China to move ahead on clean energy "combustible ice" (Oh great! They're burning methane hydrates!)

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2010-03/06/c_13200033.htm

China to move ahead on clean energy "combustible ice"

English.news.cn 2010-03-06 22:58:57

by Xinhua writers Wang Aihua, Miao Xiaojuan

BEIJING, March 6 (Xinhua) -- China's western Qinghai Province, containing major deposits of the country's "combustible ice," will see increased explorations for this emerging clean energy, Provincial Governor Luo Huining said on Saturday.

The plateau province plans to allow large energy companies along with researchers to tap this new source of energy while minimizing environmental threats, Luo said on the sidelines of the annual session of the National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature.

"Combustible ice," or natural gas hydrate, is mainly found in deep seas and atop plateaus. Approximately one cubic meter of "combustible ice" equals 164 cubic meters of regular natural gas.

At a time of energy bottlenecks, the new energy resource has drawn interest from many countries. Additional attention has focused on the "ice" having a low proportion of impurities, resulting in it generating almost no pollutants when burned.

...

[TheMadMonk]

1. Not wonderful, but the way things are going, better to burn than not. nt

[Birthmark]

2. Agree

We'll still end up with CO2, but without the methane actually being in the atmosphere. So it's better than just letting it bubble up out of the ocean or permafrost...barely.

[OKIsItJustMe]

3. Not all methane hydrates will destabilize at once

Ones which are deeper in the ocean or colder will take longer to destabilize.

I suppose they'll tend to burn the shallowest first, since they will be the easiest to recover.

[Birthmark]

4. We can hope.