China completes trial exploration of flammable ice

BEIJING - China on Sunday completed the trial exploration of flammable ice in the South China Sea, which extracted more than 300,000 cubic meters after a 60 day non-stop mining operation.

Starting from May 10, the mining operation in waters aout 320 kilometers to the southeast of Zhuhai city, Guangdong Province, has beaten previous expectations and set world records in both the length and total amount of extraction, according to the China Geological Survey Bureau. The trial exploration saw an average daily extraction of more than 5,000 cubic meters of high purity gas, with the highest daily output at 35,000 cubic meters. Meanwhile, 6.47 million sets of experimental data were recorded. China declared its first success in collecting samples of flammable ice in the South China Sea on May 18. The ice usually exists in seabed or tundra areas with the strong pressure and the low temperature necessary for stability.

The substance can be ignited like solid ethanol.

One cubic meter of flammable ice, a kind of natural gas hydrate, is equal to 164 cubic meters of regular natural gas.

China began research in flammable ice in 1998, and found deposits in the South China Sea in 2007. A number of breakthroughs were made during the trial exploration, ranging from extraction methods to environmental protection. No pollution to the environment or geological hazards occurred. (Xinhuanet.com)