Black sea energy deposits

Размещено на http://allbest.ru

BLACK SEA ENERGY DEPOSITS

Danylyan Anatoliy Grigorovic

Senior lecturer of the Danube institute of the National university “Odessa maritime academy”, Izmail

Maslov Igor Zaharovich

PhD in Technical Sciences, Associate Professor of the Department of Ship's power plants and systems, Danube Institute of National university “Odessa Maritime Academy”, Izmail

Abstract. The Black Sea has been the subject of intense scientific scrutiny over the past century, and for good reason. The sea is by its very nature unusual and poses some great danger to the whole continent, and some scientific circles hypothesise that the danger is comparable to a global catastrophe. The events of 1927, have fuelled the constant fear of the sea surface igniting over a large area of water.

All these phenomena are associated with constant saturation of seawater with hydrogen sulphide and large deposits of gas hydrates on the sea shelf, which under certain conditions can lead to catastrophic consequences.

Ukrainian scientists have made a major contribution to the study of the Black Sea shelf by conducting continuous offshore expeditions, which have helped to answer many questions. With modern scientific and technical base and 36 scientific vessels in the structure of NAN of Ukraine for the past three decades scientists managed to create a map of gas hydrates deposits, to determine the nature of the increased concentration of hydrogen sulfide, to study degradation of bioresources, and much more. All the work of our scientists took place in accordance with scientific programmes, including international expedition programmes.

At the turn of 2013-2014 there was a collapse in the work of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine due to mismanagement and inept political leadership, loss of Crimea Ukraine has lost its scientific fleet, but we must pay tribute to the team of scientists who managed to transfer the richest scientific material on energy and mineral resources of the Black Sea into the practical plane of resource extraction. Unfortunately, scientific projects and new technologies for the use of energy and mineral resources of the sea have not found their application for the reasons known to us, these are avant-garde technologies of using hydrogen sulfide with reducing its level in the sea water, extraction of gas hydrates, ores and minerals.

Scientific materials of Ukrainian scientists find their practical application in the development of natural marine energy resources: Japan, Canada, USA, RF. Such practice ensures their energy security in the future, bearing in mind that, according to the UN estimates, the land-based natural gas reserves will run out by 2050. The developed technologies for production of hydrogen from hydrogen sulfide in the Black Sea and use of hydrogen sulfide for floating offshore power plants are the most actual at present time.

Keywords. National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, gas hydrates, hydrogen sulfide, natural gas, minerals, sea shelf, scientific and technical base, expeditions on scientific marine vessels.

Данилян Анатолій Григорович

старший викладач Дунайського інституту Національного університету «Одеська морська академія», м. Ізмаїл

Маслов Ігор Захарович

кандидат технічних наук, доцент кафедри суднових енергетичних установок та систем, Дунайський інститут Національного університету "Одеська морська академія", м. Ізмаїл

ЕНЕРГЕТИЧНІ ПОКЛАДИ ЧОРНОГО МОРЯ

Анотація. До Чорного моря протягом останнього століття прикуті погляди вчених, і це не випадково. Море за своєю природою незвично і викликає певну велику небезпеку для всього континенту, а з гіпотези окремих наукових кіл небезпека може бути порівняна з глобальною катастрофою. Події 1927 року підігрівають постійний страх загоряння морської поверхні на великій акваторії.

Всі ці явища пов'язані з постійним насиченням морської води сірководнем і великими покладами газогідратів на морському шельфі, які можуть за певних умов призвести до катастрофічних наслідків.

У вивченні шельфу Чорного моря великий внесок зробили українські вчені, проводячи постійні морські експедиції, які дозволили відповісти на багато питань. Маючи сучасну науково-технічну базу та 36 наукових судів у складі НАН України за останні три десятиліття вченим вдалося створити карту покладів газогідратів, визначити природу підвищення концентрації сірководню, вивчити деградацію біоресурсів та багато іншого. Вся робота наших вчених проходила відповідно до наукових програм, включаючи програми міжнародних експедицій.

На стику 2013-2014 стався розвал у роботі НАН України внаслідок безгосподарності та невмілого політичного керівництва, втрати Криму Україна втратила свого наукового флоту, але треба віддати належне колективу вчених, який зумів перекласти найбагатший науковий матеріал з енергетичних та мінеральних ресурсів Чорного моря видобутку ресурсів.На жаль наукові прожекти та нові технології з використання енергетичних та мінеральних ресурсів моря не знайшли свого застосування з відомих нам причин, а це авангардні технології використання сірководню зі зниженням його рівня у морській воді, видобутку газогідратів, руд та мінералів.

Наукові матеріали українських вчених знаходять своє практичне застосування у створенні природних морських енергетичних ресурсів: Японії, Канади, США, РФ. Подібна практика забезпечує їм на перспективу енергетичну безпеку з огляду на те, що за оцінкою ООН до 2050 року вичерпаються наземні запаси природного газу. Розроблені технології отримання водню із сірководню Чорного моря та використання сірководню для плавучих морських електростанцій є найактуальнішими у цей час.

Ключові слова. НАН України, газогідрати, сірководень, природний газ, мінерали, морський шельф, науково-технічна база, експедиції на наукових суднах.

black sea shelf energy resources mining environmentally

Problem statement. The problems of the Black Sea have been stirring the minds of scientists and public figures, and for good reason. There is nowhere else in the world with a hydrogen sulphide content and gas hydrate reserves of over 90% pure methane. What makes methane deposits so special is that they lie 50 to 300 metres below the sea floor and gaseous methane vents up to 100 metres high constantly erupt into the sea in the form of methane fountains - booms.

In September 1927, Crimean residents observed a fire across the sea several tens of kilometres long. At the time, a 7-8 magnitude earthquake struck near Yalta, releasing hydrogen sulphide from faults in the tectonic plates, which was continuously ignited by lightning strikes sparkling over the sea. According to eyewitnesses, the flames reached 500-800 metres above the water surface.

The Black Sea fire incident itself is constantly being studied and discussed by hydrologists of the world's magnitude, and the question on the agenda is the same: “Will a similar phenomenon of sea-burning recur, and on what scale?”. We want to understand the nature of the origin of hydrogen sulphide and the dynamics of its growth, also to study the possibility of using hydrogen sulphide and gas hydrate extraction from the Black Sea seabed shelf.

Analysis of recent research and publications. Y.P. Zaitsev, B.G. Aleksandrov, Turhan N. Veziroglu, E.F. Shnyukov, Dimitar Dimitrov, Petko Dimitrov, N.I. Kopytina, V.P. Kobolev, Black Sea researchers at a high research level have created invaluable material on the resource base of the Black Sea-Azov basin, which allows a fairly high degree of accuracy in determining the energy and biological resources of the Black and Azov Seas. The contribution of E.F. Shnyukov, Academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, is appreciated by the world community of scientists and is used in specific research work on the energy deposits of the Black Sea.

Purpose of the article. To summarize the scientific and analytical material of the Black Sea energy resources and find ways and solutions of their production, using modern technologies of safe and environmentally friendly solution of the problem.

To demonstrate the invaluable contribution of Ukrainian scientists and the work of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in exploring and investigating energy and biological resources of the Black sea.

Presentation of the main material. In the pages of scientific and journalistic journals the topic of the impending global catastrophe of the Black sea explosion comparable to the earth's collision with the moon is constantly stirred up.

The Black sea is an energy substance of hydrogen sulphide and methane, capable, under certain conditions, of repeating the catastrophe of September 1927 on a much larger scale [1]. As a counterbalance to such judgments American scientists put forward a hypothesis that the amount of hydrogen sulphide would go down the degradation curve. It is fair to say that similar phenomena were observed with increasing inflow of fresh water from big river floods: Danube, Dnieper, Dniester and rainy seasons. And only thanks to scientific research led by an academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine E.F. Shnyukov on a scientific research vessel research institute "Kiev" proved that during an earthquake in 1927 off the coast of Yalta there was a shift of tectonic plates of the earth with the release of large amounts of hydrogen sulfide and methane with constant lightning discharges of bad weather, which ignited the explosive mixture of hydrogen sulfide and flammable gas methane.

Fig. 1. The research vessel "Kiev” of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, built in 1982 with a displacement of 9992 tonnes.

The peculiarity of the scientific and technical base of the NAN of Ukraine at that time was its fleet of ultramodern vessels equipped with echolocation, drilling rigs, biolaboratories, deep-sea submersibles and other equipment. The Kiev research vessel was equipped with a deep-sea submersible of up to 550 metres and a scientific crew of 6, and was capable of surveying the seabed, taking bottom soil samples and lifting minerals up to 300 kg. on board [2]. The vessel's unlimited sailing area allowed it to work with international expeditions in all latitudes of the World ocean.

NII "Kyiv" worked in accordance with the programme of research and use of resources of the Black sea and Azov sea basin, adopted by the leadership of the country, but for unknown reasons the programme was liquidated and the ship was resold abroad for 5 mln. hryvnias.

Thanks to the hard work of Ukrainian scientists scientific research of energy resources of the Black and Azov sea basins became the subject of expeditions on the vessel "Professor Vodyanitsky" where the results of world significance were achieved. During 2010-2013 4 geological and geophysical expeditions were carried out on the Professor Vodyanitsky in the Black sea. The expeditions carried out contributed to the realisation of both fundamental problems of the deep structure and evolution of the lithosphere segments of the Azov-Black sea basin, and applied research into patterns of distribution of minerals in it and improvement of methods for their prediction, prospecting and exploration. These expeditions usually involved an informal team of specialists from various scientific disciplines, which ensured the integrated nature of the research. Namely, the study of patterns of distribution, power, intensity and duration in time of gas and mud volcanic activity, geological and structural-tectonic structure of areas of gas volcanism development, as well as hydrogeochemical features of water environment in order to assess the influence of gas and mud volcanism on the formation of hydrogen sulfide contamination of the Black sea.

As a result of the expedition work, it was possible to identify a large number of new gas flares and to continue monitoring the stability of their characteristics over a long period of time. New data were also obtained for a comprehensive study of gas and mud volcanism, identifying the main features of gas hydrate development and establishing criteria for their search. New factual material made it possible to estimate the relative contribution of endogenous sources to the total volume of hydrogen sulphide in the Black sea, to describe the vertical structure of oxygen and hydrogen sulphide fields, spatial and temporal variability of hydrological structure of waters and intensity of dynamic processes. To date, several thousand outgassings have been documented in the Black sea. Observations have shown that most of the gas seeps are confined to the lower shelf and the number of gas emissions detected increases as the study area becomes larger. An analysis of the geological and geochemical data obtained indicated a preference for an endogenous origin of hydrocarbons, which migrate through tectonic faults to the upper horizons of the bottom sediments together with the subsurface fluids. About 70 mud volcanic occurrences have been identified in the Black sea as a result of many years of national and international expeditionary research in the past and early years of this century. The results of comprehensive studies of mud volcanoes in the Black sea and their comparison with mud volcanoes in the Kerch-Taman and North Caucasus regions established the involvement of mantle fluid flows in their formation. A set of mineralogical and isotopic-geochemical criteria characterizing different-scale zones of methane and host fluids unloading was developed under the leadership of E.F. Shnyukov during this period [3].

In 2014, as a result of Russia's annexation of the Crimean autonomy, the A.A. Kovalevsky Institute of Biology of Southern seas left the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. As a consequence, the R/V Professor Vodyanitsky remained domiciled in the port of Sevastopol. As a result, the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine lost the only R/V of unrestricted area of navigation and a significant part of the Crimean infrastructure, which had provided comprehensive marine research. Attempts made by the Presidium of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine to relocate the R/V Professor Vodyanitsky to Odessa were unsuccessful.

At present, Ukraine has lost all of its research vessels, and there were no less than 36 of them. Under the statement of the President of Ukraine V.A. Zelensky, all staff of scientific vessels should be restored by building new ones within 5-10 years. And this issue has begun with the purchase of the British icebreaker "James Clark Ross" to work with the Ukrainian polar expedition.

Ukrainian and foreign scientists estimate that the Black sea basin can supply natural gas to the entire world for 300 years. Admittedly, this estimate cannot be exact as methane is in a solid gas hydrate form, but it is nevertheless close to the truth.

The extraction of methane from the Black sea shelf requires knowledge-intensive, safe technologies, but so far a number of countries are using different technologies - Japan, extracting gas hydrate by drilling, transports it in refrigerated containers for further processing. Russia is working on new technologies, having received a specific proposal from Skoltech to extract methane from gas hydrates by injecting air into rock formations, and the gas hydrates decompose into constituents because of the difference in pressure.

It is even more difficult to use the hydrogen sulphide from the Black sea for industrial purposes. Inventor Lev Yutkin, regarded as the "Russian Tesla", proposed a project in 1979: to lift the bottom layers of the Black sea water and subject them to electrohydraulic shocks, releasing hydrogen sulfide. When burned, a kilogram of hydrogen sulphide yields about 4,000 kcal. Calculations show that such technology would meet the entire country's energy needs. Today, a new corona nanosecond electrical discharge technology has been developed, based on the electro-hydraulic shock theory, which is three times more economical than the first technology.

Fig. 2. Production of hydrogen sulphide from seawater in the Black sea

Turkish scientists have proposed an advanced method of producing hydrogen and sulphur from the Black sea seawater through thermolysis of H2S. The technology itself uses solar energy.

The incoming seawater is stored in a sealed tank and the resulting H2S is dried and sent to a solar reactor for catalytic thermolysis. The gaseous product is cooled and the sulphur is captured in solid form. The remaining gas, containing hydrogen and undecomposed H2S, is fed to a membrane separator. The off-gas is recirculated.

Fig. 3. Simplified flow sheet of the solar H2S thermolysis process for hydrogen and sulphur production: C - condenser; D - dehumidifier; GH - H2S heater; Q - quencher; R - reactor; RE - solar receiver; SM - membrane separator; T - sea water storage tank

The reactor operates at about 1,000 K and 1 atm. A catalyst with low activation energy is used [4].

Conclusions. The research conducted by Ukrainian scientists identified the origin of hydrocarbons and their movement to the surface layer of the Black sea shelf and mapped the occurrence of gas hydrates virtually over the entire sea shelf. The article presents a number of technologies for extracting energy resources from the Black sea that can be further improved and applied to industrial production. The technologies considered for extracting hydrogen sulphide from seawater are related to the reduction of its dangerous accumulation in the Black sea, which is an international strategic objective.

References:

1. Vylkanov A., Danov H., Marinov H., (1983) Chernoe more [Black sea]. Leningrad: Gidromet [in Russia].

2. Kobolev V.P. (2017). Morskie nauchnye geofizicheskie ekspedicionnye issledovaniya v Ukraine: istoriya, real'nost i poleznye iskopaemye Mirovogo okeana. [Marine scientific geophysical expeditionary research in Ukraine: history, reality and minerals of the World ocean]. Geologiya i poleznye iskopaemye Mirovogo okeana - Geology and mineral resources of the World ocean, 4, 26-39 [in Ukrainian].

3. Kobolev V.P. (2020). -E.F. Shnyukov - organizator i vdokhnovitel' morskikh nauchno geologo-geofizicheskikh e'kspediczionny'kh issledovanij v nezavisimoj Ukraine. [E.F. Shnyukov - organizer and inspirer of marine geological and geophysical expedition researches in independent Ukraine]. Geologiya ipolezny'e iskopaemy'e Mirovogo okeana. - Geology and mineral resources of World ocean, 1, 34-52 [in Ukrainian].

4. Bajkara S.Z., Figen I.H., Veziroglu T.N. (2019). Poluchenie vodoroda iz serovodoroda v Chernom more. [Obtaining hydrogen from hydrogen sulphide in the Black Sea]. Al'ternativnaya energetika i ekologiya - Alternative Energy and Ecology, 01-03, 49-55 [in Russia].

Література:

1. Чорне море: збірник / А. Вилканов, Х. Данов, Х. Марінов. - Ленінград: Гідромет, 1983. - С. 6-14.

2. Коболів В.П.. Морські наукові геофізичні експедиційні дослідження в Україні: історія, реальність та корисні копалини Світового океану / В.П. Коболів // Геологія та корисні копалини Світового океану. - 2017. - № 4 - С. 26-39

3. Коболів В.П. Є.Ф. Шнюков - організатор та натхненник морських науково-геолого-геофізичних експедиційних досліджень у незалежній Україні / В.П. Коболів //. Геологія та корисні копалини Світового океану. - 2020. - №1 - С. 34-52

4. Байкара С.З., Фіген І.Х., Везироглу Т.М.. Одержання водню із сірководню у Чорному морі / С.З. Байкара, І.Х. Фіген, Т.М. Везироглу // Альтернативна енергетика та екологія - 2019. - № 01-03 - С. 49-55

Размещено на Allbest.ru