Fundamental challenges to methane recovery from gas hydrates

The growing use of natural gas, cleanest of all available fossils fuels, is already raising concern regarding the long-term supply of this precious resource. The amount of methane in gas hydrates is much greater than all other presently known sources of methane. This paper describes some fundamental challenges, the location, magnitude, and feasibility of recovery, which must be addressed to recover methane from dispersed hydrate sources. For methane recovery, we briefly describe kinetic models of methane hydrate decomposition for temperature and pressure conditions that mimic in situ methane hydrate stability. We also propose the catalytic role of sediment impurities, if any, in inducing nucleation sites for hydrate formation. The availability of plentiful methane is important to avoid future energy crises, such as that which crippled the world economy three decades ago.