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Can Japan Burn Flammable Ice For Energy? (cnn.com)
dryriver writes: Japan is a country that currently has to import 90% of its fuels for energy generation, having very little in the way of oil, coal or natural gas reserves in the country. Since the Fukushima disaster, its 50-plus nuclear reactors have been mostly idle. This makes Japan one of the least self-sufficient countries in terms of energy generation in the developed world. But there is an untapped energy resource that Japan has in abundance: ice that has large quantities of methane trapped in it. These ice crystals hold a remarkable quantity of natural methane gas. It is estimated that one cubic meter of frozen gas hydrate contains 164 cubic meters of methane. Japan has so far spent over $1 billion on research and development efforts in order to find a way to efficiently extract the methane from the ice. Where is this methane rich ice located? Engineers have so far focused on Nankai Trough, a long, narrow depression 50 kilometers off the coast of central Japan, which had been extensively surveyed over many years. Analysis of extracted core samples and seismic data has revealed that 1.1 trillion cubic meters of methane -- enough to meet Japan's gas needs for more than a decade -- lies below the floor of the trough. Some experts think that if an efficient method is found to extract methane from flammable ice, it could change the energy map of the entire world. Flammable ice has either been found, or is suspected to be present in large quantities, off the coastlines of all 5 continents in the world (the linked article has a map showing the currently known locations). Ten years from now the price of energy around the world may thus not be set by how much oil, coal or natural gas costs at that point in time, but rather by how much methane extraction from flammable ice costs.
That's a common misconception shared by journalist who write about shale gas and oil, etc.
The real question is not "how many dollars does it cost to produce a barrel", since dollar cost is an arbitrary value set by humans, but rather "how much energy does it cost to produce a barrel"?
This methane ice (clathrates, a trapping of methane in a crystalline structure of water) is only stable at pressure. So, if pulled to the surface - not difficult, because it is lighter than water is - it breaks down and releases the methane.
Prediction for end of Universe #42: Fencepost error in Quantum_bogosort.cpp
The Clathrate Gun Hypothesis is the scary climate change idea, that we will heat up the planet until methane trapped in arctic soils and clathrates will start to be released, and, as methane is a really bad greenhouse gas, results in more warming, triggering the release of more methane, and forming a fast, tight positive feedback loop.
It's a really scary prospect.
Prediction for end of Universe #42: Fencepost error in Quantum_bogosort.cpp
>> Ten years from now the price of energy around the world may be set by how much methane extraction costs.
This is a very naive statement. The cost of energy (or anything else) has never been set by how much it costs to produce, it's only ever set by how much they can get away with charging for it.