Working under pressure

A system for taking samples under pressure from deep within the sea bed could shed vital light on the formation of methane and methane hydrates, a potentially abundant source of energy.

If the bacteria that create the gas can be identified, researchers believe they could increase oil well yields and also discover how long hydrates take to form, revealing whether the energy source is sustainable.

Researchers at Cardiff University’s Manufacturing Engineering Centre have built a high-pressure isolation system so that bacteria can be taken from sediments and cultured at pressures of up to 1,000 atmospheres.

The research, led by Prof John Parkes of the School of Earth, Ocean and Planetary Sciences is part of a e1m (£670,000) EU project, HYACINTH, aimed at recovering gas hydrates and live bacteria under high pressure, then transporting them to the lab for study.

The bacteria break down organic ocean sediments, releasing methane gas which is then converted to methane hydrates by high pressures and low temperatures. This super-concentrated methane ice contains more reserves of hydrocarbons than all known stores of conventional fossil fuels. However, hydrates melt during recovery and many bacteria within the sediments cannot survive at normal atmospheric pressure, making it impossible to study how the methane hydrates are formed.