PAMANTASAN NG LUNGSOD NG MAYNILA

University of the City of Manila

College of Engineering and Technology
Department of Chemical Engineering

Introduction

The world is addicted to hydrocarbons, because it’s cheap, plentiful and

easy to mine, they represent an abundant energy source to fuel industrial
development the world over. The side-effects, however, are potentially
devastating - burning fossil fuels emits the CO2 linked to global warming. And
as reserves of oil, coal and gas become tougher to access, governments are
looking ever harder for alternatives, not just to produce energy, but to help
achieve the holy grail of all sovereign states - energy independence. Some have
discovered a potential saviour, locked away under deep ocean beds and vast
swathes of permafrost. The problem is it's a hydrocarbon, but quite unlike any
other we know.

As natural gas from shale becomes a global energy "game changer," oil and
gas researchers are working to develop new technologies to produce natural gas
from methane hydrate deposits. This research is important because methane
hydrate deposits are believed to be a larger hydrocarbon resource than all of the
world's oil, natural gas and coal resources combined. If these deposits can be
efficiently and economically developed, methane hydrate could become the next
energy game changer. Enormous amounts of methane hydrate have been found
beneath Arctic permafrost, beneath Antarctic ice, and in sedimentary deposits
along continental margins worldwide. In some parts of the world they are much
closer to high-population areas than any natural gas field. These nearby deposits
might allow countries that currently import natural gas to become self-sufficient.
The current challenge is to inventory this resource and find safe, economical
ways to develop it.

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 PAMANTASAN NG LUNGSOD NG MAYNILA
University of the City of Manila
College of Engineering and Technology
Department of Chemical Engineering

Definition

Methane hydrate is a
crystalline solid that
consists of a methane
molecule surrounded by a
cage of interlocking water.
Methane hydrate is an "ice"
that only occurs naturally
in subsurface deposits
where temperature and
pressure conditions are
favorable for its formation. Methane hydrate is a cage-like lattice of ice inside of
which are trapped molecules of methane, the chief constituent of natural gas. If
methane hydrate is either warmed or depressurized, it will revert back to water
and natural gas. When brought to the earth's surface, one cubic meter of gas
hydrate releases 164 cubic meters of natural gas. Hydrate deposits may be
several hundred meters thick and generally occur in two types of settings: under
Arctic permafrost, and beneath the ocean floor. Methane that forms hydrate can
be both biogenic, created by biological activity in sediments, and thermogenic,
created by geological processes deeper within the earth.

If the ice is removed from this temperature/pressure environment, it

becomes unstable. For this reason methane hydrate deposits are difficult to
study. They cannot be drilled and cored for study like other subsurface materials
because as they are brought to the surface, the pressure is reduced and the
temperature rises. This causes the ice to melt and the methane to escape.

Several other names are commonly used for methane hydrate. These
include: methane clathrate, hydromethane, methane ice, fire ice, natural gas

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 PAMANTASAN NG LUNGSOD NG MAYNILA
University of the City of Manila
College of Engineering and Technology
Department of Chemical Engineering

hydrate, and gas hydrate. Most methane hydrate deposits also contain small
amounts of other hydrocarbon hydrates. These include propane hydrate and
ethane hydrate.

History of Solid Methane

The history of gas hydrates can be traced back to Humphrey Davy, a

chemist from Cornwall, England, who identified chlorine as an element in 1810.

Davy and his assistant, Michael Faraday, continued to work with chlorine
throughout the early 1800s, mixing the green gas with water and cooling the
mixture to low temperatures.

It's very likely that Davy observed the strange solid that resulted as
chlorine atoms became encased in ice crystals, but Faraday gets official credit
for the discovery. In 1823, Faraday issued a report describing the strange
substance and called it chlorine clathrate hydrate. Other types of clathrates,

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 PAMANTASAN NG LUNGSOD NG MAYNILA
University of the City of Manila
College of Engineering and Technology
Department of Chemical Engineering

each involving a guest compound locked inside the lattice structure of a host,
were soon discovered, but they remained a laboratory curiosity.

Then, in the 1930s, natural-gas miners began to complain of an icelike

material clogging pipelines exposed to cold temperatures. Scientists determined
that this material was not pure ice, but ice wrapped around methane. They
wasted no time trying to find ways to prevent hydrates from forming and turned
primarily to chemicals, such as methanol or monoethylene glycol. Since then,
mining companies have added these materials to their natural-gas pipelines to
inhibit hydrate formation.

In the 1960s, scientists discovered that methane hydrate, or "solid natural

gas," existed in the Messoyakha gas field in western Siberia. This was significant
because naturally occurring gas hydrates had never been found before.
Geologists and chemists arrived in the vast basin and began to study the
conditions in which the hydrates were forming. They found that sub-permafrost
sediments were rich in hydrates and began to look for similar deposits in other
high-latitude regions. Soon, another team of researchers found methane hydrate
in sediments buried deep below the North Slope of Alaska.

Based on these early findings, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the
Department of Energy National Energy Technology Laboratory conducted
extensive research between 1982 and 1992, revealing that methane hydrate
deposits could be found in offshore sediments as well. Suddenly, what had once
been a curiosity and an industrial nuisance looked like it might be a significant
resource. In the mid-1990s, Japan and India took the lead in methane hydrate
research, with the goal of finding more deposits and developing ways to extract
the trapped methane economically. Scientists have since discovered methane
hydrate deposits in numerous locations, including the Mackenzie River delta in
Canada and the Nankai Trough off the coast of Japan.

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 PAMANTASAN NG LUNGSOD NG MAYNILA
University of the City of Manila
College of Engineering and Technology
Department of Chemical Engineering

Of all the countries actively researching methane hydrate, Japan has the
greatest incentive. As Stephen O'Rourke, of energy consultants Wood Mackenzie,
says: "It is the biggest importer of gas in the world and has the highest gas import
bill as a result. "However, he points out that at just $120m (£71m; 87m euros) a
year, the Japanese government's annual budget for research into gas hydrates
is relatively low.

The country's plans to establish commercial production by the end of this

decade do, then, seem rather optimistic. But longer-term, the potential is huge.
"Methane hydrate makes perfect sense for Japan and could be a game changer,"
says Laszlo Varro of the International Energy Agency (IEA).

Elsewhere, incentives to exploit the gas commercially are, for now, less
pressing. The US is in the middle of a shale gas boom, Canada also has abundant
shale resources, while Russia has huge natural gas reserves. In fact, Canada has
put its research into methane hydrate on hold, and deferred any additional
funding.

China and India, with their rampaging demand for energy, are a different
story, but they are far behind in their efforts to develop hydrates. "We have seen
some recent progress, but we don't foresee commercial gas hydrate production
before 2030," says Mr O'Rourke. Indeed, the IEA has not included gas hydrates
in its global energy projections for the next 20 years. On March 2013, Japan
becomes the first in the world to successfully extracted gas from methane ice
from the seabed, 3,300 feet below sea level. They are planning to commercially
produce the natural gas by early 2020.

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 PAMANTASAN NG LUNGSOD NG MAYNILA
University of the City of Manila
College of Engineering and Technology
Department of Chemical Engineering

Where are the Methane Hydrate Deposit?

Four Earth environments have the temperature and pressure conditions

suitable for the formation and stability of methane hydrate. These are:
1) sediment and sedimentary rock units below Arctic permafrost;
2) sedimentary deposits along continental margins;
3) deep-water sediments of inland lakes and seas; and,
4) under Antarctic ice.
With the exception of the Antarctic deposits, methane hydrate
accumulations are not very deep below Earth's surface. In most situations the
methane hydrate is within a few hundred meters of the sediment surface.

Hydrate Deposit in the Philippines

BIGGEST DEPOSIT – The deposits of natural gas and other minerals were
reportedly discovered in Cagayan Valley, Philippines.
Based on the report of Puerto Galera Online Community Journal, it was
through the joint research of Japan and South Korea that the minerals and
natural gas deposits were discovered in the Cagayan Valley Region.

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 PAMANTASAN NG LUNGSOD NG MAYNILA
University of the City of Manila
College of Engineering and Technology
Department of Chemical Engineering

The said research was supported by the Department of Science and Technology
(DOST).
There were actually six types of mineral gas at an island in Luzon
according to the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology
(JAMSTEC) and Korea Institute of Ocean and Science Technology (KIOST) based
on the report.
Also, the JAMSTEC noted that the estimated deposit of the platinum is
bigger than that of Russia which is just 1,100 in metric tons. It goes above 2,000
metric tons.
The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) has
approved on April 2012 the claim of the Philippines over the Benham Rise or the
Benham Plateau.
Several studies was conducted for the past years by the different agencies
of the government which led to conclusions that a vast deposit of solid methane
can be found in the underwater plateau.
Some scientists who are part of the aforementioned researches
administered are Filipinos.
Now, countries like China and America has shown interest of also
conducting a marine research on the Benham Rise measuring for up to 13
million in hectare.

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 PAMANTASAN NG LUNGSOD NG MAYNILA
University of the City of Manila
College of Engineering and Technology
Department of Chemical Engineering

Benham Rise is an undersea plateau rich in resources, aside from the

massive deposits of methane in solid form, situated at the east of Isabella in the
Pacific ocean.
The Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has given commands to the
Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), Navy, Army and the Philippine Coast
Guard to monitor and protect the said area.

Summary

Methane hydrate is an "ice" that only occurs naturally in subsurface deposits

where temperature and pressure conditions are favorable for its formation.
Methane hydrate is a cage-like lattice of ice inside of which are trapped molecules
of methane, the chief constituent of natural gas. If methane hydrate is either
warmed or depressurized, it will revert back to water and natural gas. When
brought to the earth's surface, one cubic meter of gas hydrate releases 164 cubic
meters of natural gas. Hydrate deposits may be several hundred meters thick
and generally occur in two types of settings: under Arctic permafrost, and
beneath the ocean floor. Methane that forms hydrate can be both biogenic,
created by biological activity in sediments, and thermogenic, created by
geological processes deeper within the earth.

Solid Methane before is treated as mere clogging in the pipe that needs to be
removed but after years of study, Solid methane is now regarded as a trump card
that will change the energy industry as we know now. Up to this date there is no
specific way to utilize solid methane as an energy source.