Chinese scientists believe that gas hydrates, found naturally in a frozen form, will likely be a new energy source of the 21st century.

This compound is a mixture of natural gas and water, and under certain conditions, each cubic meter can be turned into 200 cubic meters of gas. The majority of gas hydrates lies under permafrost and also in the form of crystal at the bottom of sea.

The world's gas hydrate reserves are twice as abundant as the total combined amount of coal and oil, said Dai Jinxing and Jin Xianglong, both academicians with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, at a recent international conference on energy and geology held in Lanzhou in northwest China's Gansu Province.

A number of developed nations including the United States, Japan and Canada are looking into the feasibility of using gas- hydrates, and India and Russia have followed suit.

China has found huge amounts of gas hydrates under the Bohai Bay, the East and South China seas and on Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, Research on the utilization of gas hydrates now is well under way.

The Lanzhou Institute of Glaciology and Cryopedology turned gas hydrates into natural gas back in early 1990s, and Chinese geologists have established major locations of the material.

"This clean and effective energy will surely play a vital role in China's economic development in the new century," Dai said. (Xinhua)