" Combustible Ice " As a reserve energy source, its future value is comparable to that of current oil. In addition, the reserves of combustible ice are very rich, among which my country's reserves of combustible ice rank first in the world. According to experts' estimates, my country's reserves of South China Sea combustible ice have at least 80 billion tons of oil equivalent.
As early as 2006, my country had deployed the combustible ice plan, and in July 2017, the South China Sea combustible ice test project was successfully completed, which is the country's first project. It is reported that a 60-day trial production began in mid-May, and 309,000 cubic meters of natural gas were successfully produced, of which 99.5% were methane .
The global large amount of combustible ice is stored in the carbon cycle and experts say combustible ice can become a bridge fuel for renewable energy. So, where does combustible ice come from? Why has my country not yet mined on a large scale?
What is combustible ice? Where did he come from?
"combustible ice" is actually an ice-like solid formed by the combination of water and gas (methane), which appears as a solid ice. The main component is natural gas, and its purity is very high.
The formation of combustible ice is mainly formed by water and gas in sufficient high-pressure and low temperature environment. If the temperature and low pressure change will lead to the separation of combustible ice into gas and water, which also brings great challenges to the mining of combustible ice.
So how does methane gas go to the seabed? We all know that gas cannot sink to the bottom of the water, and combustible ice, two completely different components of water and methane, have caused methane to appear at the bottom of the water and be frozen into ice?
In fact, methane on the seabed is always being produced. The methane gas that produces bacterial decomposition of organic matter, and such bacteria have always existed in the ocean.
Even if the combustible ice stock is reduced due to temperature changes or manual mining, the bacterial decomposition on the seabed will continue to produce new combustible ice. Therefore, if combustible ice is used reasonably and scientifically, it is likely to be a sustainable energy source.
Why do we need to better understand "combustible ice"?
In fact, combustible ice is hydrocarbon , which is the most important part of carbon cycle . According to scientific calculations, the carbon cycle of combustible ice is considered to account for 5% to 22% of the world's total organic carbon.
methane is originally a kind of greenhouse gas . Its warming effect is 40 times that of carbon dioxide . The methane gas overflowing from the deposits of combustible ice has a significant relationship with climate change.
and combustible ice at standard atmospheric pressure, each unit of combustible ice can produce 164 units of natural gas. Due to its abundant reserves, combustible ice is one of the largest unconventional energy sources currently known and is a cleaner alternative than crude oil or coal.
and scientists have proposed six quantitative models for the detected combustible ice to explain the different hydrate sediments observed in the field, namely local biological origin (Model-1), local diffusion (Model-2), upward water flow and/or diffusion (Model-3), methane cycle (Model-4), remote free gas flow (Model-5) and gas reservoir solidification (Model-6).
my country's combustible ice reserves are the world's number one, so why not mine combustible ice?
In the 1980s, American scientists estimated the global reserves of combustible ice. The data was equivalent to 21 trillion tons of oil equivalent, twice the total amount of carbon in coal, oil and natural gas in the world. In 2011, the U.S. Department of Energy once again estimated that the results were roughly the same, which shows that the global reserves of combustible ice are very rich.
, and China's combustible ice is mainly concentrated in the South China Sea. It is reported that the thickness of combustible ice in the South China Sea reaches 50 to 100 meters. According to the speculative analysis of the combustible ice data model established by scientists, the combustible ice reserve in the South China Sea has at least 80 billion tons of oil equivalent.
Not only that, my country also found combustible ice in 22.4% of the permafrost zones. As early as 2007, Chinese scientists made major breakthroughs in the mineralization conditions and abnormal signs of combustible ice in the permafrost zones. So, why has my country not mined combustible ice on a large scale so far?
The main reason is that mining is difficult and needs to be solved in the following three aspects: mining technology, cost accounting and complex environment. Since combustible ice is stored in large quantities on the seabed, it is extremely difficult to exploit it. For example, it is necessary to develop an exclusive mining platform before it can be mined.
Secondly, my country's geological environment currently has abundant natural gas reserves. It is reported that large-scale gas field was found in many places in Sichuan, my country. It is reported that the Zhongjiang Gas Field of the Southwest Petroleum Bureau of Sinopec added 234.029 billion cubic meters of natural gas, with a total proven reserve of 106.1 billion cubic meters.
my country has completed the investigation stage of combustible ice ahead of schedule as planned (the original plan was the investigation stage of combustible ice from 2006 to 2020). From 2020 to 2030, scientists need to find the best development path, design a set of effective development and use plans, and officially enter the commercial development stage in 2030 to 2050.
Summary
According to statistics, there are 116 combustible ice distributed around the world, which can be used by humans for 3,000 years. We should protect this wealth and wait for the time to ripe before mining it. At present, my country needs to study and master the mining technology of combustible ice to make full preparations for future mining of combustible ice.
