New method to prevent undersea ice clogs
During the massive oil spill from the ruptured Deepwater Horizon well in 2010, it seemed at first like there might be a quick fix: a containment dome lowered onto the broken pipe to capture the flow so it could be pumped to the surface and disposed of properly. But that attempt quickly failed, because the dome almost instantly became clogged with frozen methane hydrate.Methane hydrates, which can freeze upon contact with cold water in the deep ocean, are a chronic problem for deep-sea oil and gas wells. Sometimes these frozen hydrates form inside the well casing, where they can restrict or even block the flow, at enormous cost to the well operators. Now researchers at MIT, led by associate professor of mechanical engineering Kripa Varanasi, say they have found a solution, described recently in the journal Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics. The paper’s lead author is J. David Smith, a graduate...