With increasing energy demand and depleting energy resources, gas hydrates may serve as a

potentially important resource for future energy requirements.

Methane gas hydrates is one such source of methane gas which is trapped in crystalline ice like
structure in permafrost regions and beneath the sea in outer continental margins.

Gas hydrates were discovered by Sir Humphrey Davy in 1881; he made a careful observation that
water and chlorine can form a crystalline substance under certain conditions of temperature and
pressure and chose to call it chlorine hydrate.

Subsequently in 1930’s, it was realized that solid gas hydrate formations in the oil and gas
transmission pipelines in the U.S. were responsible for the clogging of such pipelines.

Since then, gas hydrate was considered as a nuisance and technologist around the world just hated
this ice like compound. However, around 1970’s basic research on understanding the formation and
dissociation of gas hydrates along with its characterization has made it easier for the scientists and
the technologists to tackle this problem in a more scientific way.

With the improved understanding about gas hydrates, today gas hydrates are known as one of the
potential source of methane and therefore it is sometime called as fuel of the future.

Gas hydrates (clathrate) are basically a solid and nonstoichiometric crystalline compound made up
of water and low molecular weight hydrocarbons.

As per the USA department of energy, if only 1% of the methane stored in the hydrates could be
recovered, it would be more than double the current domestic supply of USA of natural gas

The gases in the natural gas hydrate sediment are primarily methane molecules [39]. Methane
hydrates are considered a major potential source of hydrocarbon energy and could be important in
meeting natural gas demand in the future [40]. Natural gas hydrates are a vast potential, though not
presently commercial, source of additional natural gas