New Report Explores the Importance of Gas Hydrates, Their Structure, Where they are...

New Report Explores the Importance of Gas Hydrates, Their Structure, Where they are Found, the Rock Physics Model, and Much More

DUBLIN, Ireland--(Business Wire)--
Research and Markets
(http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c89002) has announced the
addition of Introduction to Gas Hydrates to their offering.

Sir Humphrey Davy discovered gas hydrates or clatharates in 1810;
they are crystalline water based solids physically resembling ice, in
which small non-polar molecules (typically gases) are trapped inside
cages of hydrogen bonded water molecules.

Without the support of the trapped molecules, the lattice
structure of hydrate clathrates would collapse into conventional ice
crystal structure or liquid water. Most low molecular weight gases
(including O2, H2, N2, CO2, CH4, H2S, Ar, Kr, and Xe), as well as some
higher hydrocarbons and freons will form hydrates at suitable
temperatures and pressures. Clathrate hydrates are not chemical
compounds, as the sequestered molecules are never bonded to the
lattice. The formation and decomposition of clathrate hydrates are
first order phase transitions, not chemical reactions.

Since the 1970s, naturally occurring gas hydrate, mainly methane
hydrate, has been recognized worldwide, where pressure and temperature
conditions stabilize the hydrate structure. It is present in oceanic
sediments along continental margins and in polar continental settings.
It has been identified from borehole samples and by its characteristic
responses in seismic-reflection profiles and oil-well electric logs.
Beneath the ocean, gas hydrate exists where water depths exceed 300 to
500 meters (depending on temperature), and it can occur within a layer
of sediment as much as 1000 meters thick directly beneath the sea
floor; the base of the layer is limited by increasing temperature. At
high latitudes, it exists in association with permafrost.

It has become increasingly evident that naturally occurring gas
hydrates are important components of the shallow geosphere and are of
societal concern in at least three major ways: resource, hazard and
climate.

Two reasons make gas hydrates attractive as a potential resource.
First is the enormous amount of methane that is apparently sequestered
within clathrate structures at shallow sediment depths within 2000 m
of the earth's surface. Second is the wide geographical distribution
of the gas hydrates.

This report is a complete analysis of gas hydrates. The report
explores the importance of gas hydrates, their structure, where they
are found, the rock physics model, and much more. Case studies of the
Alaskan North Slope, Prudhoe Bay, and the Messoyakha Gas Field are all
included in the report.

For more information visit
http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c89002

Research and Markets
Laura Wood
Fax: +353 1 4100 980
press@researchandmarkets.com

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