Overview of the R&D program for an environmental impact assessment of methane hydrate exploitation in Japan

It is important to immediately develop the cheaper and cleaner energy sources because of the soaring cost of crude oil and environmental problems such as global warming, recently. So, it became increasingly important to develop methane hydrate, which exist large amount around Japan and is expected to be clean and domestic future energy resources, with a minimal environmental impact. In this social context, ldquoMethane Hydrate Exploitation Program in Japanrdquo was published in July 2001 and the Research Consortium for Methane Hydrate Resources in Japan (official abbreviated title: MH21 Research Consortium) was established to oversee the completion of phase-1 of this plan. In this consortium, Engineering Advancement Association of Japan (official abbreviated title: ENAA), which is the group responsible for conducting the EIA, has conducted a number of research and developed activities to establish basic technologies associated with EIA and completed almost all of aims during phase-1. In this paper, we introduce overview of our R&D about EIA which should be necessary to implement on methane hydrate production.