The Energy Story - Introduction Biomass Energy energy from plants Geothermal Energy Fossil Fuels - Coal, Oil and Natural Gas Hydro Power and Ocean Energy Nuclear http://tmsyn.wc.ask.com/r?t=an&s=hb&uid=24312681243126812&sid=343126
NaturalGas.org by the Natural Gas Supply Association. more. Overview of Natural Gas Natural Gas From the Wellhead Business Overview Natural Gas http://tmsyn.wc.ask.com/r?t=an&s=hb&uid=24312681243126812&sid=343126
DOE - Fossil Energy Home Page a pipeline to bring Alaskan natural gas to the continental United States . Read the Public Responses $760 Million Devoted to Fossil Energy http://tmsyn.wc.ask.com/r?t=an&s=hb&uid=24312681243126812&sid=343126
DOE - Fossil Energy DOE's Fossil Energy-related Education Material. of Fossil Energy offers summer internships for minority students who are studying academic disciplines related to coal, oil and natural gas http://tmsyn.wc.ask.com/r?t=an&s=hb&uid=24312681243126812&sid=343126
Fossil Fuel Natural Gas Fossil Fuel Natural Gas http://tmsyn.wc.ask.com/r?t=an&s=hb&uid=24312681243126812&sid=343126
Fossil Fuels - Natural Gas - Eduseek The Eduseek page about Fossil Fuels Natural Gas http://tmsyn.wc.ask.com/r?t=an&s=hb&uid=24312681243126812&sid=343126
USATODAY.com - Bush Nation Needs More Nuclear Power Plants By Tim Sloan, AFP. Bush is promoting nuclear power as a way to take the pressure off fossil fuels oil, natural gas and coal. http://tmsyn.wc.ask.com/r?t=an&s=hb&uid=24312681243126812&sid=343126
Hubbert Peak Of Oil Production Scenarios. Nations Regions . California . Germany . UK. Natural Gas. Alternatives. Environment available Nuclear Energy and the http://tmsyn.wc.ask.com/r?t=an&s=hb&uid=24312681243126812&sid=343126
Gas Hydrates - Fuel Of The Future? gas hydrates are icelike substances composed of water and natural gas that This is about twice the amount of carbon held in all fossil fuels on earth. http://ghff.nrcan.gc.ca/index_e.php
Extractions: Mallik drill site Gas hydrates are ice-like substances composed of water and natural gas that form when gases, (mainly biogenic methane produced by microbial breakdown of organic matter) combine with water at low temperature and high pressure. Gas hydrates represent a very large global reservoir of natural gas and they are estimated to contain more organic carbon than all other known fossil fuel sources combined. They bind immense amounts of methane within sea-floor or Arctic sediments ; the breakdown of a unit volume of methane hydrate at a pressure of one atmosphere produces about 160 unit volumes of gas. The worldwide amount of methane in gas hydrates is considered to contain at least 1x10 gigatons of carbon in a very conservative estimate. This is
MSN Encarta - Print Preview - Fossil Fuels material into petroleum, natural gas, coal, or other types of fossil fuels . Vast deposits of gas hydrates are contained in ocean sediments and in http://encarta.msn.com/text_761586407___34/Fossil_Fuels.html
Extractions: Print Print Preview Fossil Fuels Article View On the File menu, click Print to print the information. Fossil Fuels II. Formation of Fossil Fuels Fossil fuels formed from ancient organisms that died and were buried under layers of accumulating sediment. As additional sediment layers built up over these organic deposits, the material was subjected to increasing temperatures and pressures. Over millions of years, these physical conditions chemically transformed the organic material into hydrocarbons. Most organic debris is destroyed at the earth's surface by oxidation or by consumption by microorganisms. Organic material that survives to become buried under sediments or deposited in other oxygen-poor environments begins a series of chemical and biological transformations that may ultimately result in petroleum, natural gas, or coal. Many such deposits occur in sedimentary basins (depressed areas in the earthâs crust where sediments accumulate), and along continental shelves. Sediments may accumulate to depths of several thousand feet in a basin, exerting pressures up to one hundred million pascals (tens of thousands of pounds per square inch) and temperatures of several hundred degrees on the organic material. Over millions of years, these conditions can chemically transform the organic material into petroleum, natural gas, coal, or other types of fossil fuels. A.
TAMU Oceanography: Gas Hydrates For this reason, natural oil and gas seeps and their associated hydrates are It is no secret that the world s production of conventional fossil fuels http://oceanography.tamu.edu/Quarterdeck/QD5.3/sassen.html
Extractions: Home Student Info Research About Us ... Directory Gas Hydrates Although gas hydrates contain hydrocarbons that are colorless, not all of them are white like snow. Some hydrates from the deep Gulf of Mexico are richly colored in shades of yellow, orange, or even red. The ice-like masses are beautiful, and contrast with the dull gray of deep sea muds. Hydrates from the Blake-Bahamas Plateau in the Atlantic Ocean can be gray or blue. Scientists would like to explain why hydrates show these colors, but so far there is little agreement on reasons. A number of different factors, including oil, bacteria, and minerals, are probably at play in producing the rainbow hydrates . Almost all gas hydrates are found by drilling in sediments at 10s to 100s of meters depth, but the gulf is different. The Gulf of Mexico is the best natural laboratory in the world for studying gas hydrates because they outcrop on the seafloor as mounds and can be easily sampled in sediments. Scientists aboard research vessels first found gas hydrates in the deep waters of the gulf in 1983 by taking core samples at sites where oil was naturally seeping out of the bottom. Hydrates have since been recovered in cores from water depths as shallow as 425 meters and at depths greater than 2000 meters.
DOE - Fossil Energy: DOE's Methane Hydrate R&D Program Worldwide, estimates of the natural gas potential of methane hydrate approach less polluting than other fossil fuels and is the least carbon intensive. http://www.fe.doe.gov/programs/oilgas/hydrates/
Extractions: Toward achieving this goal, the DOE program focuses on four key issues: A methane hydrate is a cage-like lattice of ice, inside of which are trapped molecules of methane (the chief constituent of natural gas). In fact, the name for its parent class of compounds, "clathrates," comes from the Latin word meaning "to enclose with bars." Methane hydrate form in generally two types of geologic settings: (1) on land in permafrost regions where cold temperatures persist in shallow sediments, and (2) beneath the ocean floor at water depths greater than about 500 meters (about 1,640 feet) where high pressures dominate. The hydrate deposits themselves may be several hundred meters thick. MORE INFO
Extractions: Future technological trends and their likely effects on human society, politics and evolution. Go Read More Posts On FuturePundit December 10, 2003 Natural Gas May Be Extractable From Ocean Gas Hydrates Natural gas can be produced from gas hydrates on the bottom of the ocean. For the first time, an international research program involving the Department of the Interior's U.S. Geological Survey has proven that it is technically feasible to produce gas from gas hydrates. Gas hydrates are a naturally occurring "ice-like" combination of natural gas and water that have the potential to be a significant new source of energy from the world's oceans and polar regions. Today at a symposium in Japan, the successful results of the first modern, fully integrated production testing of gas hydrates are being discussed by an international gathering of research scientists. The international consortium, including the USGS, the Department of Energy, Canada, Japan, India, Germany, and the energy industry conducted test drilling at a site known as Mallik, in the Mackenzie Delta of the Canadian Arctic. This location was chosen because it has one of the highest concentrations of known gas hydrates in the world. The United States is committed to participating in international research programs such as this one to advance the understanding of natural gas hydrates and the development of these resources. Even though gas hydrates are known to occur in numerous marine and Arctic settings, little was known before the Mallik project about the technology necessary to produce gas hydrates.
Natural Gas And Its Biological Effects In The Marine Environment hydrates form during the interaction of many components of natural gas (methane, gas, and coal production and transportation, burning of fossil fuels, http://www.offshore-environment.com/naturalgas.html
Extractions: based on "Environmental Impact of the Offshore Oil and Gas Industry" In contrast with oil hydrocarbons, which have been an object of wide and detailed ecotoxicological studies worldwide, natural gas and its components have been left outside the sphere of environmental analysis, control, and regulation. At the same time, the input of natural gas and products of its combustion into the biosphere is one of the typical and global factors of anthropogenic impact. Below you will find information on sources and composition of natural gas in the marine environment. Click on links at the end of the page to find more information on Environmental Impact of the Offshore Oil and Gas Industry. Composition and sources of natural gas in the water Natural gas is closely related to crude oil. Both substances are thought to have formed in the earth's crust as a result of transformation of organic matter due to the heat and pressure of the overlying rock. All oil deposits contain natural gas, although natural gas is often found without oil. Gas hydrocarbons can also be produced as a result of microbial decomposition of organic substances and, less often, due to reduction of mineral salts. Many of these gases are released into the atmosphere or hydrosphere, or they accumulate in the upper layers of the earth's crust.
Extractions: Fact Sheet 021-01 Online Version 1.0 Natural Gas Hydrates: Vast Resource, Uncertain Future By Timothy Collett Gas hydrates are naturally occurring icelike solids in which water molecules trap gas molecules in a cagelike structure known as a clathrate. Although many gases form hydrates in nature, methane hydrate is by far the most common; methane is the most abundant natural gas. The volume of carbon contained in methane hydrates worldwide is estimated to be twice the amount contained in all fossil fuels on Earth, including coal. Download a PDF version of this fact sheet [116K] Download Adobe Acrobat Reader version 4.0 for free URL of this page: http://pubs.usgs.gov/factsheet/fs021-01/
Science News Online (11/9/96): The Mother Lode Of Natural Gas Although chemists first discovered gas hydrates in the early part of the 19thcentury, fossil fuels are extremely interested in future use of hydrates. http://www.sciencenews.org/pages/sn_arch/11_9_96/bob1.htm
Extractions: November 9, 1996 By RICH MONASTERSKY F or kicks, oceanographer William P. Dillon likes to surprise visitors to his lab by taking ordinary-looking ice balls and setting them on fire. "They're easy to light. You just put a match to them and they will go," says Dillon, a researcher with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in Woods Hole, Mass. If the truth be told, this is not typical ice. The prop in Dillon's show is a curious and poorly known structure called methane hydrate. Unlike ordinary water ice, methane hydrate consists of single molecules of natural gas trapped within crystalline cages formed by frozen water molecules. Although chemists first discovered gas hydrates in the early part of the 19th century, geoscientists have only recently started documenting their existence in underground deposits and exploring their importance as a potential fuel. Late last year, a team of oceanographers conducted the most in-depth investigation of methane hydrates to date by drilling into an extensive accumulation beneath the seabed off the coast of the southeastern United States. The results of this research, which are now beginning to appear in the scientific literature, seem to bolster extremely sketchy estimates made years ago about the vastness of the hydrate resource. "It turns out there is a tremendous amount of gas down there," says Charles Paull, a marine geologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a leader of the recent drilling expedition. "It shores up the fact that these are large reserves and makes it increasingly important that they get assessed in terms of whether they are energy-producing deposits or not."
Mr potential impact of fossil fuels on global climate change. What are gas hydrates?gas hydrates are snowlike crystals that contain water and natural gas http://www.house.gov/science/holder_051299.htm
Extractions: Mr. Chairman and Committee Members, I am pleased and honored to be invited to testify before the Subcommittee on Energy and Environment regarding "S 330: Methane Hydrate Research and Development Act of 1998". I have conducted research on methane hydrates for more than 25 years focusing on both the properties of hydrates and the possible production of methane gas from hydrates. S 330 will not only provide an opportunity for outstanding scientific inquiry into the very frontiers of geophysics, oceanography and chemical engineering, but will also have important consequences for the future of the worlds energy supply and for the potential impact of fossil fuels on global climate change. What are gas hydrates? Gas hydrates are snow-like crystals that contain water and natural gas (mostly methane) which is virtually identical to the natural gas which, after processing, is burned in our homes. Gas hydrates are found beneath the earths oceans and beneath permafrost regions. If hydrates are brought to the ocean or land surface and exposed, the hydrates will melt and the gas will escape. About 160 cubic feet of natural gas is recovered from each cubic foot of hydrate. The goal of S 330 is to support research that will allow recovery of the gas in methane hydrates so that the gas can be used as an energy resource. Why are natural gas hydrates of interest?
Extractions: Global Natural Gas Perspectives " by Nakicenovic, et al, published by the International Gas Union for the Kyoto Council and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, October 2-5, 2000. [ abstract full report, pdf, 1.4mb This is a very well written paper with interesting graphs and a good history of natural gas, but I disagree with its claims that gas resources are very abundant, which appear on almost every page often without real justification by data or reference and with its belief that resources are similar to reserves. I offer below some more detailed comments by page. Page 2 The most recent findings indicate that the perceptions about global methane resources have changed drastically. Natural gas is much more abundant around the world than was estimated just a decade ago The estimates of unconventional gas have in fact been declining: In 2000, the best-known Russian hydrate expert, Soloviev, estimated the potential for hydrates to be as much as a hundred times less than in the previous estimates: " All published global estimates of methane content in gas hydrates of the Ocean are enormous and range more than three orders of magnitude from 1E15 [1x10 ] to 7.6E18 cub.m... the global methane content in submarine gas hydrates is estimated at 2E14 cub.m
