SUGAR

The SUGAR project (Submarine Gas Hydrate Reservoirs: exploration, extraction and transport) was approved in the summer of 2008 by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi) and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). Led by the Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel (GEOMAR) 20 partners from industry and academia cooperate. The aim of this cooperation is the development of technologies to detect and quantify natural gas hydrate deposits. Another target is to develop new technologies to gain natural gas (methane) from hydrate-bearing sediments from the ocean floor and store industrially emitted CO₂ in the seabed. The second phase of the SUGAR project is launched in summer 2011 and will continue until July 2014.

The gas hydrate research group at the GFZ is involved in two sub-projects:
 

• Sub-project B1: Simulation of gas hydrate exploitation
• Sub-project B2: Optimization of gas hydrate production technologies