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kassy

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Re: Methane sources from oceans, industry and non arctic land sources
« Reply #50 on: October 27, 2022, 02:27:52 PM »
NASA Detects More Than 50 Methane 'Super-Emitter' Zones Around The World

NASA scientists, using a tool designed to study how dust affects climate, have identified more than 50 spots around the world emitting major levels of methane, a development that could help combat the potent greenhouse gas.

...

NASA said more than 50 "super-emitters" of methane gas in Central Asia, the Middle East, and the southwestern United States have been identified so far. Most of them are connected to the fossil-fuel, waste or agriculture sectors.

​Kate Calvin, NASA's chief scientist and senior climate advisor, said EMIT's "additional methane-detecting capability offers a remarkable opportunity to measure and monitor greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change."

​"Exceeds our expectations"
Methane is responsible for roughly 30 percent of the global rise in temperatures to date.

​While far less abundant in the atmosphere than CO2, it is about 28 times more powerful as a greenhouse gas on a century-long timescale. Over a 20-year time frame, it is 80 times more potent.

​Methane lingers in the atmosphere for only a decade, compared to hundreds or thousands of years for CO2.

​This means a sharp reduction in emissions could shave several tenths of a degree Celsius off of projected global warming by mid-century, helping keep alive the Paris Agreement goal of capping Earth's average temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius, according to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).

​"EMIT will potentially find hundreds of super-emitters – some of them previously spotted through air-, space-, or ground-based measurement, and others that were unknown," NASA said.

​Andrew Thorpe, a research technologist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory leading the EMIT methane effort, said some of the methane plumes detected by EMIT are among the largest ever seen.

​"What we've found in a just a short time already exceeds our expectations," Thorpe said.

​NASA said a methane plume about 2 miles (3.3 kilometers) long was detected southeast of Carlsbad, New Mexico, in the Permian Basin, one of the largest oilfields in the world.

https://www.sciencealert.com/nasa-detects-more-than-50-methane-super-emitter-zones-around-the-world
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vox_mundi

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Re: Methane sources from oceans, industry and non arctic land sources
« Reply #51 on: April 11, 2023, 04:49:45 PM »
Warm Liquid Spewing from Oregon Seafloor Comes From Cascadia Fault, Could Offer Clues to Earthquake Hazards
https://phys.org/news/2023-04-liquid-spewing-oregon-seafloor-cascadia.html



The field of plate tectonics is not that old, and scientists continue to learn the details of earthquake-producing geologic faults. The Cascadia Subduction Zone—the eerily quiet offshore fault that threatens to unleash a magnitude-9 earthquake in the Pacific Northwest—still holds many mysteries.

A study led by the University of Washington discovered seeps of warm, chemically distinct liquid shooting up from the seafloor about 50 miles off Newport, Oregon. The paper, published Jan. 25 in Science Advances, describes the unique underwater spring the researchers named Pythia's Oasis. Observations suggest the spring is sourced from water 2.5 miles beneath the seafloor at the plate boundary, regulating stress on the offshore fault.

The team made the discovery during a weather-related delay for a cruise aboard the RV Thomas G. Thompson. The ship's sonar showed unexpected plumes of bubbles about three-quarters of a mile beneath the ocean's surface. Further exploration using an underwater robot revealed the bubbles were just a minor component of warm, chemically distinct fluid gushing from the seafloor sediment.

... Observations from later cruises show the fluid leaving the seafloor is 9°C (16°F) warmer than the surrounding seawater. Calculations suggest the fluid is coming straight from the Cascadia megathrust, where temperatures are an estimated 150°C to 250°C (300°F to 500°F).



Loss of fluid from the offshore megathrust interface through these strike-slip faults is important because it lowers the fluid pressure between the sediment particles and hence increases the friction between the oceanic and continental plates.

"The megathrust fault zone is like an air hockey table," Solomon said. "If the fluid pressure is high, it's like the air is turned on, meaning there's less friction and the two plates can slip. If the fluid pressure is lower, the two plates will lock—that's when stress can build up."

Fluid released from the fault zone is like leaking lubricant, Solomon said. That's bad news for earthquake hazards: Less lubricant means stress can build to create a damaging quake.


This is the first known site of its kind, Solomon said. Similar fluid seep sites may exist nearby, he added, though they are hard to detect from the ocean's surface. A significant fluid leak off central Oregon could explain why the northern portion of the Cascadia Subduction Zone, off the coast of Washington, is believed to be more strongly locked, or coupled, than the southern section off the coast of Oregon.



Brendan T. Philip et al, Fluid sources and overpressures within the central Cascadia Subduction Zone revealed by a warm, high-flux seafloor seep, Science Advances (2023)
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.add6688
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kassy

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Re: Methane sources from oceans, industry and non arctic land sources
« Reply #52 on: April 11, 2023, 08:48:24 PM »
It´s an interesting story but not related to methane at all. It could go into Earth through Time.
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kassy

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Re: Methane sources from oceans, industry and non arctic land sources
« Reply #53 on: April 18, 2023, 10:36:37 PM »
Methane from megafires: Novel detection technique raises pollution policy questions


Using a new detection method, UC Riverside scientists found a massive amount of methane, a super-potent greenhouse gas, coming from wildfires—a source not currently being accounted for by state air quality managers.

Methane warms the planet 86 times more powerfully than carbon dioxide over the course of 20 years, and it will be difficult for the state to reach its required cleaner air and climate goals without accounting for this source, the researchers said.

Wildfires emitting methane is not new. But the amount of methane from the top 20 fires in 2020 was more than seven times the average from wildfires in the previous 19 years, according to the new UCR study.

"Fires are getting bigger and more intense, and correspondingly, more emissions are coming from them," said UCR environmental sciences professor and study co-author Francesca Hopkins. "The fires in 2020 emitted what would have been 14 percent of the state's methane budget if it was being tracked."

more:
https://phys.org/news/2023-04-methane-megafires-technique-pollution-policy.html
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gerontocrat

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Re: Methane sources from oceans, industry and non arctic land sources
« Reply #54 on: May 10, 2023, 08:49:42 AM »
Turkmenistan is the King of methane super-emitters. But frankly, my dear, the President of Turkmenistan doesn't give a damn.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/may/09/mind-boggling-methane-emissions-from-turkmenistan-revealed
‘Mind-boggling’ methane emissions from Turkmenistan revealed

Leaks of potent greenhouse gas could be easily fixed, say experts, and would rapidly reduce global heating

A Nasa satellite image of methane plumes east of Hazar, Turkmenistan, in October 2022. Photograph: Nasa/JPL-Caltech/AFP/Getty
Quote
Methane leaks alone from Turkmenistan’s two main fossil fuel fields caused more global heating in 2022 than the entire carbon emissions of the UK, satellite data has revealed.

Emissions of the potent greenhouse gas from the oil- and gas-rich country are “mind-boggling”, and an “infuriating” problem that should be easy to fix, experts have told the Guardian.

The data produced by Kayrros for the Guardian found that the western fossil fuel field in Turkmenistan, on the Caspian coast, leaked 2.6m tonnes of methane in 2022. The eastern field emitted 1.8m tonnes. Together, the two fields released emissions equivalent to 366m tonnes of CO2, more than the UK’s annual emissions, which are the 17th-biggest in the world.

Methane emissions have surged alarmingly since 2007 and this acceleration may be the biggest threat to keeping below 1.5C of global heating, according to scientists. It also seriously risks triggering catastrophic climate tipping points, researchers say.

The Guardian recently revealed that Turkmenistan was the worst in the world for methane “super emitting” leaks. Separate research suggests a switch from the flaring of methane to venting may be behind some of these vast outpourings.

Flaring is used to burn unwanted gas, putting CO2 into the atmosphere, but is easy to detect and has been increasingly frowned upon in recent years. Venting simply releases the invisible methane into the air unburned, which, until recent developments in satellite technology, had been hard to detect.
Methane traps 80 times more heat than CO2 over 20 years, making venting far worse for the climate.

Experts told the Guardian that the Cop28 UN climate summit being hosted in the United Arab Emirates in December was an opportunity to drive methane-cutting action in Turkmenistan. The two petrostates have close ties and there is pressure on the UAE to dispel doubts that a big oil and gas producer can deliver strong outcomes from the summit.

Tackling leaks from fossil fuel sites is the fastest and cheapest way to slash methane emissions, and therefore global heating. Action to stem leaks often pays for itself, as the gas captured can be sold. But the maintenance of infrastructure in Turkmenistan is very poor, according to experts.

‘Out of control’
“Methane is responsible for almost half of short-term [climate] warming and has absolutely not been managed up to now – it was completely out of control,” said Antoine Rostand, the president of Kayrros.

“We know where the super emitters are and who is doing it,” he said. “We just need the policymakers and investors to do their job, which is to crack down on methane emissions. There is no comparable action in terms of [reducing] short-term climate impacts.”

Super-emissions from oil and gas installations were readily ended, Rostand said, by fixing valves or pipes or, at the very least, relighting flares: “It’s very simple to do, it has no cost for the citizen, and for the producers, the cost is completely marginal.”

The satellite data used by Kayrros to detect methane has been collected since the start of 2019 and Turkmenistan’s overall emissions show a level trend since then. Satellites have also detected 840 super-emitting events, ie leaks from single wells, tanks or pipes at a rate of a few tonnes an hour or more, the most from any nation.

Most of the facilities leaking the methane were owned by Turkmenoil, the national oil company, Kayrros said. Further undetected methane emissions will be coming from Turkmenistan’s offshore oil and gas installations in the Caspian Sea, but the ability of satellites to measure methane leaks over water is still being developed.

Kayrros also did some high-resolution monitoring of the North Bugdayly field in western Turkmenistan. The number of super-emitter events there doubled to almost 60 between 2021 and 2022, with one recent super-emitter pouring out methane for almost six weeks.

Turkmenistan is China’s second biggest supplier of gas, after Australia, and is planning to double its exports to the country. Until 2018, Turkmen citizens had received free gas and electricity. However, the country is also very vulnerable to the impacts of the climate crisis, with the likelihood of severe drought projected to increase “very significantly” over the 21st century and yields of major crops expected to fall.

‘Huge opportunity’
Speaking freely about the repressive and authoritarian state is difficult but sources told the Guardian it was a “very depressing” situation, with Turkmenistan probably the worst country in the world in dealing with methane leaks.

They said preventing or fixing the leaks represented a “huge opportunity” but that the lack of action was “infuriating”. Turkmenistan could stop the leaks from ageing Soviet-era equipment and practices, they said, and the country could be the “world’s biggest methane reducer”. But the huge gas resources on tap meant “they never cared if it leaked”.

It was also not a priority for the president, Serdar Berdimuhamedov, they said, without whose approval little happens. This is despite Berdimuhamedov, then deputy chair of the cabinet of ministers, telling the UN climate summit Cop26 in Glasgow in 2021 that Turkmenistan was reducing greenhouse gas emissions “by introducing modern technologies in all spheres of the state’s economy”, with “special attention” to the reduction of methane emissions.

Berdimuhamedov also welcomed the Global Methane Pledge (GMP) to cut emissions, but Turkmenistan has failed to join the 150 nations now signed. Neither are Turkmenoil and Turkengas, the state companies, members of a voluntary UN initiative to cut leaks, the Oil and Gas Methane Partnership 2.0 (OGMP2), which covers about 40% of global oil and gas production. “The president hasn’t followed up,” said a source.

Largest hotspot
Recent scientific research, published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, found that the west coast of Turkmenistan was “one of the largest methane hotspots in the world”.

Detailed analysis of satellite data revealed 29 different super-emitter events between 2017 and 2020, although older satellite data showed that “this type of emission has been occurring for decades”.

The researchers said 24 of the 29 super-emitter events came from flare stacks that had been extinguished and were then venting methane directly into the air, and that all were managed by state companies. The other five were linked to pipeline leaks. The scientists said that “the more frequent emitters would conflict with Turkmen law, which bans continuous gas flaring and venting”.

“Flaring is very easy to identify from the flame itself,” said Itziar Irakulis-Loitxate, of the Universitat Politècnica de València in Spain, who led the study. “But venting was something that you could not identify easily until two years ago.” The switch to venting, a far worse environmental practice, was “mind-boggling”, according to another expert.

The scientists said the prevalence of venting “points to the risks of penalising flaring without effective measures to control venting”. The World Bank founded a global initiative to end flaring in 2015.

‘Forcing mechanism’

The UN climate summit in December represented an opportunity for change, sources said, as it is being hosted by the UAE, which has strong links with Turkmenistan and expertise in oil and gas production. The most recent visit by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed, the UAE’s deputy prime minister, to Turkmenistan was in February. He met Berdimuhamedov and discussed with him bilateral cooperation “in vital sectors such as oil and gas”.

The UAE is a member of the Global Methane Pledge and the state oil company, Adnoc, is a member of the OGMP2. Adnoc recently announced a partnership to develop a “supergiant gas field” called Galkynysh and other energy projects in Turkmenistan. However, Adnoc did not respond to a request for information on how the company would help limit methane emissions in the country.

The Guardian understands diplomatic efforts are being made to urge Turkmenistan to cut its methane emissions. “We are really hoping Cop28 is a forcing mechanism,” a source said.

The Guardian contacted Turkmenoil, Turkmengaz, the Turkmenistan ministry of foreign affairs and the Turkmen embassy in the UK for comment, but none responded.
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kassy

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Re: Methane sources from oceans, industry and non arctic land sources
« Reply #55 on: May 10, 2023, 09:22:13 PM »
Quote
Methane leaks alone from Turkmenistan’s two main fossil fuel fields caused more global heating in 2022 than the entire carbon emissions of the UK, satellite data has revealed.

In solutions that is such low hanging fruit it can be called a turnip...

Now lets watch nothing happen to this. Current monitoring at least allows us to see all this stuff and now we need to clean it up...
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kassy

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Re: Methane sources from oceans, industry and non arctic land sources
« Reply #56 on: June 08, 2023, 12:20:46 PM »
Measuring greenhouse gas from ponds improves climate predictions

Shallow lakes and ponds emit significant amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, but emissions from these systems vary considerably and are not well understood.

Now, a new Cornell University-led study measures methane and carbon dioxide emissions from 30 small lakes and ponds (one acre or less) in temperate areas of Europe and North America, revealing that the smallest and shallowest bodies of water exhibit the greatest variability over time.

The paper marks an important step toward calibrating climate models so they better predict emissions from inland waterbodies, and it points to the need to study small waterbodies more closely.

"This study helps understand both the drivers of greenhouse gas concentrations, and importantly, what makes some ponds more variable in their concentrations," said Meredith Holgerson, assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and senior author of the study, published in the journal Limnology and Oceanography.

"The paper points to patterns across a broad geographic range, such that we can actually get in and predict which waterbodies are going to vary and will be most variable, and it confirms that we need to go out and sample frequently," said Nicholas Ray, a postdoctoral researcher in Holgerson's lab and the paper's first author.

Holgerson and colleagues have previously estimated that shallow lakes and ponds may contribute 5% of the global methane emissions to the atmosphere. But without accurate measurements across many water bodies, they said, the true number could be as little as half or as much as twice that percentage.

While some small lakes and ponds emit greenhouse gasses in consistent, predictable amounts, others are highly variable. Understanding these dynamics is important as carbon dioxide and methane act as greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, with methane being 25 times more potent at trapping heat than carbon dioxide.

Each body of water analyzed was sampled over the 2018 and 2019 summers at three times in three locations, including the deepest point and then two locations on opposite ends (but not too close to the shore).

"One key result we found was that the smaller the system is, in regard to surface area, the higher emissions are likely to be," Ray said.

For carbon dioxide, samples were consistent in all parts of the waterbody, which revealed that researchers likely only needed to collect a sample from one location to get an accurate prediction of the whole body of water. Methane, on the other hand, required samples from multiple locations to get an accurate measure. Also, for methane, shallower systems were more variable, suggesting stratification of the water column in deeper water may prevent gases from rising to the surface.

For carbon dioxide, the amount of plant life in the water played a large role in variability over time. For methane, variability was more driven by the water depth and likely associated with stratification in the water column.

Among other uses, the study sets the groundwork for informing a New York state climate mitigation strategy to build more ponds to help farmers better handle droughts.

"We're working to identify how ponds can be built, or if there are simple management strategies people can employ, to minimize emissions," Ray said.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/06/230607004112.htm
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morganism

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Re: Methane sources from oceans, industry and non arctic land sources
« Reply #57 on: July 14, 2023, 10:52:12 PM »
Study shows methane leaks at drill sites can make natural gas operations 'as bad as coal'

"A new peer-reviewed paper to be published in Environmental Research Letters next week adds to the accumulation of studies demonstrating why our love affair with natural gas needs to be ended posthaste."
(snip)
As we’ve seen from various studies over the past few years, a lot more of the stuff is leaking in the extraction and transportation processes than was previously told to government monitors by the industries doing the extracting. Last year, a study found that pipelines carrying fracked gas in the Permian Basin oil fields of Texas were leaking at least 14 times more methane than previously accounted for. Surprise! Another study in 2022 in found that Methane Leaks in New Mexico Far Exceed Current Estimates. And there was this report about prodigious Gulf of Mexico leaks.
(snip)
The reality, as Howarth said in a 2019 interview with Blaine Friedlander at the Cornell Chronicle:  “Reducing methane now can provide an instant way to slow global warming and meet the United Nations’ target of keeping the planet well below a 2-degree Celsius average rise. (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit). This recent increase in methane is massive. It’s globally significant. It’s contributed to some of the increase in global warming we’ve seen and shale gas is a major player. If we can stop pouring methane into the atmosphere, it will dissipate. It goes away pretty quickly, compared to carbon dioxide. It’s the low-hanging fruit to slow global warming.”

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/7/14/2181079/-Study-shows-methane-leaks-at-drill-sites-can-make-natural-gas-operations-as-bad-as-coal


Evaluating net life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions intensities from gas and coal at varying methane leakage rates

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ace3db

Abstract

The net climate impact of gas and coal life-cycle emissions are highly dependent on methane leakage. Every molecule of methane leaked alters the climate advantage because methane warms the planet significantly more than CO2 over its decade-long lifetime. We find that global gas systems that leak over 4.7% of their methane (when considering a 20-year timeframe) or 7.6% (when considering a 100-year timeframe) are on par with life-cycle coal emissions from methane leaking coal mines. The net climate impact from coal is also influenced by SO2 emissions, which react to form sulfate aerosols that mask warming. We run scenarios that combine varying methane leakage rates from coal and gas with low to high SO2 emissions based on coal sulfur content, flue gas scrubber efficiency, and sulfate aerosol global warming potentials. The methane and SO2 co-emitted with CO2 alter the emissions parity between gas and coal. We estimate that a gas system leakage rate as low as 0.2% is on par with coal, assuming 1.5% sulfur coal that is scrubbed at a 90% efficiency with no coal mine methane when considering climate effects over a 20-year timeframe. Recent aerial measurement surveys of US oil and gas production basins find wide-ranging natural gas leak rates 0.65% to 66.2%, with similar leakage rates detected worldwide. These numerous super-emitting gas systems being detected globally underscore the need to accelerate methane emissions detection, accounting, and management practices to certify that gas assets are less emissions intensive than coal."

neal

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Re: Methane sources from oceans, industry and non arctic land sources
« Reply #58 on: July 18, 2023, 04:31:10 PM »
Groundwater springs formed during glacial retreat are a large source of methane in the high Arctic

..Permafrost and glaciers in the high Arctic form an impermeable ‘cryospheric cap’ that traps a large reservoir of subsurface methane, preventing it from reaching the atmosphere. Cryospheric vulnerability to climate warming is making releases of this methane possible. On Svalbard, where air temperatures are rising more than two times faster than the average for the Arctic, glaciers are retreating and leaving behind exposed forefields that enable rapid methane escape. Here we document how methane-rich groundwater springs have formed in recently revealed forefields of 78 land-terminating glaciers across central Svalbard, bringing deep-seated methane gas to the surface. Waters collected from these springs during February–May of 2021 and 2022 are supersaturated with methane up to 600,000 times greater than atmospheric equilibration. Spatial sampling reveals a geological dependency on the extent of methane supersaturation, with isotopic evidence of a thermogenic source. We estimate annual methane emissions from proglacial groundwaters to be up to 2.31 kt across the Svalbard archipelago. Further investigations into marine-terminating glaciers indicate future methane emission sources as these glaciers transition into fully land-based systems. Our findings reveal that climate-driven glacial retreat facilitates widespread release of methane, a positive feedback loop that is probably prevalent across other regions of the rapidly warming Arctic....

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-023-01210-6

and

..Expected annual emissions from proglacial springs within the region range from 27 t yr−1 CH4 (±0.14 t) to 230 t yr−1 CH4 (±1.1 t), which equates to emissions of up to 37 kg km−2 yr−1 CH4 (±2 kg km−2 yr−1 CH4). When we extrapolate this across the Svalbard archipelago without accounting for regional differences in geology, methane emissions associated with proglacial groundwater springs could be up to 2.31 kt yr−1 CH4 (±0.14 kt yr−1 CH4). These emissions are comparable to the speculative annual methane flux from glacial run-off for the entire Greenland Ice Sheet, which has been projected as 2.1 kt yr−1 CH4 (based on measurements from one outlet glacier)42. This is notable, especially as our emissions estimate focuses only on proglacial groundwaters and does not account for summer methane fluxes associated with glacial run-off. A further regional comparison is that our methane emission estimate is equivalent to 8% of Norway’s annual oil- and gas-related anthropogenic energy emissions43.....

kassy

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Re: Methane sources from oceans, industry and non arctic land sources
« Reply #59 on: July 18, 2023, 06:59:35 PM »
Since this topic is about Methane sources from oceans, industry and non arctic land sources could you repost this in premafrost general science? Thanks!

https://forum.arctic-sea-ice.net/index.php/topic,2546.0.html
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kassy

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Re: Methane sources from oceans, industry and non arctic land sources
« Reply #60 on: July 18, 2023, 07:23:48 PM »
Previously unknown methane sources identified in Hamburg


After carbon dioxide, methane is the second most common greenhouse gas caused by human activity. Moreover, over a 20-year period, its global warming potential is more than 80 times that of carbon dioxide. The largest known sources are wetland, agriculture and waste, and fossil fuel production and use. Methane has a much shorter atmospheric lifetime than CO2 (around 12 years compared with centuries for CO2). Consequently, the reduction of methane emissions has considerable potential for limiting global warming in the short to medium term.

A substantial portion of global methane emissions occurs in cities. There are many locations where methane is released—intentionally or accidentally. The research team at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) selected Hamburg as a location to track down methane leaks and other unknown sources. Hamburg is not only Germany's second-largest city by population. It is also a port and an industrial center. With its various methane sources, it offers ideal conditions for the project. The study is published in the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

Numerous methane sources discovered in Hamburg
Through the project, the team succeeded in identifying numerous previously undetected methane sources in Hamburg. Along with natural sources such as the Elbe River, the largest share of emissions is caused by human activity. Around half of these emissions come from leaking gas pipelines, incomplete combustion, and other industrial and fugitive emissions. The mobile measurements also made it possible for the researchers to detect unknown methane sources. They discovered that about 2% of human-caused methane emissions in Hamburg originated from leaking pipes at one oil refinery and a nearby cattle farm, which are highly underestimated in the state-of-the-art emission inventory.

more on:
https://phys.org/news/2023-07-previously-unknown-methane-sources-hamburg.html
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kassy

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Re: Methane sources from oceans, industry and non arctic land sources
« Reply #61 on: July 29, 2023, 07:44:36 PM »
Sahara dust can enhance removal of methane
New study improves our understanding of the global methane budget


The study by Maarten van Herpen et al., entitled "Photocatalytic Chlorine Atom Production on Mineral Dust-Sea Spray Aerosols over North Atlantic," was funded in part by the NGO Spark Climate Solutions. It incorporates a proposed new mechanism whereby blowing mineral dust mixes with sea-spray to form Mineral Dust-Sea Spray Aerosol (MDSA).

The results suggest that MDSA is activated by sunlight to produce an abundance of chlorine atoms, which oxidize atmospheric methane and tropospheric ozone via photocatalysis. Largely composed of blowing dust from the Sahara Desert combined with sea salt aerosol from the ocean, MDSA is the dominant source of atmospheric chlorine over the North Atlantic, the study finds.

The study relies on a combination of global modeling and laboratory and field observations, including air samples from Barbados showing seasonal depletion of the stable isotope 13CO, an anomaly which puzzled scientists for 20 years. They knew observed changes in 13CO and C18O were evidence of chlorine atoms reacting with methane, and that carbon monoxide is the first stable product in atmospheric methane oxidation. But the known sources of atmospheric chlorine could not account for the degree of depletion in 13CO, until now.

Using a global 3-D chemistry-climate model (CAM-Chem), van Herpen et al. found that when increased chlorine from the MDSA mechanism was incorporated into the model, the results agreed well with the Barbados data and explained the 13CO depletion.

If the MDSA effect observed in the North Atlantic is extrapolated globally, and if its efficiency is similar in other parts of the world -- two areas that aren't yet well understood and require further research -- global atmospheric chlorine concentrations might be roughly 40% higher than previously estimated, the study finds. Factoring this into global methane modeling could potentially shift our understanding of the relative proportions of methane emissions sources.

Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, with a Global Warming Potential (GWP) 83 times higher than carbon dioxide over 20 years and 30 times higher over 100 years, accounting for about a third of modern warming. Atmospheric methane concentrations, now nearly 2.6 times higher than in pre-industrial times, are rising at an accelerating rate, with the largest annual increases on record occurring in 2020 and 2021. Anthropogenic methane emissions are known to be the cause of the majority of the overall rise, with elevated natural emissions and atmospheric chemistry changes resulting from anthropogenic emissions of various gases also playing a part.

While the reason for the recent acceleration is not well understood, the van Herpen et al. study may have found an important clue. Its conclusion that there is greater active chlorine than previously thought, impacting 13C, indicates a possible increase in methane from biological sources such as agriculture and wetlands. This suggests biological methane may have played a slightly larger role than previously estimated.

"Methane emissions from biological sources such as wetlands and agriculture may be growing as global temperatures rise," said Maarten van Herpen, lead author of the PNAS study. "But recent increases in dust from North Africa have probably increased methane oxidation in the atmosphere, partly masking the growth in biological methane emissions. Adjusting atmospheric modeling to take this into account may show that methane emissions from biological sources are rising even faster than we thought."

"When these findings are incorporated into methane budgets it is likely to increase our assessment of how much methane comes from biological sources," said University of Copenhagen professor Matthew Johnson, who co-authored the study. "While methane oxidation from MDSA is relatively small in terms of global methane, our data shows it is causing large changes in the abundance of 13C in methane, which is used to determine source contributions. The past few years have seen atmospheric methane increase at an increasing rate, more than ever before, and it is important to understand the cause. Models need to take the revised chlorine isotope shift into account to get a clear picture of the increase in biological methane, which has been identified as a critical tipping point."

...

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/07/230724182721.htm


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kiwichick16

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Re: Methane sources from oceans, industry and non arctic land sources
« Reply #62 on: July 30, 2023, 04:40:17 AM »
so what happens if we get less Sahara Desert dust blowing out to the ocean ?

kiwichick16

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kassy

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Re: Methane sources from oceans, industry and non arctic land sources
« Reply #64 on: July 30, 2023, 08:59:01 AM »
so what happens if we get less Sahara Desert dust blowing out to the ocean ?

If it was to disappear the masking would go, same as the emission from ships.
But overall there will be more dust around in the future so the main point is that the methane signal we measure is not the whole story.
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kiwichick16

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Re: Methane sources from oceans, industry and non arctic land sources
« Reply #65 on: July 30, 2023, 11:49:01 AM »
most days my head hurts    .......its the swinging between hope and despair that does it

Richard Rathbone

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Re: Methane sources from oceans, industry and non arctic land sources
« Reply #66 on: July 30, 2023, 01:01:06 PM »
so what happens if we get less Sahara Desert dust blowing out to the ocean ?

There would be less oxidation of methane which would make it a worse greenhouse gas than it currently is.

The study authors actually think the opposite has been happening, more dust counteracting higher emissions from agriculture than previously estimated.

 

John_the_Younger

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Re: Methane sources from oceans, industry and non arctic land sources
« Reply #67 on: July 30, 2023, 08:50:40 PM »
Quote
so what happens if we get less Sahara Desert dust blowing out to the ocean ?
More Atlantic hurricanes, for one (the dry dust is a major inhibitor of cyclone development)
There is a certain amount of ocean/sea water and Caribbean island soil fertilization that would be lost, but I don't know how significant this is to ocean (etc.) health.

kiwichick16

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Re: Methane sources from oceans, industry and non arctic land sources
« Reply #68 on: July 31, 2023, 10:32:55 AM »
if the dust from the Sahara is helping to oxidise methane , it had better keep blowing

kassy

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Re: Methane sources from oceans, industry and non arctic land sources
« Reply #69 on: August 19, 2023, 10:03:03 AM »
California’s Top Methane Emitter is a Vast Cattle Feedlot. For Now, Federal and State Greenhouse Gas Regulators Are Giving It a Pass.

Forty miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border in Southern California’s Imperial Valley, the Brandt Company cattle ranch is the largest single point source of methane emissions in the state, releasing more of that greenhouse gas than any oil or gas well, refinery or landfill.

The 643-acre feedlot is home to 139,000 beef cattle, according to the most recent figures reported by state regulators. With their belching and manure, the animals produce an estimated 9,167 metric tons of methane annually, according to an Inside Climate News analysis. The calculations build on the work of the nonprofit coalition Climate TRACE, which is developing a farm-by-farm inventory of methane emissions from cattle with the aid of public records, satellite imagery and artificial intelligence.

In essence, the ranch’s emissions of methane, a greenhouse gas 81 times more potent than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period, equal the annual greenhouse gas emissions of 165,000 automobiles. Only Southern California Gas Company and Pacific Gas and Electric Company, the state’s largest two natural gas utilities—with leaks across tens of thousands of miles of underground pipeline networks—release more methane, the primary component of natural gas.

But you won’t find the Brandt ranch, or any other single livestock operation or dairy, in state or federal greenhouse gas emissions databases.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program, which was established in 2007 to provide a detailed accounting of emissions, site by site, from “all sectors of the U.S. economy,” exempts agriculture. A state reporting program that began in California in 2008 gives farmers a similar pass.

Methane’s potency as a greenhouse gas, combined with its short lifetime, means that curbing emissions of the gas is the single best way to combat climate change in the near term, according to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC.

Nationwide, cows collectively emitted more than twice as much methane from their belching and manure in 2020 as all of the country’s oil and gas wells, including those active and abandoned, onshore and offshore, according to an Inside Climate News assessment of the EPA’s 2022 Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions.

and more:
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/18082023/californias-top-methane-emitter-is-cattle-feedlot/

And a similar article on Texas:
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/18082023/texas-dairy-among-states-biggest-methane-emitters/
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sidd

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Re: Methane sources from oceans, industry and non arctic land sources
« Reply #70 on: August 20, 2023, 09:08:13 AM »
That place is hell on earth, both for the animals and the human workers there.

There is also a special hell for those that eat animals without a single thought of how that meat arrived in their mouths. That blindness is what they live in.

sidd



morganism

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Re: Methane sources from oceans, industry and non arctic land sources
« Reply #72 on: August 22, 2023, 08:31:34 PM »
Bacteria that ‘eat’ methane could slow global heating, study finds

Technology has the potential to make deep cuts to emissions of the potent greenhouse gas but requires major investment

(...)
Lidstrom’s team have found a strain of bacteria within this group called methylotuvimicrobium buryatense 5GB1C that can remove methane efficiently even when it is present in lower amounts. If it became widespread, the technology has the potential to help slow global heating, the researchers said.
Methane reduction holds key to averting climate catastrophe
Read more

Typically, this group of bacteria thrive in environments with high levels of methane (between 5,000 and 10,000 parts per million (ppm)). The normal concentrations in our atmosphere have much lower levels of only about 1.9 ppm of methane. But certain areas such as landfills, rice fields and oilwells emit higher concentrations of about 500 ppm.

“Bacteria that rapidly eat methane at the higher concentrations found around cattle herds, etc could make a huge contribution to cutting methane emissions, especially from tropical agriculture,” said Euan Nisbet, professor of Earth sciences at Royal Holloway, University of London, commenting on the findings of the study.

The strain’s high methane consumption rate is probably due to a low energy requirement and greater attraction for methane – more than five times more than that of other bacteria, according to the study.

“The bacteria oxidise the methane to CO2 (a much less powerful greenhouse gas) and so you can even use the exhaust to pump into greenhouses and grow tomatoes,” said Nisbet.

“The biggest barrier to implementation now is technical: we need to increase the methane treatment unit 20-fold. If we can achieve that, then the biggest barriers become investment capital and public acceptance. We believe we could have field pilots tested within three to four years, and scale up would then depend on investment capital and commercialisation,” said Lidstrom.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/aug/22/bacteria-that-eats-methane-could-slow-global-heating-study-finds

kassy

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Re: Methane sources from oceans, industry and non arctic land sources
« Reply #73 on: August 23, 2023, 09:03:31 AM »
Mapping methane emissions from rivers around globe reveals surprising sources

Freshwater ecosystems account for half of global emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming. Rivers and streams, especially, are thought to emit a substantial amount of that methane, but the rates and patterns of these emissions at global scales remain largely undocumented.

An international team of researchers, including University of Wisconsin-Madison freshwater ecologists, has changed that with a new description of the global rates, patterns and drivers of methane emissions from running waters. Their findings, published recently in the journal Nature, will improve methane estimates and models of climate change, and point to land-management changes and restoration opportunities that can reduce the amount of methane escaping into the atmosphere.

The new study confirms that rivers and streams do, indeed, produce a lot of methane and play a major role in climate change dynamics. But the study also reveals some surprising results about how -- and where -- that methane is produced.

"We expected to find the highest methane emissions at the tropics, because the biological production of methane is highly sensitive to temperature," says Emily Stanley, a professor at UW-Madison's Center for Limnology and co-author of the Nature report. Instead, she says, their team found that methane emissions in the tropics were comparable to those in the much colder streams and rivers of boreal forests -- pine-dominant forests that stretch around the Northern Hemisphere -- and Arctic tundra habitats.

Temperature, it turns out, isn't the primary variable driving aquatic methane emissions. Instead, the study found, "the amount of methane coming out of streams and rivers regardless of their latitude or temperature was primarily controlled by the surrounding habitat connected to them," Stanley says.

Rivers and streams in boreal forests and polar regions at high latitudes are often tied to peatlands and wetlands, while the dense forests of the Amazon and Congo river basins also supply the waters running through them with soils rich in organic matter. Both systems produce substantial amounts of methane because they often result in low-oxygen conditions preferred by microbes that produce methane while breaking down all that organic matter.

However, not all high methane rivers and streams come by these emissions naturally. In parts of the world, freshwater methane emissions are primarily controlled by human activity in both urban and rural communities.

"Humans are actively modifying river networks worldwide and, in general, these changes seem to favor methane emissions," says Gerard Rocher, lead author of the report and a postdoctoral researcher with both the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and the Blanes Centre of Advanced Studies in Spain.

Habitats that have been highly modified by humans -- like ditched streams draining agricultural fields, rivers below wastewater treatment plants, or concrete stormwater canals -- also often result in the organic-matter-rich, oxygen-poor conditions that promote high methane production.

The significance of human involvement can be considered good news, according to Rocher.

"One implication of this finding is that freshwater conservation and restoration efforts could lead to a reduction in methane emissions," he says.

Slowing the flow of pollutants like fertilizer, human and animal waste or excessive topsoil into rivers and streams would help limit the ingredients that lead to high methane production in freshwater systems.

"From a climate change perspective, we need to worry more about systems where humans are creating circumstances that produce methane than the natural cycles of methane production," Stanley says.

...

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/08/230822151732.htm

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06344-6
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morganism

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Re: Methane sources from oceans, industry and non arctic land sources
« Reply #74 on: September 18, 2023, 08:22:17 PM »
Methane Formation Before The Emergence Of Life

A team at the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg has found that iron and reactive oxygen species drive the formation of methane in aqueous environments. In Earth’s early history, this non-enzymatic process probably favored the emergence of life. Today, this mechanism could still contribute to methane production.

Methane (CH4) has been involved in warming the atmosphere since early Earth history. At that time, the methane haze kept the planet from freezing and was one of the prerequisites for the emergence of life. Methane is a particularly potent greenhouse gas: it drives global warming 80 times more than the same amount of carbon dioxide (CO₂). To better assess and predict human-induced climate change, researchers around the world are working to identify sources of methane formation.

In 2022, scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg, together with a team from the University of Heidelberg, Germany, discovered that methane is produced in all organisms. The core of the process is the so-called Fenton reaction, a reaction of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) with reduced iron (Fe2+), which leads to highly reactive compounds and radicals, which are capable of splitting off methane from organic sulfur and nitrogen compounds.

“Since the cellular process is not catalyzed by enzymes, we wondered whether it could happen outside cells,” says Dr. Johannes Rebelein, head of the Emmy Noether Research Group at the Max Planck Institute. It turns out that the process also takes place in the inanimate environment. In the absence of oxygen, both light and heat contribute to the formation of H2O2 in aqueous solutions. In addition to methane, ethane, C2H6, is also formed by the combination of two methyl radicals.

It is noteworthy that methane is formed from organic sulfur compounds, such as dimethyl sulfoxide, via the Fenton reaction. Such compounds are found at hydrothermal vents in the deep sea, better known as “black smokers”.
Until now, a specific geological process called serpentinization was thought to be responsible for methane formation in the deep sea. “The fact that methane can be formed on the ocean floor via the Fenton reaction is a finding that surprised us,” says Johannes Rebelein. “Unlike serpentinization, the process we have identified is not spatially restricted. It could basically take place in all wetlands on Earth, because heat and light drive it under ambient temperatures and pressure conditions.” The researchers also believe that this process could contribute and explain the “oceanic methane paradox”. The “oceanic methane paradox” refers to the light-dependent emission of methane from water bodies in the presence of oxygen – unlike the anoxic/anaerobic microbial methane production.

The researchers showed that biomolecules further enhanced methane production. “In our experiments, the binding of reduced iron to biomolecules increased the activity of the Fenton reaction. This means that after the emergence of life, the process probably increased in intensity because the biomolecules could serve as both substrates and iron-binding activators,” explains Leonard Ernst, lead author of the current study. The research was conducted in cooperation with the Institute of Geosciences at Heidelberg University, the Microcosm Earth Center in Marburg and the German Cancer Research Institute in Heidelberg.

The work lays the foundation for further research on the evolution of the Earth’s atmosphere. It is also necessary to clarify to what extent this mechanism contributed and still contributes to the overall methane release.

https://astrobiology.com/2023/09/methane-formation-before-the-emergence-of-life.html


Methane formation driven by light and heat prior to the origin of life and beyond

Abstract

Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, which likely enabled the evolution of life by keeping the early Earth warm. Here, we demonstrate routes towards abiotic methane and ethane formation under early-earth conditions from methylated sulfur and nitrogen compounds with prebiotic origin. These compounds are demethylated in Fenton reactions governed by ferrous iron and reactive oxygen species (ROS) produced by light and heat in aqueous environments. After the emergence of life, this phenomenon would have greatly intensified in the anoxic Archean by providing methylated sulfur and nitrogen substrates. This ROS-driven Fenton chemistry can occur delocalized from serpentinization across Earth’s humid realm and thereby substantially differs from previously suggested methane formation routes that are spatially restricted. Here, we report that Fenton reactions driven by light and heat release methane and ethane and might have shaped the chemical evolution of the atmosphere prior to the origin of life and beyond.
(more)

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-39917-0

Sublime_Rime

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Re: Methane sources from oceans, industry and non arctic land sources
« Reply #75 on: September 23, 2023, 05:42:58 PM »
Extensive methane gas leakage from the deepest seabed of the Baltic Sea discovered

https://phys.org/news/2023-09-extensive-methane-gas-leakage-deepest.html

"During a research expedition led by Linnaeus University and Stockholm University to the deepest parts of the Baltic Sea in the Landsort Deep researchers recently discovered an area with extensive emissions of the powerful greenhouse gas methane from the bottom sediments.

The area where the methane leak was discovered is located in the Landsort Deep (Landsortsdjupet), about 30 kilometers southeast of the coastal town Nynäshamn. Christian Stranne, associate professor of marine geophysics at Stockholm University, is surprised by the discovery.

"We know that methane gas can bubble out from shallow coastal seabeds in the Baltic Sea, but I have never seen such an intense bubble release before and definitely not from such a deep area," says Christian Stranne."
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morganism

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Re: Methane sources from oceans, industry and non arctic land sources
« Reply #76 on: November 08, 2023, 07:17:20 PM »
Texas produces twice as much methane as better regulated neighbor, study finds

Data shared with Guardian reveals Texas oil and gas fields emitting far more methane than New Mexico, feeding calls for stiffer rules

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/nov/08/texas-methane-oil-and-gas-study-climate


Satellite imaging of methane leaks across the Permian basin, a vast geological feature at the heart of the US oil and gas drilling industry, show that sites in Texas have emitted double the amount of the gas than in New Mexico, per unit of production, since 2019.
(snip)
The new satellite data, gathered by Kayrros, a French climate technology company, shows that methane is being leaked at a far higher rate from sites in Texas compared with neighboring New Mexico. Despite increasing its own oil production in recent years, New Mexico has no site with repeated methane leaks, unlike in Texas, which Kayrros said is likely due to a 2021 state law aimed at curtailing methane emissions from industry.

“The effect that methane has on the global climate is devastating,” said Antoine Rostand, chief executive of Kayrros. “Good operators will re-inject the gas while others will vent it, which means it’s very easy to eliminate leaks of methane that would have a massive impact upon the climate.”

Rostand said the difference between visible leaks in Texas and New Mexico is “huge” and should spur governments in the US and other countries to crack down on this pollution. “It seems the regulation in New Mexico has had an impact without hurting business,” he said. “It’s a message of hope because it shows that if you have regulation it works. Governments need to take up their responsibilities with this.”

kassy

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Re: Methane sources from oceans, industry and non arctic land sources
« Reply #77 on: December 08, 2023, 09:36:11 PM »
Vast scale of methane leaks from fossil fuel production and landfill sites exposed

Around 1,300 "super-emitters" of the potent greenhouse gas have been identified so far in 2023 by the monitoring company Kayrros, which uses satellites to detect plumes of the gas.

...

t looks for non-natural sources of methane - primarily gas wells, pipelines, coal mines and landfill sites.

According to the data, the largest oil and gas source was on the Cheleken Peninsula in Turkmenistan, where a leak from one facility is estimated to have peaked at 333 tonnes per hour in August.

At that rate the hourly release of methane was equivalent to the greenhouse gas emissions from a car driving around 38,000 miles.

Another leak, from a blown-out drilling well in Kazakhstan, released between 21 and 56 tonnes of the methane every hour for 153 days between June and November.

Coal is also a problem with one facility in Shanxi, China, peaking at around 181 tonnes an hour last February.

And the methane release from buried waste at a landfill site in Dhaka city in Bangladesh peaked at 822 tonnes an hour in April.

Antoine Rostand, co-founder of Kayrros, told Sky News being able to observe emissions from space means there is no hiding.

"Previously we could measure the amount of methane in the atmosphere, but now we really know exactly where it's coming from," he said.

"Which country, which company, which assets are emitting methane in the atmosphere."

Kayrros's data shows Turkmenistan had higher methane emissions than any other nation, followed by the United States, India, Russia and Pakistan.

...

https://news.sky.com/story/vast-scale-of-methane-leaks-from-fossil-fuel-production-and-landfill-sites-exposed-13023354
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morganism

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Re: Methane sources from oceans, industry and non arctic land sources
« Reply #78 on: February 12, 2024, 11:29:31 PM »
(more stories from the Karryos satt service, they are pushing hard for leak stoppage)

Revealed: the 1,200 big methane leaks from waste dumps trashing the planet

The huge leaks of the potent greenhouse gas will doom climate targets, experts say, but stemming them would rapidly reduce global heating


(...)
Methane emissions have accelerated since 2007 and cause a third of the global heating driving the climate crisis today. The acceleration has alarmed scientists, who fear it is the biggest threat to keeping below 1.5C of global heating and could trigger catastrophic climate tipping points. The rapid rise appears to be due to global heating driving more methane production in wetlands – a potential vicious circle that makes cuts of human-caused methane emissions even more urgent.

Decomposing waste is responsible for about 20% of human-caused methane emissions. Fossil fuel operations cause 40% of emissions, and the Guardian revealed there were more than 1,000 super-emitter events from oil, gas and coal sites in 2022 alone, many of which could be easily fixed. Cattle and paddy fields cause the other 40% of emissions.

Prof Euan Nisbet, a methane expert at Royal Holloway University of London, said: “Big landfills make a great deal of methane but it doesn’t cost much to bulldoze soil over a stinking, burning landfill. It’s not rocket science.”

Microbes in the soil convert methane into CO2. “Then it’s lost 97% of its greenhouse impact,” Nisbet said.

Carlos Silva Filho, president of the International Solid Waste Association, said the global methane pledge made by 150 countries to cut 30% of methane emissions by 2030 could not be achieved without tackling emissions from the waste industry. “Cutting methane is the only solution to meet the global 1.5C temperature target,” he said. “If we really focus on reducing methane emissions from the waste sector, it is a gamechanger.” About 40% of the world’s waste still goes to unmanaged dumps.

Antoine Halff, a co-founder of the company Kayrros, which provided the satellite image analysis to the Guardian, said: “Waste is a big source [of methane] and in countries like India, Pakistan and Bangladesh it’s not only a huge source of greenhouse gas emissions but it’s also a lost opportunity to tap a fuel resource that could help meet the country’s energy needs.”

The satellite that Kayrros uses orbits the planet 14 times a day and provides global coverage, giving the location of a leak to within about six miles. Higher-resolution satellites that orbit less frequently can pinpoint the waste facilities responsible.

Trash mountains

Delhi, the capital of India, has had at least 124 super-emitter events from city landfills since 2020. Dr Richa Singh, of the Centre for Science and Environment in the city, said that while methane leaks from the global oil and gas industry were getting significant attention, the waste sector also required “urgent intervention”.

India is extremely exposed to the impacts of the climate crisis, making methane cuts especially important, she said. Furthermore, cleaning up landfills would end the fires and serious air and water pollution they cause.

Methane is generated in landfill dumps when waste food and other organic material is decomposed by microbes in an oxygen-depleted environment. Properly managed waste systems either divert organic material from landfills into biodigesters that produce methane fuel, or cover the landfills and capture the gas. Burning converts methane to CO2, a much less powerful greenhouse gas.

The worst event in India occurred in April 2022 in Delhi, with methane poured into the atmosphere at a rate of 434 tonnes an hour. That is equivalent to the pollution caused by 68m petrol cars running simultaneously.

As well as dirtying the air, Delhi’s stinking “trash mountains”, which are miles wide and 60 metres high, are hellish to live near. Mohammad Rizwan, 36, who owns a shop next to the Ghazipur landfill, the site of India’s biggest methane leak in the last five years, said the nearby residents were the “unluckiest people in Delhi”.

“I have watched it grow from a small rubbish heap into that huge mountain over the past 20 years,” he said. “During the summer it catches fire every week because of all the gas and then it becomes even more disgusting here. It’s impossible to breathe and everyone gets sick. It feels so dangerous to live here but I have no choice – this is where my home and livelihood is.”

Methane is a trace gas in the atmosphere, about 0.0002% by volume. “But if you go to a typical dump site in India, it can range between 3% and 15%, which is huge,” said Singh. Methane fires ignite regularly, she said, sending air pollution including carcinogens across entire cities.

An outburst near Lahore in Pakistan in February leaked at 214 tonnes an hour, equivalent to 34m car exhausts. The assessment of methane leaks in Bangladesh is complicated because illegal tapping of gas pipes is commonplace, causing major leaks in urban areas that can be hard to distinguish from landfill emissions.

Symbolic failure

In most developed nations, regulation of landfill sites means super-emitter events are avoided. However, Argentina is an exception, with 100 super-emitter events from waste sites in the capital, Buenos Aires, since 2019. The worst was in August 2020 when 230 tonnes an hour was emitted, equivalent to running 36m cars.
(more)

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/feb/12/revealed-the-1200-big-methane-leaks-from-waste-dumps-trashing-the-planet

morganism

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Re: Methane sources from oceans, industry and non arctic land sources
« Reply #79 on: February 19, 2024, 11:21:10 PM »
The surface groups of polystyrene nanoparticles control their interaction with the methanogenic archaeon Methanosarcina acetivorans   (so little known about Archae gonna bite us)

A better understanding of the interaction between nanoplastics and archaea is crucial to fill the knowledge gaps regarding the ecological safety of nanoplastics. As a vital source for global methane emissions, methanogenic archaea have unique cell membranes that are distinctly different from those in all other forms of life, little is known about their interaction with nanoplastics. Here, we show that polystyrene nanoparticles functionalized with sulfonic acid (PS-SO3H) and amino (PS-NH2) interact with this methanogenic archaeon in distinct ways. Although both of them have no significant phenotype effects on Methanosarcina acetivorans C2A, these nanoparticles could affect DNA-mediated transposition of this methanogenic archaeon, and PS-SO3H also downregulated nitrogen fixation, nitrogen cycle metabolic process, oxidoreductase activity, etc. In addition, both nanoplastics decreased the protein contents in the extracellular polymer substances (EPS), with distinct binding sequences to the functional groups of the EPS. The single particle atomic force microscopy revealed that the force between the amino group and the M. acetivorans C2A was greater than that of sulfonic acid group. Our results exhibit that the surface groups of polystyrene nanoparticles control their risk on the methanogenic archaea, and these effects might influence their contribution on global methane emission.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36007401/
(paper @ elsevier)

Insights on the inhibition of anaerobic digestion performances under short-term exposure of metal-doped nanoplastics via Methanosarcina acetivorans

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33582639/

kassy

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Re: Methane sources from oceans, industry and non arctic land sources
« Reply #80 on: February 19, 2024, 11:46:09 PM »
Kazakhstan: Methane mega-leak went on for months


One of the worst methane leaks ever recorded took place last year at a remote well in Kazakhstan, new analysis shared with BBC Verify has shown.

It is estimated that 127,000 tonnes of the gas escaped when a blowout started a fire that raged for over six months.

...

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency's Greenhouse Gas Equivalency Calculator, the environmental impact of such a leak is comparable to that of driving more than 717,000 petrol cars for a year.

...

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-68166298
Þetta minnismerki er til vitnis um að við vitum hvað er að gerast og hvað þarf að gera. Aðeins þú veist hvort við gerðum eitthvað.

RoxTheGeologist

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Re: Methane sources from oceans, industry and non arctic land sources
« Reply #81 on: February 29, 2024, 06:17:35 PM »
127,000 *32 = 4 MT, about 0.1% of global emissions. I mean, it's terrible, but it pales in comparison.




Sebastian Jones

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Re: Methane sources from oceans, industry and non arctic land sources
« Reply #82 on: March 05, 2024, 05:15:13 AM »
Mountain Glaciers appear to  be significant methane sources.
This is a recent discovery, and was first noticed in the Yukon.

"Until now, the prevailing view has been that methane in meltwater could only be found in oxygen- free environments under large masses of ice like the Greenland Ice Sheet."

The researchers assume that the production of methane is biological and happens when an organic carbon source—e.g., deposits from prehistoric marine organisms, soils, peat or forests—is decomposed by microorganisms in the absence of oxygen, such as in wetlands. As such, it is surprising that the mountain glaciers emit methane.

"When we suddenly see that even mountain glaciers, which are small in comparison with an ice sheet, are able to form and emit methane, it expands our basic understanding of carbon cycling in extreme environments on the planet. The formation and release of methane under ice is more comprehensive and much more widespread than we thought,"

"Sarah's (Elise Sapper, the grad student who made the discovery) findings change our basic understanding and send us back to the drawing board in relation to some of the key mechanisms at play,"

- Personally I think it is an awesome display of how much pretty basic stuff we still have to learn about the cryosphere.

https://phys.org/news/2024-02-methane-discovery-yukon-glaciers-widespread.html