Climate Change Strategy: Harvesting Methane Deposits in the Arctic Ocean as They Thaw and Bubble Up
Visualizing methods for dealing with a climate-change ticking time-bomb
One of the most dire feedback loops related to global warming is the expected release of ancient and historically stable deposits of crystallized methane clathrates deep in the ocean formed at extremely high pressures and low temperatures1. As ocean temperatures begin to rise along with along with the atmosphere, as the scenario goes, icy crystals containing methane begin to melt into methane gas which then bubbles up to the ocean surface and is released to the atmosphere. With upwards of 60 Giga-tons of methane estimated to be at risk of melting, this phenomenon is considered a ticking time-bomb2 for climate because methane’s greenhouse effect is about 20 times that of CO2, so it is very possible (even likely) that a release of 60 Gigatons could constitute a kill shot and mass extinction for Earth’s biosphere as a whole.
It is probably already too late to prevent oceans from warming up to the range where the icy methane crystals melt because of inertia in the atmospheric and oceanic systems. If changing atmospheric temperature trends can be likened to steering an 18-wheel semi trailer truck without power steering, then changing oceanic temperature trends might be comparable to steering an oil supertanker ship. The mass of the world’s oceans3 is about 250x that of the atmosphere4
Nonetheless, there are ways to mitigate the effects of melting methane clathrates. Even if we did nothing but position a fleet of oceanic buoys with “pilot lights” to ignite clouds of methane near the surface, the global warming effects would be reduced almost 20 fold since the methane gas would be converted to CO2 which, pound for pound, only contributes about 5% of the warming effects of methane.
But we can do better than that.
We can do better because we can harvest the methane and use it to displace other uses fossil fuels as a bridge to the post-carbon future. After all, the cheapest way to sequester carbon and keep it out of the atmosphere is to leave it in the ground— leave the oil undrilled for, leave the coal un-strip-mined, leave the natural gas unfracked. That’s the first step to un-fracking our planet, if you will.
First, perhaps obviously, we can use the methane to power the methane tank deployment and collection ships pictured in the drawing.
Secondly, we can distribute ocean-harvested methane through existing propane and natural gas marketing channels for everything from tanks for camping/cooking to forced air gas home heating to natural gas electric-power generation plants which can serve best as back-ups for renewable sources when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing.
Thirdly, we can prime the market for hydrogen as a 100% renewable energy storage medium by filling the market with hybrid methane/hydrogen appliances and transportation infrastructure. Because our ultimate goal, once we’ve displaced all other underground-sourced carbon fuels, is to shift usage from oceanic methane to hydrogen generated by renewable power and water so as to eventually rely on hydrogen 100% after oceanic methane is depleted and re-sequestered by land plants and oceanic algae.
Fourthly, there may be an even better way to use arctic methane that not only keeps the methane out of the atmosphere, not only displaces other fossil fuel usage, but also doesn’t release CO2 into the atmosphere. Fuel cells, such as those produced by the Ballard Corporation 5, could process methane gas directly into electricity while releasing little to no carbon gasses (CO2 is still produced, but, reportedly in a form that is easier to capture and sequester)6.
They, we just keep sequestering carbon until atmospheric CO2 is back to pre-industrial levels.
Easy-peasy.
Admittedly, I am not an engineer. Well, I am a software engineer, but that counts for next to nothing in this endeavor. So, there’s a lot missing from this design. There might be even better ways of harvesting methane clathrate crystal before they melt to gas. There could be better designs for the deployed tanks and sheet plastic pyramids. The eventual solution is likely to be significantly different in its implementation, but essentially similar in function.
The point is, I want people to start talking about and sharing ideas like these. I know the capitalist world rewards people for keeping trade secrets. (Hey, if there are patentable ideas here, I’d like to reserve the rights to help fund development of still more ideas). The problem with corporate secrecy and intellectual property however is it creates redundancy when multiple groups duplicate the same design and development efforts simply because they don’t even know about the existence of the other groups. Secondly, there are bound to be many unanticipated opportunities to collaborate and develop faster using existing tech or soon-to-be COTS (commercial, off-the-shelf) parts.
I’m an open-source guy, after all, and I’d like to see real-world design efforts enjoy some of the synergies we’ve seen in the open-source software movement.
Let’s brainstorm some more solutions and see if we can get people with resources to at least steal, if not pay for, these ideas to save the planet. Either way, we all get a dividend— a healthy planet.
Additional Resources:
Should the World Tap Undersea Methane Hydrates for Energy?, Scientific American, August 1, 2017, https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/should-the-world-tap-undersea-methane-hydrates-for-energy/
Methane clathrate - Wikipedia, accessed 24 August 2022.
Before the Flood - Methane: The Ticking Time Bomb, accessed 26 August 2022.
What percent of Earth is water? (phys.org), accessed 26 August 2022.
Earth's atmosphere (mcgill.ca), accessed 26 August 2022.
The Ballard Fuel Cell -- General Information (ieee.org), Accessed 26 August 2022.
Finally, a robust fuel cell that runs on methane at practical temperatures -- ScienceDaily, Accessed 26 August 2022.