Methane hydrate

It is estimated that natural gas available in the United States from fracking is enough to last over 100 years at current usage. In recent months, Japan, a country that must import much of its fossil fuels has pioneered the process of extracting methane hydrate from the ocean floor. This methane, (natural gas) was formed over millions of years as plants and animals died and their remains settled to the floor where they accumulated and through the process of fermentation produced methane. Because of the cold temperatures and pressures the gas combined with the water to form methane hydrate which is a liquefied form of gas water mixture containing about 20% methane. This process will soon be used in other countries including the United States. While Japan was celebrating its success, a less-noticed assessment on America's methane hydrate potential was published in a National Energy Technology Laboratory newsletter. The report by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management estimated that methane hydrate formations along the U.S. East Coast contain 21,702 tcf of natural gas. The greatest concentrations lie along the outer continental shelf from Rhode Island to North Carolina. America's Pacific coast could hold methane hydrates formations with an additional 8,192 tcf of natural gas, according to the report. An earlier analysis estimated that hydrate fields in the Gulf of Mexico could contain 21,444 tcf of natural gas. That's a total of 51,338 tcf of gas -- a huge resource considering that the United States consumed 24.4 tcf of natural gas in 2011. Researchers are now analyzing data on the methane hydrates potential off Alaska's Arctic shores. That represents 2,000 years of natural gas supply based on current usage. As the world moves toward replacing oil and coal with gas the negative effects on the climate will be drastically reduced and will allow time to move to an even clearer fuel, hydrogen.