Page 10 - aruba-today-20170520

A10 WORLD NEWS
Saturday 20 May 2017

China, Japan extract combustible ice from seafloor

But experts said Friday ing declared the event a to 800 years at current con-
that large-scale produc- breakthrough moment her- sumption rates.
tion remains many years alding a potential “global Yet efforts to success-
away — and if not done energy revolution.” fully extract the fuel at a
properly could flood the A drilling crew in Japan re- profit have eluded private
atmosphere with climate- ported a similar successful and state-owned energy
changing greenhouse operation two weeks ear- companies for decades.
gases. lier, on May 4 offshore the That’s in part because of
Combustible ice is a fro- Shima Peninsula. the high cost of extraction
zen mixture of water and For Japan, methane hy- techniques, which can use
concentrated natural drate offers the chance large amounts of water or
gas. Technically known to reduce its heavy reli- carbon dioxide to flood
as methane hydrate, it ance of imported fuels if it methane hydrate reserves
can be lit on fire in its fro- can tap into reserves off its so the fuel can be released
zen state and is believed coastline. In China, it could and brought to the surface.
In this May 16, 2017 photo released by China’s Xinhua News to comprise one of the serve as a cleaner substi- Japan first extracted some
Agency, workers celebrate the successful trial extraction of nat- world’s most abundant fos- tute for coal-burning pow- of the material in 2013
ural gas from combustible ice trapped under the seafloor on a sil fuels. er plants and steel factories but ended the effort due
drilling platform on the South China Sea The official Chinese news that have polluted much of to sand from the seafloor
Associated Press agency Xinhua reported the country with lung-dam- clogging machinery, ac-

MATTHEW BROWN as “combustible ice” has that the fuel was success- aging smog. cording to the country’s
Associated Press moved closer to reality af- fully mined by a drilling The South China Sea has Ministry of Economy Trade
BEIJING (AP) — Commer- ter Japan and China suc- rig operating in the South become a focal point of and Tourism.
cial development of the cessfully extracted the ma- China Sea on Thursday. regional political tensions There are also environmen-
globe’s huge reserves of terial from the seafloor off Chinese Minister of Land as China has claimed huge tal concerns.
a frozen fossil fuel known their coastlines. and Resources Jiang Dam- swaths of disputed territory If methane hydrate leaks
as its own. during the extraction pro-
Previous sea oil explora- cess, it can increase green-
tion efforts by China met house gas emissions. The
resistance, especially from fuel also could displace re-
Vietnam, but its methane newables such as solar and
hydrate operation was de- wind power, said David
scribed as being outside Sandalow, a former senior
the most hotly contested official with the U.S. State
areas. Department now at Co-
Methane hydrate has been lumbia University’s Center
found beneath seafloors on Global Energy Policy.
and buried inside Arctic However, if it can be used
permafrost and beneath without leaking, it has the
Antarctic ice. The United potential to replace dirtier
States and India also have coal in the power sector.
research programs pursu- “The climate implications
ing technologies to cap- of producing natural gas
ture the fuel. hydrates are complicated.
Estimates of worldwide re- There are potential ben-
serves range from 280 tril- efits, but substantial risks,”
lion cubic meters (10,000 Sandalow said.
trillion cubic feet) up to Commercial-scale produc-
2,800 trillion cubic meters tion could be “transforma-
(100,000 trillion cubic feet), tive for northeast Asia, par-
according to the U.S. Ener- ticularly for Japan, which
gy Information Administra- imports nearly all its hydro-
tion. By comparison, total carbon needs,” said James
worldwide production of Taverner, a senior energy
natural gas was 3.5 billion industry researcher at IHS
cubic meters (124 billion Market, a London-based
cubic feet) in 2015, the consulting firm.
most recent year available. The consensus within the
That means methane hy- industry is that commercial
drate reserves could meet development won’t hap-
global gas demands for 80 pen until at least 2030. q