China Successfully Mines Gas From Methane Hydrate In Production Run (oilprice.com)

hackingbear writes from a report via OilPrice.com: In a world's first, China has successfully extracted gas from gas hydrates in production run in the northern part of the South China Sea. According to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), global estimates vary, but the energy content of methane in hydrates, also known as "fire ice" or "flammable ice," is "immense, possibly exceeding the combined energy content of all other known fossil fuels." But no methane production other than small-scale field experiments has been documented so far. The China Geographical Survey said that it managed to collect samples from the Shenhu area in the South China Sea in a test that started last Wednesday. Every day some 16,000 cubic meters (565,000 cubic feet) of gas, almost all of which was methane, were extracted from the test field, exceeding goals for production mining. This is expected to help cut down China's coal-induced pollution greatly and reduce reliance on politically sensitive petroleum imports controlled by the US. "The production of gas hydrate will play a significant role in upgrading China's energy mixture and securing its energy security," Minister of Land and Resources Jiang Daming said on Thursday.

Comments

Great.. Methane..

[erlando]

What does it matter to cut down on carbon emissions if all you are doing is replacing them with methane?

Re:Great.. Methane..

[blackpaw]

Natural gas hydrate consists of methane locked in water crystals that also are called flammable ice. It is an enormous untapped energy source formed under high pressure and low temperatures in permafrost or under the sea. It is regarded as a clean energy option with high energy density and huge amounts of reserves. It releases less than half the amount of carbon dioxide when burned as do oil and coal, ministry officials said.

It releases a lot less carbon than their existing coal fired plants and shit load less particulates, so a big improvement in that regard.

I guess the danger is that it could slow their move to renewables.

Re:Great.. Methane..

[ebrandsberg]

IANAS (I am not a scientist but) Methane Hydrate is rather unstable, and tends to off-gas when water warms. By harvesting the more easily accessible hydrate for the methane, it may help reduce the methane impact on global warming, as methane is a far more potent greenhouse gas than CO2 is.

Re:Great.. Methane..

[Zocalo]

From what I've read on the Methane (CH4) vs. CO2, it's not at all clear cut. CH4 is indeed a far worse greenhouse gas than CO2 - figures of 20-30x the heat trapping potential are often mentioned - but lingers in the atmosphere for a much shorter span of time than CO2 as natural processes tend to remove it within a decade or so. An additional problem is that those natural processes might be in the process of being overwhelmed by the sheer amount of CH4 being introduced into the atmosphere, both from natural sources (about a third of the total) and human sources like transportation and intensive livestock farming.

Getting back to the question at hand, whether it's better for the environment to burn the CH4 vs. something else, you'd need to take into account exactly what is getting released into the atmosphere for a given amount of energy output. There are already technologies in place to limit CO2 emissions from coal-fired power plants, so if it's possible to do something similar for burning CH4, then there's no reason why it wouldn't be a much cleaner source of power than coal, GWh for GWh.

Re:Great.. Methane..

[GLMDesigns]

Guess now you know why the Kyoto and Paris Treaties are foolish and don't accomplish what environmentalists say they will. Why - because they exclude India and China.

Not saying we ought not continue full speed ahead with carbon free alternatives - only say that the Treaties are worthless regarding the global environmental picture.

Re:Great.. Methane..

[Anonymous Coward]

Which is precisely why we might have to start collecting it from the ocean floor (at least in some areas). With global sea temperatures on the rise there have already been concerns raised that it might start releasing on its own, exacerbating climate change. Its not a good situation either way, but given the choice of mining the crap permanently locked up in the crust (oil/coal) or mining the stuff that is on the verge of gurgling its way into our atmosphere anyways I think the choice is obvious.

Re:Great.. Methane..

[Anonymous Coward]

The point of the Kyoto treaty wasn't to do anything for the environment. The point of Kyoto was to cripple the American economy by cutting the tendons of the giant. Fortunately, the Founders required all international treaties to pass by a 2/3 vote in the Senate, so the treaty was never ratified. Whew! Dodged a bullet there. Thanks Founders - once again.

That's great too bad

[AndyKron]

That's great. Too bad China is a shit hole when it comes to human rights.

Current state of affairs in the USA worries me...

[bogaboga]

I am beginning to get concerned that a sizable number of innovations are coming from the "East." Not much from the "West" these days. I am afraid that we may become inconsequential in the next few decades.

Think...

High speed trains; latest mobile technologies; the public transit system in New York is [several] decades behind that in Shanghai; the Chinese recently flew their own manufactured passenger plane and have the AG600 - the world's largest amphibious aircraft.

But I am sure we can catch up if we dedicate resources appropriately.

Re:Current state of affairs in the USA worries me.

[DigiShaman]

Last I checked, the Shanghai Maglev was German technology. But other than that, yes, anytime you empower a nation to build because they're the lowest cost supplier that can actually do the job in numbers, you will get an economic boom there. Eventually they become self-sufficient where they too start competing in high tech industries with the rest of the developed world. So the transition from a developing nation to one that is developed is a natural progression. It happened with the Roman Empire, spanning to Europe, across the Atlantic to the America, now back to China, and soon Africa. Now, it's important to note that having a functional government is key here. Pure anarchy and pure totalitarianism are far too extreme to be conducive to mass economic output.