A Wayne State University researcher is part of a national project to find accessible sources of natural gas. Jaewon Jang, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering in the College of Engineering, recently received a two-year, $178,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to aid in the search for methane hydrates in oceans and permafrost, such as the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska's North Slope. Jang said many in the industry might not be inclined to pursue methane hydrates as an energy source right now because of the large quantities of shale gas currently available and its resultant low prices. But because those quantities are the result of research money invested by the DOE in the 1970s and 1980s to develop production methods, he believes that bodes well for the future of the current effort.

http://www.oilandgasonline.com/doc.mvc/wayne-state-university-researchers-calculations-help-energy-sources-0001
http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2012/09/25/wsu-profs-calculations-will-help-unlock-new-energy-sources/
http://www.supercomputingonline.com/news/breaking/popular-right-now/25980-wayne-state-university-researchers-calculations-will-help-unlock-new-energy-sources