Back ice, is it painting big cake?

Around 2015, in the context of the rising oil prices and increasingly prominent environmental problems, the flammable ice that was very gorgeous to see the name once became the hope of the village of the Earth Village. Not only the major powers such as China, the United States, and Japan have conducted experimental development, but they have also been compiled into the test questions. They are written into the news.

Combat Bingxin New Internet Red? ▼

Even the mainstream media editors that have bad mathematics have made a big oolong that has made "100L combustible ice, which allows cars to run 50,000 kilometers", which has further deepened the mythical color of combustible ice.

100L flammable ice converts are not enough 100L conventional liquid natural gas

Not to mention 50,000 kilometers, and it is difficult to run at 300 kilometers. ▼

However, a few years have passed, and the new energy sources that have been ridiculed to deceive subsidies have developed into "King Ning" and "Di Wang". The flammable ice is gone, but occasionally it will be titled "China's reserves first" and "enough for 1000 years" to appear in the tweets of the horn.

Why can't you make big news? Is it really so promising?

Energy -renewal seed player

Bermament ice refers to natural gas hydrochties, because it looks like ice but can be named. It is usually formed in the environment of 0 ° C-10 ° C, 10MPa, under the environment of sufficient water and gas source, and is formed by gas molecules and water molecules. Gas can be methane or ethylene, carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, nitrogen, etc., which are common components in natural gas fields.

Methane is surrounded by water molecules and trapped in the molecular cage

This molecular structure is called a packet compound

(Figure: Cross -ice Bar Stick Model Reference: World Ocean Review) ▼

Flawry ice absorbs heat when decomposing and releases a lot of water

So it's okay to hold the combustible ice with the burning

(Figure: World Ocean Review) ▼

There are three main sources of hydrocarbon gases in combustible ice, and some come from the decomposition of microorganisms, called microbial gas type; some from the heat degradation of deep oil and gas fields, called thermal solution gas type. Mixed gas type. Most of the flammable ice found in the sea is microbial gas type. The flammable ice found in the land is mainly mixed with gas type and thermal solution.

(Figure: Bermapture ice generation process Reference: World Ocean Review) ▼

Depending on the different gas molecules, the combustible ice can be divided into three categories:

Type I is combined by combining small diameter and water molecules such as methane, ethylene, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen sulfide;

Type II is composed of small molecules such as methane and ethane, and large molecules such as propane and isoxy and water molecules;

Type H is combined by large gas molecules such as isopopane and water molecules in gas components.

(All kinds of flammable ice structures and composition drawings: wiki) ▼

(Type I methane cage structure map: Flickr) ▼

Under standard conditions, 1 cubic meter of combustible ice can release 164 cubic meters of natural gas and 0.8 cubic meters of water. The energy density is 2 to 5 times the natural gas and 10 times that of coal. The amazing energy density allows it to have a wide range of application scenarios.

The better news is that the distribution of combustible ice is very wide, and 27%of the land and 90%of the sea areas have combustible ice. The former is mainly distributed in the permanent frozen soil area of ​​the mainland; the latter is mainly stored in the sediments at the shallow bottom of the deep sea, and the waters along the Pacific Ocean are particularly dense. The global combustible ice content exceeds the total carbon content of the three times of the total carbon content of the proven coal, petroleum, and natural gas.

Horizontal screen -global combustible ice distribution (picture: usgs) ▼

China's combustible ice development potential is particularly huge. According to the preliminary prediction of the China Mineral Resources Report 2018, China's flammable ice resources are as high as 80 billion tons of oil.

However, because of the initial stage of the exploration and application of combustible ice, it is difficult to give a reliable ranking of combustible ice reserves in various countries in the world. Therefore, although China's flammable ice reserves are large, rendering the "global reserves first" at this stage may not be accurate and lacks practical significance.

The total area of ​​China's frozen soil areas reached 2.15 million square kilometers, ranking third in the world, with a combustible ice of about 35 billion tons of oil. The flammable ice under the frozen soil can be used for nearly 90 years.

China Frozen Earth Area and Burning Crown Find Mining Forecast Forecast Map

(Reference: Geological Survey Science Popularization) ▼

The Qinghai -Tibet Plateau, the Western Plateau Mountains, and the Emperor Xing'an Ridge are the centralized distribution areas of flammable ice in the frozen soil area of ​​China. However, these places are generally located in high -cold areas with inconvenient transportation. Geological conditions are complicated and it is not easy to develop.

Moreover, these areas are water towers in China and even half of Asia. The mother river of China, India, the Central South Peninsula and the Russian Far East generally originated here. The local ecology is very fragile, and once improper development, it may cause serious environmental consequences.

Once the ecological environment of the frozen soil area is destroyed, it is difficult to recover

(Figure: Tuwa Creative) ▼

In the vast deep sea of ​​China, it is expected that 45 billion tons of oil should be flammable, and the storage volume of the South China Sea is the most prominent. China has discovered two minerals of over 100 billion cubic meters in the South China Sea, and 11um -made districts and 25 favorable blocks are determined. Among them, the flammable ice of the Shenhu waters has been completed twice in 2017 and 2020, respectively.

In the future, the South China Sea may become China's energy place.

The hero of the combustible ice test -Blue Whale No. 1

(Figure: Tuwa Creative) ▼

Easy white oil

The combustible ice has various advantages, but the flammable ice of the natural state is not a "combustible glacier" that can be used in a few pieces of purity, concentration, and knocking down. Instead, the flammable ice minerals are buried deep under the frozen soil and under the deposition of the deep sea floor, mixed with sand and gravel. The formation of combustible ice is very complicated, and many forms are often presented in nature

(Belief ice maps in different forms: USGS) ▼

The combustible ice of mining is to face all aspects of the temperature and pressure control of the well -tube, the narrowing of the density window of the safe drilling liquid, the severe sands, and the risks of environmental protection. It is more troublesome than oil and natural gas, and it is even more difficult than the mining of rock oil.

Many of the energy and chemical industries of contemporary society are adapted to natural gas. The flammable ice with a large energy density cannot be used directly in the form of "ice". Therefore, the current mining method is to use the combustible ice as a natural gas with a lot of impurities, and find a way to replace it out of the methane.

Sales of the Chinese fluid extraction method adopted by my country

(Figure: Geological Cloud) ▼

At present, China, the United States, Japan, Canada and other powers are working hard to study and explore flammable ice, and seek commercial mining as soon as possible.

In 2002, Canada took the lead in trying combustible ice in the Arctic Frozen soil area. This method uses the characteristics of gas molecules to overflow at 20 ° C at 20 ° C, directly heating the natural gas hydrolysis layer, promoting natural gas overflow. This is the initial method.

Sales of fever method (Reference: World Ocean Review) ▼

In 2008, Canada's test decompression method achieved a better effect than the first time by reducing pressure to promote the decomposition of natural gas hydrolysis. Subsequently trial mining in Japan in 2013 and 2017; this method used in China in 2017 and 2017. At present, the decompression method is relatively mature and the most applied method.

Decompression method

(Reference: World Ocean Review) ▼

In 2012, the United States tested the carbon dioxide replacement and mining method, injected carbon dioxide injection under a certain temperature and pressure, and switched to methane binding with water. Carbo carbohydrate formation will be inspired, further promoting combustible ice decomposition. This kind of show operation not only collects methane, but also seals carbon dioxide, and is safer, that is, the difficulty coefficient is too large, and there is no commercialization prospect for the time being.

Carbon dioxide replacement method (Reference: World Ocean Review) ▼

In addition to these successful trial methods, there are also chemical reagent injection of mining method; directly mining combustible ice ore, and in light water decomposition solid mining method and other methods.

It is not difficult to see that the large -scale mining of combustible ice is still in the test stage. Similar to the shale oil and gas on the eve of the shale revolution 20 years ago, the combustible ice is expected in the future, but the current technology is not mature enough and the cost of commercialization is high.

Why isn't it?

In the 2010s, countries have been launched in the horse. Not only are technical progress, but they also open up their horsepower, making combustible ice seem to be a new energy for petroleum. The news about flammable ice seems to have no following, the reason behind this is many aspects.

In 2007, my country successfully obtained physical samples in the South China Sea experimental drilling

(Excited Heart, Mid -Best Hand's hand map: China Geological Survey Bureau) ▼

The most fundamental reason is that the conventional natural gas is not exhausted now. Without the impact of regional conflicts, the supply of natural gas is very stable and the price is relatively low. The decomposition of the aqueous compound is a heat absorption reaction. During the mining process, it needs to be fascinated and lowering the pressure to destroy the equilibrium conditions. This determines that the cost of combustible ice cannot be low.

The combustible ice competitors have matured. The shale gas revolution has been a few steps earlier than the "combustible ice revolution" that has not yet been reached, and the cost of shale gas mining has dropped sharply. The maturity of shale gas technology reduces the urgency of developing combustible ice technology and further improves the difficulty of commercialization.

The shale gas resources in the Sichuan -Chongqing area are very rich

Among them, southern Sichuan is also my country's largest shale gas production base

(Figure: Tuwa Creative) ▼

Secondly, the ecological risks of mining and flammable ice are too high. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gase. Its greenhouse effect is 20 times that of carbon dioxide. The total methane in the global underwater ice is about 3000 times the total methane in the earth's atmosphere.

The combustible ice of mining is easy to cause methane leakage, and even underwater landslides. Production accidents may evolve into dual disasters of ecology and geology. This further improves the cost and technical difficulty of combustible ice mining.

How to avoid or cope with mining combustible ice

The possible disasters need to be further studied ▼

The greater tragedy is that the era has not yet waited for its own time, and the times have changed. In recent years, climate change has finally developed to the naked eye, affecting everyone's life. Green energy transformation has become the consensus of the world.

Natural gas can be used as a transition, but after all, it is not a long time. The "impure natural gas" of flammable ice is obviously not preferred compared to the wind, optoelectronics, and lithium battery on the wind.

Green, low -carbon, environmental protection, and sustainability are the main theme of the times

(Figure: Flickr) ▼

Even if the large -scale commercial development of combustible ice in the future is successful, it only means that successfully renews the fossil energy, rather than fundamentally changing the energy structure. If there is no technical breakthrough, the large -scale commercialization of combustible ice will be further exhausted by conventional natural gas resources, and the price of gas prices will rise. By then, renewable energy will become more urgent. In previous winter, this day is very sad

This winter, the lack of oil and gas, the cold winter is even more difficult to boil

(Austrian map: one picture network) ▼

Even so, continuing to study flammable ice is still significant, because combustible ice is not just "natural gas with impurities".

A large amount of combustible ice decomposition may be the reason why the di-stacked-triple biological extinction may be avoided to avoid the recurrence of tragedy behind the mechanism; The conditions are easy to form a combustible ice blocking pipeline.

Will we be of them tomorrow, and no one knows

(Figure: Alamy) ▼

Only by studying the principle of combustible ice production can we reduce the formation of pipeline combustible ice and reduce maintenance costs. Moreover, artificial combustible ice provides new possibilities for more securely transporting natural gas. Even if the carbon dioxide sealing technology is not for energy, it seems very meaningful in the background of the double carbon.

Therefore, combustible ice has become the future of the pillar of human energy, not the best future, but the research prospect of combustible ice is worth looking forward to.

Reference materials:

1. Fu Yarong, Li Minglei, Wang Shiyi, Li Yunfeng, Li Li. China's land frozen soil layer combustible ice exploration development and prospects [J]. Engineering research-engineering in interdisciplinary vision, 2018: 6-16.2. Ren Huihui , Zhou Feng, Ning Shuzheng, Wang Song, Lan Yougen. my country ’s artificial combustible ice development and utilization status and strategic research [J]. Chinese coal geology, 2019: 5-11.3. Capital of the development of combustible ice development and trial mining technology [J]. Natural gas and oil, 2020: 7-15.

4.https://www.cgs.gov.cn/ddztt/jqthd/trqshw/kybkp/201705/t20170527_430755.html

5. Burning -flammable ice -the leader of new energy in the future -China -SHJ.org.cn

6. Don't blow or black, China's combustible ice mining is really stronger than foreign countries? _Ch China Geological Survey (CGS.GOV.CN)

*The content of this article is provided for the author, which does not represent the position of the Earth Investment Bureau

Cover: shutterstock

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