Japan’s post-nuclear energy future involves mining “fire ice” from the sea. How cool does that sound?
In the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster (though it’s not over yet), Japan has been looking at all sorts of ways to go completely nuclear-free in the future. There’s wind power and wave power and solar power and all sorts of options, but the coolest and most futuristic sounding is the mining of “fire ice”. Yes ma'am. Combustible ice.
A seabed off Honshū’s eastern coast is apparently full of “fire ice”, and Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry wants to go get it. Or at least try. There’s little wonder why: One cubic meter of combustible ice is roughly equivalent to 164 cubic meters of natural gas. According to media reports, they plan to request $127.5 million for an experimental project that would become the first offshore drilling operation of its kind.
Combustible ice, or natural gas hydrate, contains methane within its frozen lattice structure. When melted or depressurized, the ice turns to water and natural gas. This ice might be plentiful—past Department of Energy (DOE) estimates place the worldwide deposits as high as 400 million trillion cubic feet—but its methane is not easily retrieved from beneath the permafrost or seabeds where it typically rests.
The catch, of course, lies in doing all of this effectively and safely (without disrupting geological stability or leaking lots of methane, a potent greenhouse gas). And remember, past efforts were all on land, not at ocean depths that could exceed 1,500 feet. From the Pacific’s bottom, Japan hopes to commercially drill methane hydrate by the early 2020s.
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