Methane Hydrates Zack Fink

							Methane Hydrates
      Zack Fink
The Methane Hydrate:
     What is it?
Molecular Structure
          •   A Methane Hydrate is a
              crystalline solid

          •   Gas molecule surrounded by a
              cage of water molecules.

          •   Thus it is similar to ice, except
              that the crystalline structure is
              stabilized by the guest gas
              molecule within the cage of water
              molecules

          •   1 part gas molecule and 9 parts
              water
        Formation and Function

• Concentrates methane     Form in high pressure / low
  gas, 150-180 x more      temperature environments, in
                           ocean this translates to seafloor
• Form in pore spaces of   depths of 500+ meters. Also
  sediment                 found on land in permafrost.
• Causes cementation of    Other limiting factors are
  sediment                 methane and sediment. Most
                           methane comes from bacterial
• Cemented sediment        breakdown of organic detritus in
  often acts as a cap on   aneorbic conditions. So, hydrate
  pure gas deposits        typically forms in areas with
                           abundance of organic material
                           and sediment to cover and
                           protect from oxidation
Known Areas of High Hydrate
      Concentration
Methane Hydrates: …So What?
              Hydrate Issues
• Good                     • Bad
• Immense potential for    • Greenhouse effect
  use as a relatively        /global warming /sea
  environmentally            level rise
  friendly energy source   • Submarine Slumping
                           • Oil pipeline
                             interference
         Global Climate Change
• Methane is a                  • Real Problem is the
  particularly nasty green
  house gas                       chain reaction-
• 10x more effective than       • Hydrate is a frozen
  CO2                             solid, so the hotter the
• Continually seeps into          world gets, the more
  atmosphere
                                  methane disassociates
• There is clearly a lot, the
  potential for serious           out of the hydrate,
  environmental impacts is        making the world even
  great                           hotter
             Submarine Landslides
• Side effect of the
  hydrates cementing
  seafloor sediment
• Local changes in water
  temp or pressure can
  result in
  disassociation, causing
  weakening of
  sediment.
        Efforts at Exploitation

                             • Proposed Plans
Currently, economic
                             • Mining existing hydrate
extraction is not feasible
                               and transporting in
Research on large scale        pipes
extraction is in its         • Growing Hydrates from
infancy                        methane seeps
                             • Transportation by
No obvious best method         submarine towing
of extraction has been         bladders
agreed upon                  • Chemical additives
                               making hydrates stable
                               at lower pressures and
                               higher temperatures
                 Yes or No?
• Methane Hydrates         • Either way, research is
                             not an option
  could turn out to be a
                           • Methane hydrates are
  tremendous natural         far from completely
  resource                   understood, but one
                             thing is certain, they are
• Or they could prove        incredibly important
  too cumbersome to        • Through research there
  exploit…                   exists a possibility to
                             turn a potentially
                             leading cause of global
                             warming into a valued
                             extension of the fossil
                             fuel economy