Why hasn't anyone blown up the "combustible ice" that claims to replace oil? How is the development progress in China

Tech 2023-06-16 19:48:34 Source: Network

followIn 2010, Chinese scientists discovered a large amount of combustible ice reserves in the northern South China Sea. For a while, discussions about the mining of combustible ice emerged endlessly

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In 2010, Chinese scientists discovered a large amount of combustible ice reserves in the northern South China Sea. For a while, discussions about the mining of combustible ice emerged endlessly.

Due to its ability to provide combustion, this substance can provide more long-lasting energy in the same volume compared to traditional energy sources such as oil and gas.

Why is combustible ice combustible

According to physics, ice is a solid state of water and can also be considered a type of water. Since it is water, it is naturally impossible to burn.So although combustible ice is called ice, it is not actually completely solidified from water.

In the 1930s in the United States, Hammer Schmidt accidentally discovered some combustible ice blocks from frozen gas pipelines, which caused a sensation at that time. At that time, people's understanding of natural energy was still generally based on oil, coal, hydraulic power, steam, and so on.

For a cold substance like ice, it can provide combustion, which prompted a group of scientists to immediately conduct research.

After research, it was found that,Combustible ice is a combination of methane and water that transforms into a crystalline substance under high pressure and cold conditionsBecause it looks very much like ice, it later became known as combustible ice.

Combustible ice, like the vast amount of natural gas currently extracted, is also a legacy left to humanity by ancient geological movements.

During the Diastrophism, the remains of animals and plants at that time were constantly brought underground from the surface layer, and finally formed methane and other flammable gases during millions of years of deep burial.

Part of this has been brought back into shallow soil layers due to volcanic eruptions or earthquakes caused by geological movements. This is the natural gas that humans first extracted.

And another part, later due to changes in plate structure, some lucky individuals in the seabed or plateau areas slowly crystallized in this high-pressure and cold environment, which is the combustible ice we have currently discovered.

From this, it can be seen that the formation conditions of combustible ice are water, high pressure, and low temperatureAt present, the combustible ice reserves in China are ranked first in the world based on early exploration surveys, according to a report in the Economic Daily.

And these reservesConverted to approximately 100 billion tons of oilFor China, which lacks oil, its energy is a huge wealth.

Why there is no mention of the current situation of combustible ice

So logically speaking, since combustible ice is so valuable, for China, which lacks fossil energy, we should have been vigorously developing this energy source. However, it seems that the presence of combustible ice around us is becoming increasingly low nowadays.

It should be noted that although combustible ice is similar to natural gas, both belong to fossil fuels that have evolved from ancient times and can be extracted and extracted, it is much more difficult than natural gas.

Natural gas is generally not particularly deep in its location, and in some places it may even spill over and spew out of the ground. The mining method is also relatively simple, both extraction and drainage methods are convenient and low-cost collection methods.

At present, combustible ice is generally found in the cold deep sea, and a small part is on land. For example, there are many reserves found in the Permafrost zone on the Qinghai Tibet Plateau.

This brings a fundamental difficulty to mining and excavation, and if only because of the terrain of the mining, it is not an insurmountable difficulty.

After all, we are in the ocean; In the desert; On high mountains; On flat land, there are drilling platforms, and the terrain is no longer a limitation for us.

At present, the biggest problem in mining is still the controllable damage to the underwater environment, which is different from fossil fuels such as natural gas. Combustible ice is a crystalline substance that is connected together.

Just like randomly built blocks, we currently cannot fully detect the specific and complete appearance. If we mine randomly, it is difficult to ensure that there will be collapse and leakage due to structural instability.

If indiscriminate exploitation is carried out due to resource needs, a series of consequences will arise that humans cannot currently compensate for.

According to paleontologists, 183 million years ago, there was a global mass extinction of marine life!

So why is it that only marine life experiences such a crisis, while terrestrial life is not affected at all?

According to the inference of paleontologists and geologists, at that time, Submarine earthquake and other reasons led to huge changes in the structure of the submarine plate, and many combustible ice leaked out.

After the leakage of combustible ice, methane, which can convert oxygen in the ocean into carbon dioxide, was separated, resulting in a significant decrease in the oxygen content in the seawater, which was the reason for the occurrence of the mass extinction.

The methane produced during the transformation process is also one of the important reasons for the global temperature rise. The Earth gradually heats up to the temperature necessary for human evolution and survival, and combustible ice also plays an important role in it.

So without complete detection technology, it is currently impossible to guarantee whether reckless mining will cause a large amount of combustible ice leakage.

For the purpose of safe mining, the combustible ice on the seabed currently cannot be effectively utilized by humans.

Moreover, underwater rocks are not as stable as rocks on land, and large-scale mining may trigger a chain reaction in the crust.

This may lead to a major earthquake on the seabed, which may even trigger a series of disasters such as tsunamis.

Places close to the continental shelf can even cause geological disasters such as landslides and collapses. We have all seen landslides and collapses on land, but if it is a landslide and collapse on the continental shelf, the harm will only be greater, and more seriously, it will lead to unstable surface structures in coastal areas.

Combustible ice mainly contains methane, which is one of the main culprits of global warming. If there is a large-scale leakage of combustible ice, it will undoubtedly be a major disaster for the global environment.

So since there are so many risks, it sounds like combustible ice is useless.

Although combustible ice is indeed full of danger, as long as it is well utilized, it is an important fossil resource that is very useful to humans!

It should be noted that in the same volume, the energy contained in combustible ice far exceeds other traditional energy sources such as oil and coal.

During the combustion process, combustible ice will not generate exhaust gas like these traditional energy sources.

According to research on combustible ice, it has been found that it is a completely clean energy source with the characteristics of being completely burned out, generating no other exhaust gases, and leaving no residue!

So since it's a clean energy source, why didn't we dig on land when the seabed was difficult to dig?

Originally, since combustible ice can be referred to as solid natural gas, it cannot be extracted like natural gas. As long as a drilling well is built, a drill bit is used to drill into the exploration site, and the gas is directly pressurized and sucked out through a pipeline.

Solid resources can only be extracted through excavation, just like gold and silver mines, which have never been heard of using pipelines to extract gold ore.

Then manual excavation needs to prepare an excavation base on the Permafrost layer first, without considering the basic living problems of operators in such an environment. Simply opening an excavation channel on permafrost to a certain depth underground is enough to consume a lot of costs.

Although humans today have the ability to dig up frozen soil, the human and material resources consumed and the commercial value extracted from it should be insignificant.

At present, there is no detailed and specific public report showing the cost accounting of excavating combustible ice in permafrost. However, combustible ice has been discovered for over 80 years and no company has done so, indicating that this is indeed a costly investment with a certain risk of leakage.

Current Status of Research on Combustible Ice in China

The mining of combustible ice has not been attempted by no country. Japan successfully extracted combustible ice as early as 2013, becoming the first country in the world to master this technology.

And China has not fallen too far, and in 2017, it followed closely and developed related technologies, making it the fourth country after the United States, Japan, and India to independently propose combustible ice.

Since 2017, China's "Blue Whale 1" has been mining small-scale and well explored combustible ice in the South China Sea every yearHowever, the combustible ice on land has only been explored and studied due to cost issues, without actual large-scale mining.

That is to say, for small-scale mining at present. We actually have this ability, but why hasn't the country done it.

Originally, the current range of use of combustible ice is basically as a substitute for natural gas. Due to trade cooperation with Russia, the natural gas supplied by Russia is only a considerable amount. So for such fossil energy demand, China is not particularly urgent.

Moreover, the reason why fossil energy is called fossil energy is that it requires millions or even tens of millions of natural evolution to be generated, which are some energy sources that are difficult to obtain again.

So currently, in terms of energy issues, our country is vigorously advocating environmentally friendly power generation methods such as water conservancy, wind power, and photovoltaic power generation. Moreover, in terms of travel methods, it is also a way to encourage low-carbon and environmental protection. The national subsidy for new energy cycling is one of the environmental protection policies.

epilogue

There is an idiom called 'fish with all our might'. If we deplete our resources at this time, we can only pass on to future generations a resource poor and environmentally harsh Earth.

Whether it's for the sake of future generations or to protect the environment. At present, it is not the best time to mine combustible ice.

When one day in the future, humans have sufficient energy sources to mention fossil fuels, it will not matter whether or not these fossil fuels need to be extracted.

References:

Combustible ice is extracted in this way - Observation of China's Petroleum and Chemical Industry

The Development Status and Prospects of Combustible Ice - Green Technology

China's First Successful Exploration of Combustible Ice in Sea Areas - Science News

Report on Natural Gas Hydrate Drilling Results in Shenhu Sea Area in the North of the South China Sea - Guangzhou Marine Geological survey Bureau of the Ministry of Land and Resources

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