Methane hydrate extraction
Posted by Charles II on February 18, 2009
TOKYO (Nikkei)–A research consortium including Shimizu Corp. (1803), Hokkaido University, and the Kitami Institute of Technology has succeeded in continuously extracting methane hydrate from a lake floor for the first time in the world, The Nikkei learned Wednesday.
Harvesting methane clathrates may be essential to preventing runaway global warming. But the Lord alone knows how we would do that.
3 Responses to “Methane hydrate extraction”
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Phoenix Woman said
It may be what kills us — or saves us, if we play our cards right.
Charles II said
All life ending in a fart would be divine humor at its darkest.
JCSpilman said
There are several comments that I would like to make about “Global
Warming” and “Global Climate Change”. There is a basic principal
involved that has been overlooked by most of the non-scientific media.
FIRST — is that this is NOT a new effect. It has occurred five times
during the past 400,000 years! The basic cause is Methane (CH4) and
NOT Carbon Dioxide (CO2). The present global warming cycle began
about the time man was crossing the frozen land bridge from Siberia to
North America.
We need to understand the sources of Methane that are actually the
basic cause of our global warming. Anything that has grown, from yard
clippings to a decaying body, produces methane as it decomposes.
Methane gas from permafrost is a decay product. Methane gas from the
deep ocean (methane hydrate) is totally different.
Methane gas from oil wells is yet a very different composition. These
must all be recognized as such and understood as to their manner of
existence, production, and/or release.
Deep Sea Methane appears to be the waste product of a bacteriological
process, and therefore, is therefore a renewable resource! ( See
Reference 2) It is a relative clean product of our environment. It
has recently been produced in continuous commercial quantities by
American & Japanese scientists in Canada in 2008. It is this Methane
gas that has been bubbling up, for eons, from the continental shelfs
around the world that is the real culprit and basic cause of our
present situation.
Oil well Methane gas is a very dirty gas mixture — it is methane with
huge amounts of sulfur and other noxious gases mixed with it. The
Methane often mentioned in the media as “Bubbling up from Undersea
Permafrost” is a decay product. It is NOT from a Hydrate!
NEXT — Drastic Global Climate Change has taken place at least FIVE
different times during the last 400,000 years. Our present cycle is
the only one during which man has been a factor! (Ref. 1) Methane
gas which bubbles up continuously from the deep ocean sources (which
in turn disassociates into CO2) is the true source of the “Greenhouse
Gas” that has operated in the previous five interglacial cycles — all
of which have been extinction cycles! As will this one!
These five previous cycles are NOT man made effects, nor is the
present cycle, and it IS TOO LATE to change our present cycle, We can
only learn to adapt! We cannot STOP the process although we might slow
it down for a few years, which in geological time is nothing.
REFERENCES
There are several prime references associated with the material that I
have covered, if ever so briefly.
(1) EARTH’s CHANGING CLIMATE. Lecture Series by Dr. Richard
Wolfson, the Benjamin F. Wissler Professor of Physics at Middlebury
College. This is a six hour lecture series (12 segments of 30 minutes
each) on two DVDs produced by The Teaching Company of Chantilly VA
20151-1232. http://www.TEACH12.com
This series covers in-depth detail of the science and methodology of
climate change. It is not an advocacy program. Interestingly, Dr.
Wolfson does not even mention Methane-Clatherate in this lecture
series — knowledge on that subject is almost too new to have been
included. It was first discovered on a moon of Venus by NASA about
1985. At the time we did not even know that it existed on Earth!
(2) FIRE IN THE ICE. Quarterly Journal , U.S.Department of Energy,
Office of Fossil Energy, National Energy Technology Laboratory. Also
known as Methane Hydrate Newsletter. Recommended reading is all
issues to current issue from about 2000 forward. This is the best of
several technical journals devoted to the science of Methane
Clatherates. http://www.netl.doe.gov/about/index.html
(3) HIGH TIDE by Mark Lynas. Picador, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY.
10010. ISBN 0-312-30365-3. This well written book clarifies the
problems of Global Warming “… The American People have been subjected
to one of the most pervasive misinformation campaigns ever undertaken
…” http://www.picadorusa.com
(4) WITH SPEED AND VIOLENCE [Why Scientists Fear Tipping Points in
Climate Change] by Fred Pearce. Beacon Press; 25 Beacon Street;
Boston, MA 02108. © 2007. “We are on the precipice of climate system
tipping points beyond which there is no redemption”
http://www.beacon.org
JCSpilman, P.E. Huntsville, AL
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