Fire Ice

Japan became the first country in the world that has succeeded in extracting methane from a previously unused areas of occurrence of fuel. The resource has been dubbed the "fire ice».
Methane hydrate - a substance that lies beneath the continental shelf around the world. Many energy experts have assumed that he would be the next major energy resource. The substance consists of methane trapped in ice, was previously thought that this substance can exist only in the outer reaches of the solar system, but now scientists say that it may be a "new shale gas."

State Japan National Oil Corporation, Gas and Metals stated that the gas is extracted from methane hydrate deposits in the central coast of the country. Japan, which meets almost all of its energy needs through imports, since 2001, has invested several hundred million dollars to develop technologies that will use methane hydrate deposits in its territorial waters.

Japan is the world's largest importer of liquefied natural gas, and the temptation to ensure the country's internal resources became even more after the Fukushima crisis two years ago. Then the problem of a nuclear power plant caused problems in the energy sector across the country. In Japan, the Ministry of Commerce announced that production tests will continue for about two weeks, followed by analysis and calculation of the amount of gas produced. Japan hopes to be able to achieve commercial production level for six years. Methane is the main component of natural gas and the governments of other countries, including Canada, USA, Norway and China are also considering exploitation of methane hydrate deposits as an alternative source of energy.

In February last year, the UK government, based on the data provided by scientists, has announced substantial methane hydrate deposits off the coast of West Shetland Islands. Mining was not conducted due to lack of the necessary technology, but that could change thanks to a new technique developed by Japanese scientists to extract gas reserves of methane hydrate off the coast of the country.

Depressurization Engineers used to convert the methane hydrate in the methane gas. In 2008 was first demonstrated success, which lasted nearly six days, the process of methane production from hydrate deposits in the depth of permafrost in Canada. Methane hydrate is formed from a mixture of methane and water at certain pressure and certain other conditions.

A Japanese study evaluated the existence of at least 1, 1 trillion cubic meters of methane hydrate in the Nankai Trough off the Pacific coast of the country. These stocks are able to meet the needs of Japan's gas for 11 years. Japanese imports of natural gas set a new record after the country closed most of its nuclear power plants after the Fukushima nuclear disaster two years ago. Last year, Japan imported 87.3 million cubic meters of gas.

Source: fedpost.ru/sobytiya/41820-yaponiya-nachala-dobyvat-ognennyj-led.html