Our Energy Worries are Over...or are they?

[Glenn Black]

http://www.energybulletin.net/node/26624

Drilling for methyl hydrate on sea bed floor.

Cold temperatures and high pressures keep the methane gas as a solid. At least twice before in earth's ancient past, something triggered the sudden melting of these methane deposits, causing millions of tons of methane to enter the atmosphere. Methane is 20 X more powerful as a green house gas than CO2, so a major release sent the earth into an extinction that killed 97% of ALL life on the planet; both plants and animals.

Nice eh!

Now they are starting to f**k with this stuff to see if they can mine it, harvest it, vacuum it up, trap it as an energy source.

One mistake could cause a very big problem.

Sometimes deep ocean drilling rigs are capsized by methyl hydrate deposits that are disturbed, causing the water to literally boil up with methane gas on one side of the platform, upsetting the rig in the unequal buoyancy of the boiling and regular ocean around the rig.

Global warming is expected to start melting the nodules soon anyways. It's a race to the finish line as to which cause will release the methane to the atmosphere first.

Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen.

[BadJuju]

Re: Our Energy Worries are Over...or are they?

Methane is 20 X more powerful as a green house gas than CO2, so a major release sent the earth into an extinction that killed 97% of ALL life on the planet; both plants and animals.

That is not conclusive. It was a contributing factor among many.

[Glenn Black]

Re: Our Energy Worries are Over...or are they?

That is not conclusive. It was a contributing factor among many.

I respectfully disagree with your comment. Are we talking about the same thing, or something different. See the following 2 references for my position that methane is 20 times more active than carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Methane (CH₄) is a greenhouse gas that remains in the atmosphere for approximately 9-15 years. Methane is over 20 times more effective in trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide (CO₂) over a 100-year period and is emitted from a variety of natural and human-influenced sources.

http://epa.gov/methane/

Methane is a relatively potent greenhouse gas with a high global warming potential of 72 (averaged over 20 years) or 25 (averaged over 100 years).^[1] Methane in the atmosphere is eventually oxidized, producing carbon dioxide and water. As a result, methane in the atmosphere has a half life of seven years (if no methane were added, then every seven years, the amount of methane would halve).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methane

Fortunately, there isn't that much methane in the atmosphere, and it has a half life of 7 years (reacts, decomposes, and dissipates naturally). Propane fired ICE (Internal combustion engines) burn clean, but have unburnt hydrocarbons in exhaust, fuel spills/emissions at refueling, etc. and there puke lots into the atmosphere, having large GHG effect.

[BadJuju]

Re: Our Energy Worries are Over...or are they?

I respectfully disagree with your comment. Are we talking about the same thing, or something different. See the following 2 references for my position that methane is 20 times more active than carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

It is not conclusive that a global methane hydrate release was the prime cause of the Permian-Triassic extinction event.

[Glenn Black]

Re: Our Energy Worries are Over...or are they?

I agree. That part is only a theory.

[VIT]

Re: Our Energy Worries are Over...or are they?

http://www.energybulletin.net/node/26624

Sometimes deep ocean drilling rigs are capsized by methyl hydrate deposits that are disturbed, causing the water to literally boil up with methane gas on one side of the platform, upsetting the rig in the unequal buoyancy of the boiling and regular ocean around the rig.

It is not hydrates, usually these are the shallow pockets of free gas. It is usually higher concern for shallow drilling instead of deep where the risk of boiling the rig is minimal.