Methane is a potent greenhouse gas. Could turning it into CO2 fight climate change?
Usually, choosing between the lesser of two evils is a dismal decision. But sometimes, it's an opportunity.
May 21, 2019
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Energy & Green Tech
Usually, choosing between the lesser of two evils is a dismal decision. But sometimes, it's an opportunity.
May 21, 2019
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4
Energy & Green Tech
Scientists hoping to develop new energy resources have long pursued the goal of directly converting methane, a simple and abundant chemical found in natural gas, into a usable fuel such as methanol. Until now, scientists ...
Dec 7, 2017
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Energy & Green Tech
Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) are emitted into our atmosphere as waste products of current energy production activities. But imagine turning this waste carbon into biomass - a reliable, economical, ...
Apr 6, 2017
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Energy & Green Tech
The Biden administration has announced the locations of seven regional manufacturing hubs that will receive a portion of $7 billion in initial funding to help jumpstart a hydrogen industry.
Oct 13, 2023
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Engineering
Biogas plants produce methane from agricultural residues. This energy carrier is then mostly stored in membrane gas holders. In Germany, however, these storage systems are often outdated. Via leaks, methane is released into ...
Jun 9, 2020
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Energy & Green Tech
Circular economy can utilise surplus wind power to improve profitability of the entire energy system. This was demonstrated by VTT's new modelling tool that was used to calculate the effects of circular economy in the Åland ...
Feb 5, 2020
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Methane is a chemical compound with the molecular formula CH4. It is the simplest alkane, and the principal component of natural gas. Methane's bond angles are 109.5 degrees. Burning methane in the presence of oxygen produces carbon dioxide and water. The relative abundance of methane and its clean burning process makes it an attractive fuel. However, because it is a gas at normal temperature and pressure, methane is difficult to transport from its source. In its natural gas form, it is generally transported in bulk by pipeline or LNG carriers; few countries transport it by truck.
Methane was discovered and isolated by Alessandro Volta between 1776 and 1778 when studying marsh gas from Lake Maggiore.
Methane is a relatively potent greenhouse gas with a high global warming potential of 72 (averaged over 20 years) or 25 (averaged over 100 years). Methane in the atmosphere is eventually oxidized, producing carbon dioxide and water. As a result, methane in the atmosphere has a half life of seven years.
The abundance of methane in the Earth's atmosphere in 1998 was 1745 parts per billion, up from 700 ppb in 1750. Methane can trap about 20 times the heat of CO2. In the same time period, CO2 increased from 278 to 365 parts per million. The radiative forcing effect due to this increase in methane abundance is about one-third of that of the CO2 increase. In addition, there is a large, but unknown, amount of methane in methane clathrates in the ocean floors. The Earth's crust contains huge amounts of methane. Large amounts of methane are produced anaerobically by methanogenesis. Other sources include mud volcanoes, which are connected with deep geological faults, and livestock (primarily cows) from enteric fermentation.
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA