclear energy, of course, but nuclear power comes with a lot of emotional baggage and, while it's good for generating electricity, chances are you'll never run your car on it. It's time to put the necessary resources toward methane hydrates R&D."

The world consumes 3 billion gallons of oil a day. The Navy alone uses over 4 million gallons of it a day, and that's in peacetime. Production and supply of all the traditional hydrocarbon fuels – coal, gas and oil – are well established but will peak by the year 2010.

"And there's another bonus in all this," says Rick Coffin, of the Naval Research Lab. "When methane, which is a gas, combines with seawater to make methane hydrate, it rejects the salt in the water. Therefore, fresh water is produced when the concentrated hydrates are melted. It's a desalination process where the methane can be recycled to continue the process. For areas thirsty for water, this could be a real windfall. Perhaps I should have said 'waterfall.'"


Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued for journalists and other members of the public. If you wish to quote any part of this story, please credit Office Of Naval Research as the original source. You may also wish to include the following link in any citation:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/11/021105081158.htm

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TOPICS: Announcements; Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: energylist
Actually, part of the interest here would be to find out what the cost of the desalinized water would be.
1 posted on 11/06/2002 1:51:07 PM PST by ckilmer
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To: ckilmer
The liberals will find some way to ban this - they just can't accept there's no limits to growth!!!
2 posted on 11/06/2002 1:57:51 PM PST by kapj
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To: ckilmer
Very interesting. Sounds like the costs would be prohibitive, though, unless many technological breakthroughs occur.
3 posted on 11/06/2002 2:01:52 PM PST by Bigg Red
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To: Bigg Red
I'm thinking that the USA will likely crack up if they don't expel the illegals here and restore the border. The ambitions of the Mexicans grow daily and they remember the
Alamo much better than Americans. They need to be stopped.

However, we need to find a way to make the Mexicans rich and help ourselves at the same time. The answer is to do the research requisite to kill the cost of water desalination. Dirt cheap desalinized water would turn the deserts green. They have a lot of deserts in Mexico.
4 posted on 11/06/2002 2:16:41 PM PST by ckilmer
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Production and supply of all the traditional hydrocarbon fuels – coal, gas and oil – are well established but will peak by the year 2010.

The supposed "experts" were saying the same thing about petroleum in 1870, and at about twenty-year intervals ever since. We've had three such "peak" predictions in my own lifetime, and I'm only 43.

Between what a worldwide market is pulling out of the oil patches, the oil shales, and the methane hydrates ... don't believe them.

5 posted on 11/06/2002 2:31:37 PM PST by Greybird
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To: ckilmer
IMHO we are already exploiting this resource. Petroleum doesn't come from dinosaurs, it is created when hydrocarbons from this source are subducted and under intense pressure and heat become petroleum. Hence petroleum is a RENEWABLE resource. Hence there is no justification for the exorbitant price Saudis have ARBITRARILY placed on it. Time for a decrease in the pump price. It is only loopy lefties who allow this fiction of oil not being renewable to exist.
6 posted on 11/06/2002 2:34:21 PM PST by wastoute
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To: wastoute
My wife is a geologist, and she agrees with the idea that petroleum does not come from dinosaurs and dead plants. Where it does come from she's not sure, but she agrees with the idea that petroleum may very well be a renewable resource.
7 posted on 11/06/2002 2:42:11 PM PST by Billy_bob_bob
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To: Billy_bob_bob
Show her this article. I been trying to tell people about this for years and no one seems to care, but here it is, hydrocarbons at the ocean bottom get subducted. It is that simple. Hell, I'm no geologist (M.D.), but even I can see this.
8 posted on 11/06/2002 2:46:12 PM PST by wastoute
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To: Bigg Red
Very interesting. Sounds like the costs would be prohibitive, though, unless many technological breakthroughs occur.

They're assuming you need to carry this stuff around in solid form, but I don't see that that's necessary.

Seems to me that you could put that 164-1 expansion ratio to good use. Specifically, if you modified an oil platform to drill for this stuff instead of oil, you'd simply have a high-pressure gas line. Put storage tanks on the platform, and build some big-ass methane tankers, and you're done.

9 posted on 11/06/2002 2:49:10 PM PST by r9etb
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To: r9etb
Remember all is covered under 'The Law of the Oceans'[?].
Which means it belomgs to the U.N.!
10 posted on 11/06/2002 7:37:44 PM PST by constitution
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To: ckilmer
And, when burned as a fuel, it releases less carbon dioxide pollution than anything else around.

Grrrrrr. Carbon Dioxide is NOT pollution. It's plant food.

11 posted on 11/06/2002 9:50:48 PM PST by PeaceBeWithYou
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To: r9etb
Okay, I bow to your vastly superior knowledge. But what about the rate of expansion? Wouldn't that be a sticky problem?
12 posted on 11/07/2002 12:05:59 PM PST by Bigg Red
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To: Bigg Red
But what about the rate of expansion? Wouldn't that be a sticky problem?

My knowledge is not at all vastly superior. More than anything else, I was responding to the article's assumption that you'd need/want to tansport this stuff in solid form. If you don't make that assumption, but instead assume the exact opposite, it doesn't seem to differ much from existing gas transport problems.

As for the rate of expansion, etc, that's probably a calculable property, and the bottom part of the pipe could be built with a diameter profile that accounts for it -- or you could drop a self-contained "expansion unit" down to the seabed, and run the pipe out of it.

As an example, look at this rocket engine:

That tube around the middle was used both to cool the nozzle and preheat the cryogenic propellant (LOX or hydrogen.... I can't recall which), and its diameter varies according to expansion of the stuff as it's heated, and thus maintains a constant pressure.

The basic approach would probably work for this stuff, too.

13 posted on 11/07/2002 1:49:42 PM PST by r9etb
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To: r9etb
Thank you very much for taking the time to explain this to me. Very enlightening.
14 posted on 11/08/2002 7:36:59 AM PST by Bigg Red
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To: *Energy_List; Ernest_at_the_Beach
http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list
15 posted on 11/10/2002 11:00:22 AM PST by Free the USA
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To: ckilmer
Clive Cussler has a Dirk Pitt novel out in paperback which features these methane hydrates. I believe it was Valhalla Rising. A fun read.
16 posted on 11/10/2002 11:22:55 AM PST by Movemout
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