Facility-level methane emissions were measured at 114 gathering facilities and 16 processing plants in the United States natural gas system. At gathering facilities, the measured methane emission rates ranged from 0.7 to 700 kg per hour (kg/h) (0.6 to 600 standard cubic feet per minute (scfm)). Normalized emissions (as a % of total methane throughput) were less than 1% for 85 gathering faciliti...

Methane hydrates, ice-like compounds in which methane is held in crystalline cages formed by water molecules, are widespread in areas of permafrost such as the Arctic and in sediments on the continental margins. They are a potentially vast fossil fuel energy source but, at the same time, could be destabilized by changing pressure–temperature conditions due to climate change, potentially leading...

Coal mining is responsible for 11% of total anthropogenic methane emission thereby contributing considerably to climate change. Attempts to harvest coalbed methane for energy production are challenged by relatively low methane concentrations. In this study, we investigated whether nutrient and acetate amendment of a non-producing sub-bituminous coal well could transform the system to a methane ...

[1] Understanding factors that control methane exchange between soils and the atmosphere remains one of the highest priorities for climate change research. Here we use a novel isotope-based technique to investigate the relative importance of three mechanisms for explaining landscape-scale variations in soil methane emissions: (1) consumption of methane by methanotrophic bacteria, (2) quantity o...

Published estimates of methane emissions from atmospheric data (top-down approaches) exceed those from source-based inventories (bottom-up approaches), leading to conflicting claims about the climate implications of fuel switching from coal or petroleum to natural gas. Based on data from a coordinated campaign in the Barnett Shale oil and gas-producing region of Texas, we find that top-down and...

THE CANADIAN JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING 695 In the hierarchy of waste management techniques it is better to prevent harmful emissions from being generated in the first place. If this laudable objective is not practically feasible, the treatment of emissions to produce less harmful substances is worthy of detailed consideration. For such waste treatment processes, the most technically and e...

Current sensor devices for the detection of methane or natural gas emission are either expensive and have high power requirements or fail to provide a rapid response. This report describes an electrochemical methane sensor utilizing a non-volatile and conductive pyrrolidinium-based ionic liquid (IL) electrolyte and an innovative internal standard method for methane and oxygen dual-gas detection...

Terrestrial mud volcanoes (MVs) are an important natural source of methane emission. The role of microbial processes in methane cycling and organic transformation in such environments remains largely unexplored. In this study, we aim to uncover functional potentials and community assemblages across geochemical transitions in a ferruginous, sulfate-depleted MV of eastern Taiwan. Geochemical prof...

Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas and the principal component of natural gas. Coal seams often contain significant quantities of methane, and underground coal mines must ensure that methane released into the mine during coal extraction does not build to dangerous levels. This is accomplished in part through the use of large-volume ventilation systems that remove methane from the mine and rel...

An inverse modeling method is presented to evaluate the sources and sinks of atmospheric methane. An adjoint version of a global transport model has been used to estimate these fluxes at a relatively high spatial and temporal resolution. Measurements from 34 monitoring stations and 11 locations along two ship cruises by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration have been used as...