Methane Hydrate Formation

The purpose of the Hydrate Lab was to identify the unknown hydrate while gaining a better understanding of the mole concept. To perform this lab, an unknown hydrate was heated, leaving just the anhydrate, and then by using the mass of the anhydrate and evaporated water and mole concept, the hydrate was identified. It was discovered that the unknown hydrate, substance “A,” was aluminum sulfate dekaokto hydrate. Two errors that may have occurred during the lab are not heating the hydrate enough so that all the water evaporates leaving only the anhydrate, and during heating, some of the hydrous salt may have spattered, thus removing a portion of the hydrous salt from the crucible. Although there were errors, there is one way to improve the lab

The following laboratory experiment calls for a moderate understanding of what a hydrate is, what its properties are, and how altering a hydrate’s chemical structure may cause the release of both water and acidic vapors. A hydrate itself is a chemical, typically a crystalline salt, which incorporates water (H2O) into its chemical structure. For example, the compound CoCl2 is merely cobalt (II) chloride, however, take the original compound and attach a water molecule and it becomes CoCl2 + 6 H2O. In other words, the original cobalt (II) chloride is now cobalt (II) chloride hexahydrate.

Hydrauling Fracturing is a process used in nine out of ten natural gas wells in the United States, where millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals are pumped underground to break apart the rock and release the gas. Hydrauling Fracturing damages the land, contaminates drinking water, pollutes the air, cause illness in surrounding communities and has aslo known to cause earthquakes (Goldman, Jennifer). It has major threats towards our climate. Methane gas the main competed of natural gas is less common but more potent to greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide 85 to 105 time more powerful than carbon dioxide at disrupting the climate over 20 years (Goldman, Jennifer ).Water and Pollution are also infected by this. In Texas and Colorado more than 3.6 million gallons of water are used very time a well is fracked. Fracking fluids and waste have made their way to our drinking water and aquifers (Hoffman, Joe ). The counter argument to this problems is fossil complains claiming that these fracking fluids are harmless because they’re roughly 2% chemicals and 98% other.

Today there is great demand for natural gases and oils, we use them every day from our cars to running appliances in our houses. We have developed skills and techniques to extracting these gases and oils. One technique is Hydraulic fracturing. Hydraulic Fracturing also known as Fracking. Fracking has many dangers to it from polluting water supply, land and even air.

2. Fracking illustrates some of the challenges we face in studying environmental science by not knowing the long term effects of fracking and not knowing if the natural gas outweighs the problems extraction causes.

Dallas-Fort Worth Texas has one of the largest potential shale extraction sights, called the Barnett Shale. This area also has one of the highest urban population growth rates in the U.S. which has led to massive concern over the use of fracking to reach the shale gas. In 2011 a survey of Dallas-Fort Worth residents found that nearly one-third of the population ranked gas drilling to be the greatest hazard to the water supply. This concern comes from the use of chemicals in the fluid used to cause the fractures as well as the methane that can be released when shale is fractured. Contamination can occur from fluid when it escapes from leaks in the pipe or fittings. Several states including Ohio and Arkansas have changed their standards for well construction to help prevent these leaks. While methane with not affect the quality of water it is explosive when contained in tight spots. Due to this well heads need to be properly vented so that the methane can be released (Jackson,

Canada is one of the Arctic States that according to the international law have presence economic activity on the Arctic shelf, while the status of the Canadian sector in the Arctic is the second largest which is 25% after Russian Federation sector which 40%. Arctic coastal states has same interests in the arctic zone due to the rich of covered and undiscovered natural resources. Canada also has the interest in the Arctic to exploit Arctic’s vast natural resources which is the oil and gas. As noted that the coastal area of the Canadian Arctic has huge reserves of methane hydrate, and according to the Heinenen (2014), if commercial production launched in the future, these reserves would last for several hundred years. Yet the current situations in the Canadian Arctic is the Canada does not conduct drilling on its Arctic shelf and also the safe technologies have not yet been developed.

It is either flared on site. Flaring is the process where unwanted gasses are pumped up a stack and burned creating other, less harmful gas. Cold venting is the alternative to flaring: it is where the gas is vented to the atmosphere, depending on location and surroundings. In an area where houses are nearby methane is normally burned off in a flare to produce a less poisonous gas, rather than venting pure methane. When methane is released from the flow-back and flaring is not an option, it is vented into the atmosphere. The methane is vented at a very high pressure in order to be lighter than air; this allows the air to dilute the methane to below an explosive concentration. Methane has an explosive limit of 5.0 percent by volume therefore without diluting it while venting an explosion would occur. Venting of methane on a hydraulic fracturing site is not visible by the human eye, although it does produce some noise. One of the radioactive constituents in flow-back water is radium, a naturally occurring material. The Environmental Protection Agency has a set limit for radium in drinking water and the amount found in samples taken from flow-back have exceeded these limits by several hundreds. (Geochemical Evaluation of Flow-back Brine, n.d.). Throughout the past fifty plus years researchers and environmentalists have determined the harmful effects of chemicals produced in industry. Therefore, with

CSG is a naturally occurring methane gas which is known as Coal Bed Methane (CBM). It is a-by product of ancient plant matter that has formed over millions of years by the same natural processes which produce coal. Not long ago this gas was identified as a major problem in the underground coal mining industry due to it’s high flammability despite this, it is now recognised as a very profitable resource.

Next the value of hydrothermal vents go beyond minerals.The vents have a bio-organism that is very important to us.In the fact that these microbes have somrthing in them that can cure cancer.These

Purification of methane is straightforward and manageable when it is in a liquid state, which purifies to be 98% methane, compared to past purification methods that only go up to 95%.

Hydro fracking is the process of drilling a well vertically into the ground, then drilling a horizontal well off of the vertical well and injecting fluids which consist of water and between three and twelve chemicals. These chemicals are injected underground at high pressures to crack open shale rock and release natural gas or oil trapped which may be trapped in the rock. This then allows the natural gas or oil to flow to the surface where it can then be collected (Prud 'homme

Hydraulic fracturing is the process in which oil and gas is extracted from fractures found in wells that are hundreds of metres deep. In order to break these fractures extremely high volumes of water, chemicals and propellants are injected into the wells using large pipes. The propellants often consist of substances such sand, ceramic pellets or small incompressible particles which are used to hold open the fractures. (Earthworks, 2015) Due to the high amounts of internal pressure, the fluid is allowed to return to the surface containing naturally occurring materials such as brines, metals, radionuclides, and hydrocarbons. (Earthworks, 2015) Whilst an effective way of extracting these

The methane production rates of this experiment present similar results with the previous experiment with Ni. Methane produced was depending on the substrate used. Methanol, which is slowly consumed in the cultures, results in a steady increase in methane production (Figure 12). On the contrary, acetate, that was consumed rapidly, made a quick increase in methane production on early days of incubation (Figure 13). Also, on cultures using H2, there was also a lag phase before methane was produced significantly (Figure 14. A).

Resulting of recent technological innovations improving the ability of extracting natural gas from shale and other rock formation. The popularity of hydraulic fracturing remains leading in the direction of new venture opportunities and increasing growth for the natural gas and oil production industry. With the development, comes risk and scrutiny. According to Robert W. Howarth and Anthony Ingraffea natural gas extracted from shale comes at too great a cost to the environment, and must be illegal.