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Making fire from ice: a new fuel for the 21st century

Beneath our seas, reserves of frozen methane hold more energy than all other fossil fuels put together. But can we get at them without causing environmental meltdown?

Source:  Copyright 2006, Independent (UK)
Date:  October 18, 2006
Original URL: Status ONLINE


At the bottom of the planet's deepest oceans, and beneath the frozen shallows of our coldest seas, there is gold.

Gas hydrate, an ice-like crystalline solid that exists in the oceanic sediment, is a mixture of water and gas - usually methane. It may become one of the great energy sources of the 21st century, with the power both to enhance our lives, and, if approached without care, to damage our planet irreparably. Last week, 100 scientists from 20 countries convened in Edinburgh to discuss the best way to progress with gas hydrate research, and it will not be their last meeting.

The key to gas hydrate's great power lies both in its content and its volume. The highly concentrated levels of methane found in gas hydrate can yield astonishing energy returns - one litre of methane hydrate solid, for instance, would contain 168 litres of methane gas. But when it comes to the volume of gas hydrate that exists on Earth, opinions are ...

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