DOE to award gas hydrate research grants

The Department of Energy, National Energy Technology Laboratory, is inviting applications for grants for conducting methane hydrate research. With total program funding of $4.5 million and an individual award ceiling of $3 million, the agency anticipates issuing up to 10 awards for conducting research in two areas: laboratory and numerical simulation studies of the gas hydrate response to potential hydrate production activities; and field, laboratory and numerical simulation studies of the development and evolution of gas hydrate systems and their response to natural perturbations.

Methane hydrate, one form of gas hydrate, is a naturally occurring solid that traps concentrated volumes of methane, the primary component of natural gas, in an ice-like lattice of water molecules. The material, which is only stable within a certain range of temperatures and pressures, is known to exist in huge quantities around the base of the permafrost under the North Slope. A viable means of commercially producing natural gas from the material could add massive volumes of recoverable natural gas to the more conventional gas resources available on the Slope.

Over the years there has been considerable research into the extent and nature of naturally occurring gas hydrates, including the North Slope hydrates, and into the feasibility of using the hydrates as a natural gas source. Two gas hydrate test wells have been drilled on the Slope, one in 2007 and another in 2011. A test well was drilled in northwestern Canada in 2002 and retested in 2008. Although the generation of gas from hydrates has been achieved, no one has yet demonstrated the continuous, commercially viable production of gas from the material.

- ALAN BAILEY