A DEC. 30 report revealed that Chinese scientists have been drilling in the Shenhu area of the South China Sea 11 delineated ore bodies of combustible ice, with estimated reserves of about 194 billion cubic meters.

    Qingdao has already become an important center for combustible ice research in China with advanced equipment and a leading national detection center.

    The key laboratory is at No. 62 Fuzhou Road at Qingdao Institute of Marine Geology. “It is the third time we have become popular in the country. This first time was in 2001 when the concept was first brought up and then in 2006 when combustible ice became more widely known,” said Ye Guang, who is in charge of the laboratory.

    Key equipment can show the formation of combustible ice and ultrasonic detectors are helpful in locating, producing and transporting submarine combustible ice, said Dr. Liu Changling.

    The laboratory has also mapped changes in generating and decomposition processes. From the map, it can be seen that the ultrasonic will change significantly during the combustible ice’s changes, which means that the ultrasonic is an effective tool when detecting combustible ice.

    Since its establishment in 2000, the laboratory has become an advanced laboratory and the only place in China that can give a full-scale detection of combustible ice.

    “Samples of the combustible ices found in Lilian Mountain in 2008 and the South China Sea recently were all sent here for detection,” Ye said.

    Academic research is very important as it provides theoretical guidance to applications. Although people know there are large amounts of combustible ice at the bottom of the sea, it takes a lot of people and money for investigation and research, so some of the basic work has to be done in the laboratory. “The laboratory has the most advanced equipment in the country, which can detect several parameters of hydrates such as velocity of sound, resistance and saturation sector,” Liu said.

    The laboratory was already the first one in China to successfully detect the structure of natural hydrates in permafrost areas and it has made greater improvements since some latest advanced equipment were introduced recently.

    (Wang Yuanyuan, Zhao Di)