China claims breakthrough in mining 'flammable ice'

Re:China claims breakthrough in mining 'flammable ice' by lightedman on Friday May 19, 2017 @11:37AM (#14376707)

Much better alternative to coal, at least. You emit far less CO2 per KWh generated and the only other byproduct besides CO2 tends to be water.

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Re:China claims breakthrough in mining 'flammable ice' by Robotbeat on Friday May 19, 2017 @12:15PM (#14377072)

MAYBE. Methane leaks are incredibly destructive as methane is a much more potent greenhouse gas than CO2. And mining this stuff could cause leaks.

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Re:China claims breakthrough in mining 'flammable ice' by Freestyler_3 on Friday May 19, 2017 @12:21PM (#14377138)

Allthough you could also argue that because of warming these gasses might escape if we don't mine them before that.

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Re:China claims breakthrough in mining 'flammable ice' by stcredzero on Friday May 19, 2017 @12:22PM (#14377142)

All you need is for someone to come up with a way to capture a lot of methane very cheaply but very inefficiently. Then a swarm of marginal operators will go in with that technique and release gigafktons of methane.

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Re:China claims breakthrough in mining 'flammable ice' by Retric on Friday May 19, 2017 @11:59AM (#14376927)

Probably though it depends on how much CO2 it takes to mine / transport / refine etc.

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Re:China claims breakthrough in mining 'flammable ice' by lightedman on Friday May 19, 2017 @07:56PM (#14380202)

Move to methane-powered equipment to mine the methane. Or solar-powered.

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