Not long ago I remember looking at Methane as a replacement for our current gas supply and it appeared that scientists decided it was too dangerous, messy and uneconomical to use.
Now this article seems to be raising the subject again and this time it seems to be viable. Methane is stored in ice and apparently it’s easy to retrieve it and pump it out for use.
As usual though there is still the concern about the CO2 and it seems that is where the ice storage comes in useful. The ice which used to store the methane can also be used to store CO2. So CO2 is pumped in to replace the methane extracted. Sounds like a win win there.
From the article it appears though that our whingy whiney people are still not happy with this and still want to push us back to renewable energy. Wouldn’t it be ironic if the west was to legislate itself back to the stone age while countries like China, Iran etc. may dig their heels in and move to the future with their own fuel supplies guaranteed, cheap and readily available.
Although bear this in mind. Oil, methane and gas are renewable energy. It’s just the timescales that are too long.
So CO2 is pumped in to replace the methane extracted. Sounds like a win win there.
Cost factor?
According to the article the costs benefits are more than enough to make it worthwhile including pumping the CO2 in to give something to the whingy whiney greenies..