swardboy
8/23/2006, 08:21 PM
http://www.kwtx.com/home/headlines/3717431.html
BU Geologist To Search Gulf For Massive Energy Source
http://media.graytvinc.com/images/Gulf-of-Mexico.jpg (August 23, 2006)—The US Department of Energy has awarded a grant of more than $270,000 to Baylor University researcher Dr. John Dunbar, an associate professor of geology, to search a portion of the Gulf of Mexico for a potentially massive source of hydrocarbon energy called methane hydrate, which is the main ingredient of natural gas, the university said Wednesday.
Click Here For Methane Hydrate Fact Sheet (http://marine.usgs.gov/fact-sheets/gas-hydrates/title.html)
Dunbar will study a site called the Mississippi Canyon about 200 miles off the Mississippi Gulf Coast in an effort to map where the methane hydrate is, how much there is beneath the seafloor, and how often it seeps through.
“Methane hydrate sources, such as the one in Mississippi Canyon, could provide a major portion of our energy source for the future,” Dunbar said. “Methane is also used as a feedstock for plastics, fertilizers, etc. We are going to need hydrocarbons for the foreseeable future.”
The site, which is about 3,000 feet wide and about 3,000 feet under water, has been studied since 2001, but so far researchers have not been able to locate the hydrate or determine how much of it there is.
Dunbar’s three-year project first involves injecting a direct electrical current into the seafloor using a nearly kilometer-long “sled,” which will be dragged over the site to determine where the hydrate is.
In the second phase, Dunbar plans to reconfigure the “sled” and leave it on the seafloor for about a year to measure changes.
Methane hydrate is an ice-like solid, the university said, citing a US Geological Survey estimate that the country’s methane hydrate deposits hold 200,000 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
If one percent of the estimated reserves were tapped, the result would be a doubling of the country’s natural gas reserves, the university said.
BU Geologist To Search Gulf For Massive Energy Source
http://media.graytvinc.com/images/Gulf-of-Mexico.jpg (August 23, 2006)—The US Department of Energy has awarded a grant of more than $270,000 to Baylor University researcher Dr. John Dunbar, an associate professor of geology, to search a portion of the Gulf of Mexico for a potentially massive source of hydrocarbon energy called methane hydrate, which is the main ingredient of natural gas, the university said Wednesday.
Click Here For Methane Hydrate Fact Sheet (http://marine.usgs.gov/fact-sheets/gas-hydrates/title.html)
Dunbar will study a site called the Mississippi Canyon about 200 miles off the Mississippi Gulf Coast in an effort to map where the methane hydrate is, how much there is beneath the seafloor, and how often it seeps through.
“Methane hydrate sources, such as the one in Mississippi Canyon, could provide a major portion of our energy source for the future,” Dunbar said. “Methane is also used as a feedstock for plastics, fertilizers, etc. We are going to need hydrocarbons for the foreseeable future.”
The site, which is about 3,000 feet wide and about 3,000 feet under water, has been studied since 2001, but so far researchers have not been able to locate the hydrate or determine how much of it there is.
Dunbar’s three-year project first involves injecting a direct electrical current into the seafloor using a nearly kilometer-long “sled,” which will be dragged over the site to determine where the hydrate is.
In the second phase, Dunbar plans to reconfigure the “sled” and leave it on the seafloor for about a year to measure changes.
Methane hydrate is an ice-like solid, the university said, citing a US Geological Survey estimate that the country’s methane hydrate deposits hold 200,000 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
If one percent of the estimated reserves were tapped, the result would be a doubling of the country’s natural gas reserves, the university said.