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How Methane Hydrates can be
Harvested into Energy
In order for raw methane hydrate slurry to be processed and
harvested into energy, it must go through three steps: sweetening, dehydration, and a light oil absorber –
this eventually yields a stripped natural
gas, which is essentially entirely methane. The ‘sweetening’ process removes H2S, if any
is present.
The presence of acidic H2S in the gas can cause damage to
pipelines, valves, and potentially poison catalysts used
throughout the process. Moreover, the condenser process removes excess water
before compression and liquefaction. Since ethane and CO2
may be present, they must be removed in order to make this
gas-to-liquid process work. The remaining H2O
will aid in the production of purified gas. This proposed
method is similar to that used to process natural gas.
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