Gas Hydrates – a Potential New Fuel Source or a Cause of Mass Extinctions?

Niall English has researched ice-like, crystalline solids called gas hydrates for more than 20 years. These block gas pipelines and form naturally in the permafrost and in sea beds at the edges of continents. Over the past five of these he has worked closely with QUB microbiologist Professor Chris Allen and together they have established that microbes can affect the stability of natural gas hydrates. They have also postulated a tentative link between reverses in the earth’s magnetic polarity, relatively sudden releases of methane in the past and their possible contribution to mass extinction events something known as the “Belfast hypothesis”. This research is important because it helps inform the work being undertaken globally on climate change.

The research partners have also filed a joint patent application on behalf of their respective universities which controls the way in which certain proteins and particular peptide sequences (short chains of amino acids) can be used to regulate the growth of gas hydrates. This has potential value in the global $1 trillion a year wastewater treatment (WWT) industry, particularly in pipeline flow assurance by preventing blockage caused by hydrates, and the treatment of heavily polluted water. Their research, therefore, has contributed impacts at community, economic and environmental levels. They have also just been awarded a joint British-Irish Leverhulme-Trust grant for two years (2021-23) to take this research further, with a keen eye to regulating hydrate formation in large-scale industrial applications.

‘We’re going to link this quite boldly into James Lovelock’s Gaia hypothesis, which is that biology regulates much of what’s going on in terms of the Earth and its physical and chemical processes. We expect that will also be regarded as controversial, but we feel have good evidence for proposing this at this stage.’

An Appetite for Knowledge

As a boy, Niall English was excited by the way that the answer to one question always led to another. Not surprisingly, that appetite for knowledge ultimately brought him to a life in scientific research. He obtained a degree in Chemical Engineering from UCD in 2000 and did a PhD on ice like, crystalline structures called gas hydrates, which he consolidated further whilst working as a research associate at the US DOE National Energy Technology Laboratory in Pittsburgh. During those early years, his research was into ways of using microwave fields to prevent hydrates forming in natural gas pipelines under certain temperature and pressure conditions. But while hydrates may be a nuisance to the oil & gas industry, others see them as a future fuel source with vast potential. When plankton and fish die, they sink to the seabed and the carbon they contain degrades into methane. Under intense pressure and cold this gas forms gas hydrates. Over 95% of the world’s methane is contained in this form, either in the depths of the world’s oceans or in Artic permafrost. In 2015, English was invited to join the management group of a European COST Action group designed to explore the potential of gas hydrates “as an economically feasible and environmentally sound” energy resource.

You can read the full case study here:?Gas Hydrates – a Potential New Fuel Source or a Cause of Mass Extinctions?