中國點燃了可燃冰，要改變世界的能源格局了

For the first time, Chinese engineers have successfully extracted natural gas from icy deposits beneath the South China Sea.
中國工程師首次成功地從中國南海下方的冰凍沉積物中提取出天然氣。

Just last year, China's government announced that geologists had found new reserves of methane hydrate - also known as 'flammable ice' - and now it looks like they've managed to harvest some of it, bringing the world a step closer to harnessing this untapped energy source.
就在去年，中國政府宣佈，地質學家發現了新的儲備甲烷水合物，也就是“可燃冰”，如今他們似乎已設法獲取了一部分可燃冰，使世界離使用這種未利用的能源又近了一步。

"If gas is present at sufficient concentrations beneath the seafloor within the gas hydrate stability field, you'd expect it to be in the form of hydrates," New Zealand-based geoscientist, Ingo Pecher from the University of Auckland said.
“如果在天然氣水合物穩定地帶的海底之下，天然氣充分濃縮，你會期望它呈水合物的形態，”來自奧克蘭大學的新西蘭地質科學家英格·佩徹說道。

But that stability field is easily disrupted if you change either pressure or temperature, releasing all that trapped methane into the water. That's why successfully extracting gas from methane hydrates is such a big deal for engineers.
但是如果你改變壓力或溫度，這一穩定地帶就很容易被破壞，把所有聚集的甲烷釋放到水中。這就是成功從甲烷水合物中提取天然氣對工程師如此重要的原因了。

The gas deposits are densely packed - 1 cubic metre of methane hydrate can release 164 cubic metres of natural gas if brought to the surface, making it a valuable fuel resource.
天然氣沉積物的密度很高，如果被帶出海面，1立方米的甲烷水合物就可以釋放164立方米的天然氣，這也使它成爲一種寶貴的燃料資源。

Researchers think there could be immensely abundant gas hydrate reserves all around the world, possibly exceeding all other fossil fuels combined.
研究人員認爲世界各地可能有非常豐富的天然氣水合物儲備，可能超過了所有其他化石燃料的總量。

Now China has announced that their floating gas extraction platform in the South China Sea has borne highly promising results, and not just for experimental purposes, but for potential commercialisation.
如今中國表示，不僅在實驗上，而且在潛在的商業化上，中國南海的浮動天然氣開採平臺都展現出廣闊的發展前景。

Engineers drilled to the bottom of the sea and depressurised the hydrates right there, bringing the gas to the surface. According to reports in Chinese media, they managed to get as much as 35,000 cubic metres of gas a day.
工程師在海底鑽孔並減輕那裏的水合物的壓力，然後把天然氣帶出海面。據中國媒體報道，他們設法每天獲取35,000立方米的天然氣。

Countries such as US, Japan, China, India and South Korea have invested hundreds of millions of dollars into exploring methane hydrates, but they've all been slow-going in developing the most cost- and energy-efficient method of extraction.
美國、日本、中國、印度以及韓國等國家都投入了億萬美元來勘探甲烷水合物，然而在開發最經濟、節能的提取方法上，各國的進展都十分緩慢。

China's latest success is a promising step towards commercialisation of this energy-intensive fuel source.
中國的最新成果有望使這種能源密集型燃料走向商業化。