China will exploit burning ice

The land of Qinghai Province and the Tibetan Plateau buried a large amount of burnt ice, which can fuel China for 90 years.

China discovered large amounts of methane hydrate at the end of September 2009 and recently, Qinghai province announced that the government allowed researchers and energy companies to exploit this energy source.

Although methane hydrate is present in many countries with large reserves, the main challenge for China and other countries is how to develop efficient mining technology without harming the environment.

Fire ice has been discovered in more than 100 countries, in permanently frozen land in the Arctic and on the ocean floor. Methane hydrate is an ice-like substance that can be used to light and burn like conventional fuel.

But instead of digging up, the operator has to melt ice to burn underground and extract methane. (methane). Studies to commercialize this new fuel type are underway.

Methane hydrate is an attractive source of energy for any country, due to its high energy density: 1m ³ burning ice can produce 164m3 of natural gas. High energy density is due to methane being "trapped" inside the hydrate crystal structure and compacted here.

According to the Chinese Ministry of Energy, methane's energy source in the form of hydrate could possibly exceed the energy content of all known fossil fuels.

In addition, frozen hydrate has very little impurities, so it can be considered as a clean energy source, less polluted than oil or natural gas.

The Ministry of Land and Resources predicts that the country can start using flammable ice, join the methane hydrate exploration and exploitation group within the next 10-15 years.

Besides China, the US, Japan Korea . and Vietnam all intend to exploit natural gas hydrate.

In the summer of 2009, US scientists on a research vessel in the Gulf of Mexico discovered methane hydrate airbags, estimated to contain about 190,000 billion cubic meters of gas.

The US Department of Energy estimates that the entire amount of methane hydrate worldwide is about 11 billion cubic meters of gas, of which 2,400 billion cubic meters are buried in Alaska.

Because methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, researchers are also concerned about the environmental impact of extracting methane hydrate.

However, if handled carefully, using methane hydrate as a safe fuel rather than letting it melt on its own, especially in the current global warming conditions.