Global generation of municipal solid waste (MSW) is now ~1200 Tg/yr (1 Tg = 10 g), >70% of which is landfilled. Landfilling of waste contributes ~30-35 Tg methane (CH4 )annually to the world's total CH4 emission of ~550 Tg/yr. Recycling and thermal treatment of waste in wasteto-energy (WtE) facilities contribute equally to diverting MSW from the waste stream destined for landfills and to mitiga...

Experiments were conducted to determine methane emission from a rainfed lowland rice field (water depth about 3–30 cm) and an irrigated shallow rice field (4–6 cm), both planted to the same cultivar, cv. ‘Gayatri,’ as influenced by fertilizer management practices. Methane emission peaked from 100 to 125 days after transplanting followed by a decline in rainfed lowland field plots. Application o...

[1] The climate response to a massive release of methane from gas hydrates is simulated in two 2500-year-long numerical experiments performed with a three-dimensional, global coupled atmosphere-sea ice-ocean model of intermediate complexity. Two different equilibrium states were used as reference climates; the first state with preindustrial forcing conditions and the second state with a four ti...

Submarine mud volcanism represents an important pathway for methane from deeper reservoirs to the surface, where it enters the benthic carbon cycle. To quantify overall methane release from the Captain Arutyunov mud volcano (CAMV) and to assess the contribution of macrobenthic seep organisms to the regulation of the benthic methane flux, we linked water column methane concentrations, seabed met...

The costs of greenhouse gas emission reduction with abatement of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide are investigated using the FUND model. The central policy scenario keeps anthropogenic radiative forcing below 4.5 Wm. If CO 2 emission reduction were the only possibility to meet this target, the net present value of consumption losses would be $45 trillion; with abatement of the other g...

The identification and quantification of methane emissions from natural gas production has become increasingly important owing to the increase in the natural gas component of the energy sector. An instrumented aircraft platform was used to identify large sources of methane and quantify emission rates in southwestern PA in June 2012. A large regional flux, 2.0-14 g CH4 s(-1) km(-2), was quantifi...

The attenuation of methane and four chlorofluorocarbons was investigated in a dynamic methane and oxygen counter-gradient system simulating a landfill soil cover. Soil was sampled at Skellingsted Landfill, Denmark. The soil columns showed a high capacity of methane oxidation with oxidation rates of 210 g m(-2) d(-1) corresponding to a removal efficiency of 81%. CFC-11 and to a lesser extent als...

Methane is the second most important greenhouse gas contributing to climate warming. The open ocean is a minor source of methane to the atmosphere. We report intense methane emissions from the near-shore southern region of the North Sea characterized by the presence of extensive areas with gassy sediments. The average flux intensities (~130 μmol m(-2) d(-1)) are one order of magnitude higher th...

[1] Methane (CH4) represents a major product of organic matter decomposition in lakes. Once produced in the sediments, CH4 can be either oxidized or emitted as a greenhouse gas to the atmosphere. Lakes represent an important source of atmospheric CH4, but the relative magnitudes of the internal pathways that lead to CH4 emissions are not yet clear. We quantified internal cycling and methane emi...

New challenge in combustion is the extended use of “clean” fuels, such as methane, in “particle free” combustion devices. Although large efforts have been made, actual combustion systems burning methane are still source of particulate that might be emitted in the atmosphere. In this paper measurements of ultrafine particle emission from premixed laboratory flames and several practical combustio...