Gas hydrates: An inexhaustible energy source
The Hindu Business Line reports that India is sitting on prognosticated gas hydrate resources of 1,894 trillion cubic metres, which is over 1,700 times as much as the proven natural gas reserves with the country — of 1.08 trillion cubic metres.
To put the resource into perspective, India consumes 90 million standard cubic metres a day of natural gas. If the estimate of prognosticated gas hydrate reserves holds true, the energy source is infinite and can last several tens of thousands of years.
So, what the hell is a Gas Hydrate. Wikipedia has a definition of something called a Methane Caltrate, which is another name for the same thing.
The estimates for worldwide size of the Gas Hydrate deposit is in the range of 500-2500 gigatonnes carbon (Gt C). This was before this Indian announcement.
So, why are we not tapping this already. The Hindu Business Line hints at this in their article – “Nowhere in the world does the technology (for extracting gas out of hydrates) exist,” says Mr V. K. Sibal, Director General Hydrocarbons (DGH). “But we are confident of developing the technology.”
