IASS participation in 7th International Conference on Gas Hydrates

Due to demanding energy concerns, gas hydrates come increasingly into the focus of science and industry. The International Conference on Gas Hydrates, which is held every three years, is the principal conference on hydrates. After Vancouver in 2008, this year’s conference took place in Edinburgh, Scotland. According to the newest estimates published in the conference proceedings, the amounts of natural hydrates are expected to lie in the order of 900 Gt. For this reason, gas hydrates are discussed as potential, but still elusive unconventional energy resource. However, owing to the vast amounts of methane stored in natural hydrates their potential impact on the global climate has to be considered.

Over 600 delegates from science and industry, including major petroleum companies, came together from all over the world to discuss and to share knowledge from all fields of hydrate research: gas hydrate fundamentals, natural gas hydrates, gas hydrates & flow assurance, energy & novel technologies, gas hydrate & climate change and even extra-terrestrial gas hydrates. The contributions expanded to more than 550 papers. Altogether, 100 talks and 460 posters were presented at the conference venue – the Edinburgh International Conference Centre – during parallel oral and poster sessions.

A major part of the conference was dedicated to natural gas hydrates, especially hydrates in marine reservoirs. Results of hydrate exploration along the coastal zones were reported for India, China, Korea, Japan or the United States. In this relation, novel technologies for the production of gas from hydrates were introduced. The first offshore production test at Eastern Nankai Trough, Japan announced for 2012 is eagerly expected.

Climate change was another important topic examined. Several presentations dealt with the potential climate impact of hydrate dissociation due to global warming. Additionally, the opportunity of CO2 sequestration in depleted oil reservoirs or in hydrate reservoirs combined with CH4 extraction was discussed.
Manja Luzi represented the IASS Potsdam both with a presentation and a poster in the field of fundamental hydrate research. Her talk was entitled “Systematic kinetic studies on mixed gas hydrates by Raman spectroscopy and powder X-ray diffraction”.

The next location for the ICGH8-Hydrate Conference will be held in Beijing, China in 2014.

The 7^th International Conference on Gas Hydrates was held on July 17^th-21^st 2011 in Edinburgh