‘Studies needed on safe use of gas hydrates in Manila Trench’

SCIENTISTS of the University of the Philippines Diliman said they found evidence of the presence of gas hydrates in the Manila Trench, which can be a great source of alternative energy, but more study is needed to maximize its use.

Geologists and researchers Elisha Jane Maglalang, Dr. Leo Armada, Madeleine Santos, Karla May Sayen, and Dr. Carla Dimalanta of the UP Diliman College of Science National Institute of Geological Sciences (UPD-CS-NIGS) said that in order to establish mechanisms to maximize the use of the alternative energy source, more feasibility studies need to be done.

Gas hydrates are ice-like substances that usually only form beneath the seafloor, where the pressure is high and the temperature is just below the water’s freezing point of 0 C, according to the UPD-CS-NIGS research.

In the study — the first to investigate these substances in Philippine trenches and a pioneering gas hydrate research in the country — the UP geologists believed that gas hydrates may be abundant in the Manila Trench, specifically west of Luzon.

Since gas hydrates contain huge amounts of carbon and methane, they can be a great alternative energy source, one of the researchers, Harvey Sapigao, told The Manila Times in a phone interview.

Sapigao clarified that the only thing the geologists did was locate the gas hydrates in the Manila Trench and find out about its geologic and environmental threat.

As to the mechanisms on how to utilize this alternative source of energy, Sapigao reiterated that further feasibility studies must be undertaken.

Such feasibility studies must take into consideration the possible threats to the environment and the people when the gas hydrates are drilled and harvested, he said.

“The western Philippines has vast potential for this unconventional energy resource,” the researchers said.

Citing an estimate of the substances, which could be around 200 to 500 meters below the seafloor, the UP geologists said that a total area of around 15,400 square kilometers in the Manila Trench or about the size of Palawan could contain gas hydrates.

He said that gas hydrates are unstable solids that dissociate and melt when the conditions in which they form change, usually during earthquakes.

“Worryingly, the Manila Trench is an active margin, responsible for numerous earthquakes in Western Luzon,” the UP geological researcher said.

“When gas hydrates melt, it will agitate the seafloor, possibly triggering submarine landslides and tsunamis,” he added.