New perspectives for the extraction of oceanic gas hydrates

To develop a safe and sustainable access to the to date non-used gas hydrates, a technology for the extraction of hydrates and a simulation model for the device has been developed and analyzed for the first time in the research project. Due to the high cost for offshore pilot plants, the »dynamic simulation« was chosen as working and research approach. On the basis of a complete mathematical device model in interaction with the exactly described destabilization of the gas hydrates and the controlled extraction of the natural gas emitted from the deposit, this approach permits the development and scientific verification of an extraction method. This novel method allows - provided a testing phase in a large-scale experiment is conducted - the extraction of oceanic and also of permafrost gas hydrates.