<DrumBeat: July 17, 2009 The Oil Drum DrumBeat: July 18, 2009>
<Oilwatch Monthly July 2009 The Oil Drum: Europe "Peak Civilization": The Fall of the Roman Empire>

63 comments on Update on US GOM: Methane Hydrates

Comments can no longer be added to this story.

| Show without comments | PDF version

xuewen on July 17, 2009 - 7:52pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Re: conversion to liquid fuels, it depends a lot on what the composition of the gas is. It's easier to do when there is a high fraction of ethane, propane, etc.

My students did a design exercise this year trying to work out the number for the OXCO (oxidative coupling process) outlined by Edwards et. al. (Edwards, J.H., Do, K.T. and Tyler, R.J., FUEL 71(3), 1992, pp325-334).

Using a natural gas that was about 90% methane and only a couple of percent heavier hydrocarbons, with some semi-wild guesses about energy consumption in different parts of the plant, they got overall conversion efficiencies of about a third to a half. ie, about half to two thirds of the gas was discarded as oxidised process waste or required to fuel a gas turbine to provide electricity for the plant.

Comments can no longer be added to this story.
oldfarmermac on July 19, 2009 - 10:16pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Xuewen,

Thanks,I've posted this question before.Yours is the first response.

The unconventional domestic gas appears to be there,and it appears that it can be had at a fairly reasonable price,according to others who comment here regularly.

Maybe the clathrates will work out too.

Now if somebody who knows about these rhings will supply a rough estimate of the cost and capacity of a conversion plant,I could make an informed guess at the price of liquid motor fuel a few years down the road.

Comments can no longer be added to this story.

63 comments on Update on US GOM: Methane Hydrates

Comments can no longer be added to this story.

| Show without comments | PDF version