Os hidratos de metano: fonte energética do futuro ou fonte de risco ambiental?

Abstract

METHANE HYDRATES: ENERGY RESOURCE OR SOURCE OF ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARD? Methane hydrates are a very interesting source of energy. Worldwide estimated resources of methane hydrates in oceans in 2001 are twice the amount of carbon contained in all fossil fuels on Earth. They occur in marine sediments along the continental margins and in polar continental environment; in permafrost. Both the increasing energy needs of the society and the high prices of petroleum challenge the research on gas hydrates recovery and on the possibility of using in the near future this huge resource of energy. The major environmental issues related to the exploitation of gas hydrates are rapid climate warming through emissions of methane from marine sediments and permafrost into the atmosphere and extensive mass failure in the sediments of the continental slopes.

Keywords

• Methane hydrates
• Energy resources
• Greenhouse gas
• Global warming
• Landslides
• Continental margin
• Permafrost.