CERE receives research grant for project on hydrate swapping

The purpose of the project is to develop a viable and safe method to produce methane gas from naturally occurring reservoirs of gas hydrates by injecting CO₂ or gas mixtures containing CO₂ (such as power plant flue gas) into these hydrate reservoirs.

The project will attempt to address two urgent major global issues: The future supply of energy for an increasing population, and the threat of catastrophic climate change as a result of global warming caused by greenhouse gases such as CO₂.

This project will attempt to address both these issues by using CO₂ to produce the vast resources of natural gas locked up as solid gas hydrates in permafrost and oceanic margin zones. The natural gas hydrates are converted to CO₂ hydrates, thereby storing CO₂ (the major greenhouse gas) while simultaneously releasing natural gas.

This so-called “swapping” process, whereby methane (the major component in natural gas) in the hydrate is replaced by CO₂, allows for production of natural gas from hydrate without adversely affecting the stability of the solid hydrate.

A demonstration of the viability of the project will have enormous scientific and societal effects. Safe production of natural gas from hydrates whilst also storing CO₂ could dramatically alter both the world’s energy landscape, at the same time mitigating the effects on global warming.

The project is funded by The Danish Council for Independent Research and has a total budget of DKK 5.7 million (EUR 750,000). It is scheduled to run from 2017-2020 and will involve two PhD students. KAIST (Korea) and Mærsk Oil and Gas will also participate in the project.