Sleeping Future Energy - Combustible Ice

1. On June 6, 2007, the China Geological Survey successfully drilled physical samples of high-purity combustible ice in the northern part of the Shenhu area in the northern part of the South China Sea. China became the fifth country in the world after the United States, Japan, Germany and Russia to collect natural state flammable ice.

2. According to reports, in the energy cooperation agreement signed during the Second Strategic Economic Dialogue between China and the United States, although both parties agreed to cooperate extensively in clean energy technologies, technical cooperation in combustible ice mining was excluded.

What is flammable ice? Why does the United States refuse to share technology with other countries?

The scientific name of combustible ice is geologically called Natural Gas Hydrate (abbreviated as Gas Hydrate). Because it looks like ice and burns in the event of a fire, it is also called "flammable ice" or "solid gas." And "air ice."

The main components of "flammable ice" are methane and water molecules (CH4·H2O). It is ice-like, non-stoichiometric, composed of water and natural gas when mixed under conditions (suitable temperature, pressure, gas saturation, salinity of water, Hp value, etc.) under medium and high pressure and low temperature conditions. Caged crystalline compounds.

Its formation is similar to the formation of oil and natural gas on the seabed, and is closely related. A large amount of organic matter buried in the depth of the seabed is decomposed by anaerobic bacteria in an oxygen-deficient environment, eventually forming oil and natural gas (petrol gas). Many of these natural gasses are again incorporated into water molecules and form "flammable ice" under the low temperature and pressure of the seabed.

Later experiments showed that 1 cubic meter of combustible ice can burn the calorific value of burning natural gas equivalent to 164 cubic meters after combustion. According to a rough estimate, in the shallow crust, the total amount of organic carbon contained in combustible ice reservoirs is approximately twice the carbon content of fossil fuels such as global oil, natural gas, and coal. Some experts believe that once the new type of hydration energy, methane, is extracted, it will extend the history of human fuel use for several centuries, so combustible ice is also known as the fourth generation of energy after coal, oil and natural gas.

The flammable ice distribution area The world's bottom gas hydrates have been discovered in the Gulf of Mexico region, natural gas hydrates, the Caribbean Sea, the eastern continental margin of South America, the western continental margin of Africa, and the Black Sea Terrace outside the US East Coast. The Bering Sea, the Okhotsk Sea, the Thousand Islands Trench, the Okinawa Trough, the Japan Sea, the Shikoku Trough, the South China Sea Trough, the Sulawesi Sea, and the New Zealand North Sea in the Western Pacific Ocean, Central American Trough in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, California Others include the Outer Banks and the Peruvian troughs, the Gulf of Oman in the Indian Ocean, the Ross Sea and Weddell Sea in the Antarctic, the Barents Sea and Beaufort Sea in the Arctic, and the Black Sea and Caspian Sea in the mainland.

In September 2009, the Chinese Geological Department announced that a new type of environmentally friendly new energy, called flammable ice (also known as natural gas hydrate), has been discovered in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and is expected to be put into use in about a decade. At first glance, the prospective resources have at least 35 billion tons of oil equivalent.

Exploitation of flammable ice: a disaster or a gospel Since the 1960s, some countries have gradually begun the research and exploration of combustible ice. At present, natural gas hydrate gas reservoirs have been found in 79 countries and regions in the world.

However, while flammable ice brings new energy prospects to mankind, it also poses a severe challenge to the human living environment.

The greenhouse effect of methane in combustible ice is 20 times that of CO2, and the abnormal climate and rising sea level caused by the greenhouse effect are the survival of human beings. The total amount of methane in the global seafloor natural gas hydrates is about 3,000 times the total amount of methane in the Earth's atmosphere. If there is care, the methane gas in the seabed gas hydrates escapes into the atmosphere, which will have unimaginable consequences. Moreover, the hydrates consolidating in sediments on the seabed, once the conditions change, release methane gas from the hydrates, it also changes the physical properties of the sediments, greatly reduces the engineering mechanical properties of the seabed sediments, and softens the seafloor. Large-scale landslides have destroyed submarine engineering facilities such as submarine power transmission or communication cables and offshore oil drilling platforms.

Naturally flammable ice is solid and does not flow out like oil. If it is moved out of the seabed, methane will be volatilized during the process from the sea floor to the sea, and it will also cause great harm to the atmosphere. In order to obtain this clean energy, many countries in the world are studying the method of mining natural flammable ice. Scientists believe that once breakthroughs are made in mining technology, combustible ice will immediately become the main energy source for the 21st century.