China claims breakthrough in mining "flammable ice"

This new breakthrough could see us stop drilling for oil and start to excavate places like Antarctica.

they are saying that this discovery could benefit us greatly for energy purposes...

i find it a tad strange that they discover these things at a time when they really need to be discovered. (global warming, etc)

its almost as if they have milked the earth to its limit of the black gold, and now they have a new method waiting in the wings....

www.bbc.co.uk...

China has for the first time extracted gas from an ice-like substance under the South China Sea considered key to future global energy supply.
Chinese authorities have described the success as a major breakthrough.
Methane hydrates, also called "flammable ice", hold vast reserves of natural gas.
Many countries including the US and Japan are working on how to tap those reserves, but mining and extracting are extremely difficult.
What is 'flammable ice'?
The catchy phrase describes a frozen mixture of water and gas.
"It looks like ice crystals but if you zoom in to a molecular level, you see that the methane molecules are caged in by the water molecules," Associate Professor Praveen Linga from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the National University of Singapore told the BBC.
Officially known as methane clathrates or hydrates, they are formed at very low temperatures and under high pressure. They can be found in sediments under the ocean floor as well as underneath permafrost on land.
Despite the low temperature, these hydrates are flammable. If you hold a lighter to them, the gas encapsulated in the ice will catch fire. Hence, they are also known as "fire ice" or "flammable ice".
By lowering the pressure or raising the temperature, the hydrates break down into water and methane - a lot of methane. One cubic metre of the compound releases about 160 cubic metres of gas, making it a highly energy-intensive fuel.

a reply to: Davg80

if it weren't for the stranglehold petrol companies (& lobbyists) have on global industry, we could take advantage of hemp oil which could solve much of the problems directly related to energy consumption - with added uses in industrial materials and material science applications. It's a real shame...

a reply to: FamCore

i watched a documentary on Hemp and how it would put many industries out of business when properly utilized, and it was for this reason it was banned, too many powerful people stood to lose Money because of it...

think the docu was called "The Union"...... www.youtube.com...

We've known for a long time now that there's more methane then oil.

Getting the gas companies to use such a fuel is another job within itself.

a reply to: Davg80 It's energy consuming process. I guess the conglomerate will keep to it's loved black gold. As to the shortages of it www.wallstreetdaily.com... and even there is serious theories that not all oil is fossil in origin, and as well highly replenishable resource en.m.wikipedia.org...

But China is poor in resources in comparison to it's population, thus they might try the weirdest ways of energy self-sustainability.

And there I was thinking that China's claim to the entire South China Sea was not to do with oil and gas and stuff like that. This will go down well with everyone else around the South China who are annoyed by China's antagonistic and belligerent territory grab, island building environmental destruction and militarisation of the area.

Anyway, we have to see whether this will provide energy in commercially exploitable quantities.

Here's something to add context

originally posted by: FamCore
a reply to: Davg80

if it weren't for the stranglehold petrol companies (& lobbyists) have on global industry, we could take advantage of hemp oil which could solve much of the problems directly related to energy consumption - with added uses in industrial materials and material science applications. It's a real shame...

The quantities required for energy easily surpass any possible production. Hemp oil wouldn't affect much in the way of fossil fuel abatement. The hemp folks like to try to justify use of hemp as a way of making the plant universally acceptable. Can you think of any other uses they might have for similar plants?

a reply to: pteridine

Other plants do possess similar properties, this is true. But hemp grows at a very fast rate, and its strong fibers make it fantastic for industrial uses. I work closely with an organization that works with the Federal Government, Ivy League Universities and botanical experts all over the US CannaDynamics

Hemp has a lot of potential but hasn't had its time to shine because it's suppression through TPTB

More info on Hemp Production and Potentials: www.uky.edu...

originally posted by: Davg80
i find it a tad strange that they discover these things at a time when they really need to be discovered. (global warming, etc)

I'm not sure what you mean by that but these methane deposits have been feared with respect to global warming because some people think there's so much that if it starts melting it might cause a runaway greenhouse effect.

Methane and the risk of runaway global warming

Research was published this week showing the financial cost of methane being released from Earth’s permafrosts. But the risks go beyond financial - Earth’s history shows that releasing these stores could set off a series of events with calamitous consequences.

The sediments and bottom water beneath the world’s shallow oceans and lakes contain vast amounts of greenhouse gases: methane hydrates and methane clathrates (see Figure 1). In particular methane is concentrated in Arctic permafrost where the accumulation of organic matter in frozen soils covers about 24% of northern hemisphere continents (see Figure 2a) and is estimated to contain more than 900 billion tons of carbon.

Methane, a greenhouse gas more than 30 times more potent than CO2, is released from previously frozen soils when organic matter thaws and decomposes under anaerobic conditions (that is, without oxygen present).

Even if the methane is burned it still releases carbon and contributes to global warming.

a reply to: Arbitrageur

interesting so Global warming is causing the ice to melt and The ice melting is causing Global warming....

thats not Good

all this and the Ozone layer is apparently healing...
www.theguardian.com...

i remember watching a documentary that found plants in the ocean, could heal the Ozone layer, its vague to me now.

.. but Maybe just maybe this Earth is more magical than we think

originally posted by: FamCore
a reply to: pteridine

Other plants do possess similar properties, this is true. But hemp grows at a very fast rate, and its strong fibers make it fantastic for industrial uses. I work closely with an organization that works with the Federal Government, Ivy League Universities and botanical experts all over the US CannaDynamics

Hemp has a lot of potential but hasn't had its time to shine because it's suppression through TPTB

More info on Hemp Production and Potentials: www.uky.edu...

Your original post referred to hemp oil as an energy solution. This is untenable as is the use of hemp biomass in a power plant combustor to generate electricity. It has been shown many times that the energy required for harvesting, processing, and transport exceeds the energy produced except for small facilities using their own waste products, e.g., burning waste to provide steam to a wood processing facility. The costs of transport and processing were borne by the wood product [paper, plywood. etc.] and the energy from combustion is less expensive than other sources in addition to getting rid of the waste products. Pollution from wood combustion must be tightly controlled and the nature of the ash makes it problematic.

originally posted by: pteridine

originally posted by: FamCore
a reply to: pteridine

Other plants do possess similar properties, this is true. But hemp grows at a very fast rate, and its strong fibers make it fantastic for industrial uses. I work closely with an organization that works with the Federal Government, Ivy League Universities and botanical experts all over the US CannaDynamics

Hemp has a lot of potential but hasn't had its time to shine because it's suppression through TPTB

More info on Hemp Production and Potentials: www.uky.edu...

Your original post referred to hemp oil as an energy solution. This is untenable as is the use of hemp biomass in a power plant combustor to generate electricity. It has been shown many times that the energy required for harvesting, processing, and transport exceeds the energy produced except for small facilities using their own waste products, e.g., burning waste to provide steam to a wood processing facility. The costs of transport and processing were borne by the wood product [paper, plywood. etc.] and the energy from combustion is less expensive than other sources in addition to getting rid of the waste products. Pollution from wood combustion must be tightly controlled and the nature of the ash makes it problematic.

These is also true with the "life-cycle" emissions when using ANY plant for large-scale energy production. Co-generation, onsite, is the only means in which using plant biomass as any energy source justifies the end.