One further advantage of doing this work at Brookhaven Lab is that the scientists can use the National Synchrotron Light Source — a source of intense x-rays, ultraviolet, and infrared light — to measure physical characteristics of the sediments under study. Using x-ray computed microtomography, the scientists gain information about the porosity and other physical characteristics that may affect the availability of nucleation sites where hydrates can form.
Such data about hydrate formation in natural host sediment samples are scarce. By studying different samples and learning what combinations of pressure and temperature keep the methane locked up, the scientists hope to identify ways to compensate for the changes the hydrates experience as they are brought to the ocean’s surface so they can be extracted with a minimum loss. The comparisons of different sediment samples might also help pinpoint the most abundant sources of locked-up methane.
“It may be at least a decade before we can even think about mining these deposits, but answering these fundamental questions is certainly the place to start,” says Mahajan, who holds a joint appointment as a Stony Brook University professor. “This is a very important issue tied to our future national energy security.”
This research was initially funded by Brookhaven’s Laboratory Directed Research and Development program and is now funded by the Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy. The symposium on Gas Hydrates and Clathrates is being co-sponsored by the Petroleum and Fuel Divisions of the American Chemical Society.
From a Brookhaven press release.