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Rwanda told: Tap the killer gas
A study found a nearly 20 per cent increase in methane concentration in Lake Kivu between 1974 and 2004 while carbon dioxide levels had also increased by around 10 per cent in that 30-year period. Photo/FILE
Posted Monday, August 31 2009 at 00:00
“ContourGlobal has been designing and developing the project for two years and has conducted extensive seabed surveys and methane gas sampling in the lower depths of the Lake. The project will be constructed in two phases with the first phase of 25MW becoming operational in 2010 and the second phase of 75MW going into operation in 2012,” he said.
Prof Wüest says it makes sense to use the gas for energy, especially if the risk of an eruption can be reduced at the same time.
But even as the Rwanda government plans for the epic energy source, poised to be the only one of its kind in the world, scientists are raising a number of issues which could be a controversy to the grand energy project.
One of them concerns the depth at which the degassed water should be returned to the lake so as to prevent disruption of the stratification.
Also under debate is whether at least some of the carbon dioxide can be piped back into the deep water, so that greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere from methane exploitation are kept to a minimum.
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