The Electric Daily News, Feb. 07, 2012

TOKYO --The world's first methane hydrate undersea mining and production test will be initiated in the middle of this month offshore from Aichi Prefecture, Japan. Methane hydrate has been receiving attention as a future natural gas resource. Commissioned by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC) will conduct the test and collect data over a two-year period toward the practical use of methane hydrate.

Methane hydrate is an ice-like compound in which methane and water molecules are combined. A large amount of methane hydrate is believed to be present in the seabed offshore from Shizuoka and Kagoshima Prefectures.

The production test is the second stage of METI's development program. In this test, methane gas will be produced ... Read more

The Electric Daily News, Feb. 07, 2012

TOKYO --The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) of Japan will conduct a study on converting carbon dioxide (CO2) into methane gas. The study will use microorganisms that live under the seabed and can convert CO2 into methane. The microorganisms will be dug up and mixed with CO2 to examine the process of methane generation. Combining the process with the carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology may open the door to creating a new energy resource that can be produced domestically.

The actual study will be undertaken next fiscal year by the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) overseen by MEXT. The seabed about 100 km northeast of Hachi... Read more

By Doug Craig

''Several tipping points, such as the loss of summer sea ice, may be reversible in principle − although hard in practice. However, should these changes involve extinction of key species − such as polar bears, walruses, ice-dependent seals and more than 1000 species of ice algae − the changes could represent a point of no return. Confusion distracts attention from the urgent need to focus on developing early warning indicators of abrupt climate change, address its human causes and rebuild resilience in climate, ecosystems and communities." Carlos Duarte, Director of University of Western Australia's Oceans Institute.

My secret fear is melting methane ice, hydrate or clathrate. There is twice as much carbon trapped in methane ice as there is in "all known fossil fuels on Earth." I don't think there is a scientist on the planet who believes humans could survive if this ice melts and releases all its captured carbon. As the permafrost thaws, tons of methane are already escaping.

Three years ago, scientists discovered "evidence that millions of tons of a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide" was "being released into the atmosphere from beneath the Arctic seabed."

Many scientists fear that its release could accelerate global warming in a giant po... Read more

By Professor Chris Rhodes

A vast and untapped resource of fuel? A contributor to global climate change? A submarine hazard and potential trigger of tsunami's? A cause of catastrophic species extinction? An ELE - Extinction of Life Event? All of these are postulated scenarios for methane gas hydrates. Methane hydrate is formed when methane gas and water are brought together under suitable conditions of low temperature and elevated pressure, such that an "ice" type structure is formed containing methane molecules in considerable quantity. It is thought that vast quantities of methane hydrate exist on the ocean beds and in the sediments of the sea floors and in permafrost, and some speculate that it might be possible to harvest the material to provide a massive reserve of methane as a fuel. Gas hydrates are among the class of materials known as "clathrates", in which guest molecules occupy cavities (pores) within a host structure. The whole field is part of what is known as "guest-host" chemistry. In a fully saturated methane-hydrate, the material holds 164 times its own volume of methane gas, but packed tightly within its confines. The hydrate provides, therefore, an effective storage unit for methane.

The temperature at which methane-hydrate is stable depends on the prevailing pressure. For example, at zero degrees C, it is stable under a pressure of about 30 atmospheres, whereas at 25 deg. C, nearer 500 atmospheres is needed to maintain its integrity. The occlusion of additional gases within the ice structure tends to add stability, whereas the presence of salts (e.g. NaCl, as from sea water) requires higher st... Read more

By William O'Keefe

Last week, the London Sunday Times had an article about a potential discovery of methane hydrates that could more than double the world’s energy reserves. Methane hydrates are methane gas that is frozen by the high pressure and low temperatures of the deep sea. While the existence of methane hydrates is not new the potential quantities that may exist around the world is. This discovery, if they confirmed, could contain more energy than the combined known reserves of coal, oil and gas reserves. Such abundance, including the abundance of shale gas around the world, can provide an entirely new perspective on the hydrocarbon age.

Statoil, Norway’s leading gas producer, has conducted a study that suggests that methane hydrates should be considered a significant resource that could power the world for centuries. Statoil’s conclusions are consistent with work being carried out in Japan where test wells are being drilled. The Japanese company conducting the drilling claims that the first methane gas will be produced this year and the potential reserves could meet Japan’s energy needs for centuries.

Two weeks ago, Nature magazine reported that scientists from the Department of Energy will test a new technique for extracting methane from Alaska’s frozen tundra. A DOE scientist pointed out, however, that commercialization is not yet at ha... Read more

By The Yomiuri Shimbun

The government plans to conduct test drilling for methane hydrate off the coast of Aichi Prefecture, in the world's first attempt to exploit this energy resource, which is expected to become a major source of next-generation power, it has been learned.

The government said Wednesday the test drilling will be done 70 to 80 kilometers off the prefecture's Atsumi Peninsula, which is inside Japan's exclusive economic zone.

Full-scale underwater test drilling will start in mid-February.

The government plans to conduct actual drilling next year and conduct experiments in methane gas production.

Methane hydrate is an ice-like substance consisting of crystallized methane gas molecules trapped in water. It is found mainly under deep seab... Read more

Nicola Jones, 13 January 2012

This month, scientists will test a new way to extract methane from beneath the frozen soil of Alaska: they will use waste carbon dioxide from conventional wells to force out the desired natural gas.

The pilot experiment will explore the possibility of ‘mining’ from gas hydrates: cages of water ice that hold molecules of methane. Such hydrates exist under the sea floor and in sandstone deep beneath the Arctic tundra, holding potentially vast reserves of natural gas. But getting the gas out is tricky and expensive.

The test is to be run by the US Department of Energy (DOE), in conjunction with ConocoPhillips, an oil company based in Houston, Texas, and the Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation. The researchers will pump CO2 down a well in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, i... Read more

Over the last couple weeks, the climate blogosphere has been lighting up over a recent report that enormous plumes of methane are bubbling to the surface off the coast of eastern Siberia in Russia. (Original article in the Independent online.)

So, what does this mean? It's a lot of methane, to be sure. The discovery was first made in 2010 and estimated at over 7 million tons (roughly equivalent to the methane emissions from the rest of the whole ocean). Now scientists report even more methane coming up, in plumes over a kilometer wide, although they aren't estimating exactly how much more yet.

One of the researchers described the plumes in the Independent as "continuous, powerful and impressive seeping structures." I'm imagining ... Read more

DON CAYO, VANCOUVER SUN

TOKYO – Nothing can undo the tragedy of the March 11 tsunami that killed at least 16,000 people in northeast Japan — the final tally is still uncertain — and wreaked havoc that will cost more than a quarter of a trillion dollars to repair.

But is there a chance of any good coming from it that could, in small measure, counter-balance the bad?

Some optimistic analysts dare to hope the massive task of rebuilding, plus the shock of facing a future where energy-poor Japan may no longer be able to count on its huge ... Read more

Ovidiu Sandru, http://www.greenoptimistic.com

As China expects a period of peak energy demand from 2020 to 2025, its largest coal producer, China Shenhua Group, now announced that it wants to start commercializing combustible ice, a gas hydrate (methane+water) found in the Qinghai province. The country first made public the discovery of combustible ice in May 2007, under the bed of the South China Sea, fo... Read more