Special Issue "Natural Gas Hydrate"

Guest Editor
Prof. Dr. Ross Chapman
School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of Victoria, PO Box 3055, Victoria, BC, V8W 3P6, Canada
Website: http://web.uvic.ca/acoustic/chapman.html
E-Mail:
Interests: seismic investigation of marine gas hydrates; characterization and detection of sea floor gas seeps

Guest Editor
Dr. Richard B. Coffin
Naval Research Laboratory, 4555 Overlook Dr., SW Washington DC, 20375, USA
E-Mail:
Interests: variation in methane hydrate abundance in world ocean coastal regions; shallow sediment methane cycling; methane flux to the atmosphere; elemental isotope analyses

No papers have been published in this special issue yet, see below for planned papers.

Dear Colleagues,

Gas hydrates, recognized to be distributed through the world coastal oceans, are a significant energy source, have potential to influencecoastal ocean platform stability, are an important component in climate change, and may contribute significantly to the overlying water column carbon cycles. Large investments for evaluation of methane hydrates as an energy source are ongoing at the Mackenzie Delta and Prudhoe Bay in the Arctic, the Nankai Trough off Japan, the Bay of Bengal near India, and on the Texas-Louisiana Shelf in the Gulf of Mexico. In addition to these large scale efforts, preliminary investigation of hydrate as a resource has started off on the coasts of New Zealand, Korea, Russia, Norway, Chile and other countries. Methane in hydrates is also being studied in Arctic coastal permafrost as a contribution to climate change. Addressing the development of this resource requires integration of a wide array of chemical, physical, geophysical and biological laboratory and field data. This special issue will combine papers on methods for evaluating deep sediment hydrate quantities, regional resource characterization, the methane contribution to shallow sediment and overlying water column carbon cycling, and predicted contributions to climate change. A primary goal is to share a thorough global overview of the current activity related to methane hydrate research.

Richard B. Coffin, Ph. D.
Prof. Dr. Ross Chapman
Guest Editors

Submission

All manuscripts should be submitted to energies@mdpi.org with a copy to the Guest Editor. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. Papers will be published continuously (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are refereed through a peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed Open Access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this Open Access journal is 800 CHF per accepted paper.

• energy
• methane hydrates
• climate change
• carbon cycling
• biogeochemistry
• ocean modeling

Title: A Rapid Hydrate Formation Process for New Storage and Transportation Capabilities of Gas Phase Energy Sources
Authors: Thomas D. Brown and Dr. Charles E. Taylor
Affiliation: US Department of Energy, National Energy Technology Laboratory, Office of Research and Development, Chemical and Surface Science Division, 626 Cochrans Mill Road, P.O.Box 10940, Pittsburgh, Pa 15236-0940, USA; E-Mail: thomas.brown@netl.doe.gov
Abstract: Natural gas hydrates (NGHs) or methane gas hydrates (MGHs) have the potential to provide an energy source for the World over the next several hundred years. While these hydrates occur naturally, typically in the ocean depths, primarily in sediments, and in permafrost regions, the natural gas they contain is not easily produced and utilized. In addition, the U.S. Geological Survey has estimated that almost 1,700 trillion cubic feet of new natural gas resources exist within the Arctic Circle [1]. While there will be a future need of these potential energy sources, there is also a need for newer and more economic storage, transportation, and processing capabilities to be utilized during their production. Building new pipelines and/or railway systems are expensive and labor intensive. In addition, compressed natural gas [(CNG) at 3000 to 3600 psi], and liquefied natural gas [(LNG) requiring cryogenic temperatures at less than minus 161°C] also require large capital investment and elaborate safety systems. The development of rapid formation process for the production of synthetic NGHs from the aforementioned sources could provide such an economic solution. These manmade NGHs can store 164 times their volume in gas while being maintained at 1 atmosphere and between -10 to -20°C without appreciable decomposition for several weeks. Successful experiments conducted while utilizing different sized (100 ml and 1 L) hydrate cells within the NETL Office of Research & Development’s Chemistry and Surface Science Division has shown that rapid formation of the methane hydrates (and hydrates of other gases) is feasible. These experiments and their results provided for the eventual the foundation for testing within NETL’s larger scale 15-Liter Hydrate Cell Facility. The injection of water at the top of the 15-Liter Hydrate Cell into a methane environment (both of which were temperature controlled) through an NETL designed nozzle allowed for instantaneous formation of methane hydrates. This instantaneous hydrate formation was repeated over several days while varying the flow rate of water, its’ temperature, and the overall temperature of the methane environment. These results clearly indicated that hydrates were formed at temperatures above the freezing point of water throughout the range of operating conditions. As the most important natural occurring energy resource discovered in the last 10 years, most of the past and current non-resource research has mainly focused on investigation the formation and dissociation of NGHs. These investigations led to an understanding of the kinetics of formation and dissociation, with the kinetic mechanisms being extremely slow. The formation of the hydrates typically takes anywhere from 6 hours to days and weeks within a laboratory setting. In addition, most of the NGHs are located in remote areas where storage, transportation, local market capabilities are non-existent. The rapid NGH formation, instantaneously to within a few seconds would allow for a more cost effective approach as compared to current storage and transport means utilized by industry.