A kind of ice which burns

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Methane hydrate burning in air

CAN YOU IMAGINE THAT THERE IS A KIND OF ICE THAT BURNS IN AIR? YES, THERE IS SUCH A THING. IT IS CALLED METHANE HYDRATE.

There is enough of it to meet America's energy needs for years. but scientists have yet to figure out how to mine it without causing an environmental disaster. 

Bacteria in the sediments beneath the ocean floor consume organic material and generate methane gas. Under high pressure and low temperature conditions, methane forms methane, which consists of single molecules of the natural gas trapped within crystalline cages formed by frozen water molecules. A lump of methane hydrate looks like a grey ice cube, but if a lighted match is put to it, it will burn.

Oil companies have known about methane hydrate since the 1930s, when they began using high pressure pipelines to transport natural gas in cold climates. Unless  water is carefully removed before the gas enters the pipeline, chunks of methane hydrate will impede the flow of gas.

   

      Methane hydrate. The methane molecule is trapped in a cage of frozen water molecules (blue spheres) held together by hydrogen bonds. 

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The total reserve of the methane hydrate in the world's oceans is estimated to be 10­¹³ tons of carbon content, about twice the amount of carbon in all the coal, oil and natural gas on land. however harvesting the energy stored in methane hydrate presents a tremendous engineering challenge. It is believed that methane hydrate acts as a kind of cement to keep the ocean floor sediments together.Tampering with the hydrate deposits could cause under water landslides, leading to the discharge of methane into the atmosphere. This event could have serious consequences for the environment, because methane is a potent greenhouse gas; that is, it has the ability to warm earth's atmosphere . 

In fact scientists have speculated that the abrupt release of methane hydrate may have hastened the end of the last ice age about 10,000 years ago. as the great blanket of continental ice melted, global sea levels swelled by more than 90 m, submerging arctic regions rich in hydrate deposits. the relatively warm ocean water would have melted the hydrates, unleashing tremendous amounts of methane, which led to global warming.

^references

• General Chemistry: The Essential Concepts, 3/e by Raymond Chang 

to learn online click the link below

 general chemistry website 

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