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Study: Methane emissions may be five times higher than previously thought

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Thursday, September 29, 2022

Global emissions of methane from existing gas infrastructure may be up to five times higher than had been believed, a new study has found. Existing measures to burn off the powerful greenhouse gas — which is dozens of times more potent than carbon dioxide — allow far more to slip by than had been believed, according to the paper published on Thursday in Science. A bipartisan bill put forth on Wednesday by Reps. Peter Meijer (R-Mich.) and Sean Casten (D-Ill.) seeks to tackle the problem. The Methane Emissions Mitigation Research and Development Act “focuses our best and brightest at the Department of Energy on methane emissions, one of the most potent greenhouse gasses,” Meijer said in a statement.  “It also provides our local governments and private industries with the necessary tools to mitigate methane emissions and leaks,” he added. Among these tools are the suite of leak detection and repair (LDAR) technologies, which include the satellite tools that the Science team used to quantify the imperfect nature of venting and flaring, common features of natural gas drilling. At times or in areas where there isn’t sufficient pipeline or storage for the quantities of natural gas being produced — sometimes as a byproduct of more lucrative oil — drilling operators “flare,” or burn off, the methane. It had long been believed that flaring converts all the methane into water vapor and relatively inert carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that, while it still heats the climate, is far less potent. But this is an “overly optimistic view” of flaring, which leaves far more methane behind than had been believed, according to a companion essay in Science. In fact, studies of three major natural gas basins — the Eagle Ford and Permian in Texas, and the Bakken of North Dakota — found that only 91 percent of the methane is consumed. That’s in part because flares are often malfunctioning or simply unlit — allowing raw methane to vent into the atmosphere. If these flares operated properly at even 98 percent efficiency, they would cut emissions enough to be the equivalent of removing nearly 3 million cars from the road, the Science team found. Enough gas was flared in 2021 to make up about two-thirds of current EU demand — but most oil and gas producers don’t directly check or report how efficiently that gas was burned off. Complete combustion of natural gas at flare sites would also spare nearby communities from potentially toxic impacts. About half a million people live within three miles of flare sites in these three basins — which puts them at direct risk from the potentially toxic organic compounds released if those flares malfunction. Such failures to properly combust waste gas could “expose front-line communities to a cocktail of co-pollutants that present risks of acute and/or chronic health impacts,” the team wrote in a statement. These leaks are a major problem for both U.S. emission goals and for the attempt of gas producers to brand themselves as a low-carbon bridge fuel — or a feedstock for new-model fuels like blue hydrogen, a still largely frontier product fabricated from gas from which the carbon has been captured and stored. The Science study builds on a 2021 paper in Environmental Research Letters that found that about 60 percent of total methane emissions from the Permian Basin — a region that produces about 18 percent of U.S. natural gas — came from 1,000 “super emitter” wells. And the International Energy Agency in 2020 estimated global flaring efficiency at about 92 percent — approximately what the Science team just confirmed for the United States. The solution, according to the Science team, is similar to the one Casten and Meijer are asking for: better technology. “Together, satellites, surface sensors, and models can provide more-accurate assessments of the role that improved flaring efficiency plays in overall O&G emissions and future mitigation efforts,” the researchers wrote in the companion essay. But they cautioned that fixing the problem would require more than simply new technology, but would also require “further improvements in monitoring, regulations, and industry practices.” The time for taking action on this is now, Casten wrote in a statement. “2021 saw the highest annual growth rate for methane emissions to date,” he said. “This problem is not slowing down and will only increase without action. 

Global emissions of methane from existing gas infrastructure may be up to five times higher than had been believed, a new study has found. Existing measures to burn off the powerful greenhouse gas — which is dozens of times more potent than carbon dioxide — allow far more to slip by than had been believed,...

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Related News

Tackling Carbon Dioxide: Strategies for a Livable World

Banish fossil fuels, capture their emissions, pull CO2 from thin air — diplomats in Bonn for UN-led climate talks agree there’s too much planet-warming carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, but remain at loggerheads on the best way to reduce it. At stake is nothing less than a liveable world: even if humanity caps global warming […] The post Tackling Carbon Dioxide: Strategies for a Livable World appeared first on The Tico Times | Costa Rica News | Travel | Real Estate.

Banish fossil fuels, capture their emissions, pull CO2 from thin air — diplomats in Bonn for UN-led climate talks agree there’s too much planet-warming carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, but remain at loggerheads on the best way to reduce it. At stake is nothing less than a liveable world: even if humanity caps global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius — a huge ‘if’ — hundreds of millions will still confront devastating heat, drought, flooding and sea level rise, recent studies have shown. There are three ways to deal with the problem, intervening at different points in the CO2 “value chain” from source to tailpipe: stop burning fossil fuels, by far the main driver of warming; if you do burn them, stop carbon pollution from seeping into the air; and remove CO2 from the atmosphere once it’s there. “All technologies, all levers available need to be used,” said Simon Stiell, the head of UN Climate, as the talks in Bonn opened.  “But the science is very, very clear: the fastest and most effective way of getting us to where we need to is the phasing down and phasing out of all fossil fuels.” Politically, an informal “high ambition” coalition including the European Union (especially Germany) and scores of climate vulnerable developing countries are pushing — to cite the Association of Small Island States (AOSIS) — to “radically reduce fossil fuels now” through policy, regulatory and economic levers. But major oil and gas exporters, the United States and some emerging economies are keen to shift the focus further downstream, saying the world can reduce carbon emissions without ditching the fossil fuels that generate them.  Persistent failure Their standard bearer is Sultan al-Jaber, head of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company and — controversially — president of the COP28 climate summit to be hosted at year’s end by the United Arab Emirates. The persistent failure over decades to cut carbon emissions — currently 53 billion tones of CO2 or its equivalent per year — has forced once marginal technologies toward centre stage. These fall roughly into two categories that are often confused and conflated. “Carbon capture” refers to syphoning off concentrated CO2 from the exhaust, or flue gas, of coal- and gas-fired power generation, as well as heavy industrial processes. Once isolated, the CO2 can be used to make products (“carbon capture and utilization” or CCU), or socked away underground in depleted oil and gas reservoirs (“carbon capture and storage” or CCS). A crucial point: Even when CCS stores all the CO2 captured, it does not decrease the amount in the atmosphere. But only prevent more from entering. Potential advantages Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) techniques, however, do result in a net reduction in atmospheric CO2 and could, if scaled up, help lower Earth’s surface temperature when we overshoots the Paris Agreement’s 1.5C threshold, as seems likely. Worldwide, CDR captures two billion tonnes of CO2 each year, according to the inaugural State of Carbon Dioxide Report. More than 99.9 percent is extracted through “conventional” techniques such as restoring and expanding CO2-absorbing forests. Less than 0.1 percent is removed by “novel” means, and one in particular — direct air capture (DAC), an energy-intensive process that chemically extracts CO2 from the air —  has attracted the most attention and investment.  It’s contribution to the cause is anecdotal: today, less than 20 DAC plants globally capture about as much CO2 in a year (10,000 tonnes) as the world emits in about 10 seconds. But once upon a time scaling solar power looked as improbable, advocates note. Indeed, the IEA’s so-called “net zero emissions by 2050 scenario” assumes DAC will capture 60 Mt CO2/year by 2030. The first million-tonne plant is due to come on line next year. DAC has potential advantages, especially compared to a troubled carbon offsets markets based on protecting or growing trees. Unknown risks Forests burn down, especially in a warming world, which makes them less than permanent, a key criterion under UN rules.  A tonne of mechanically extracted carbon stored underground is easily measured and monitored. Not so for forest-based credits, which are notoriously subject to cheating and dodgy accounting. Last month Zimbabwe sent a shudder through the $2 billion offsets market by announcing it would appropriate half of all the revenue generated from offsets on its land, exposing another vulnerability. The small but burgeoning DAC industry was itself thrown into turmoil last week by a 100-page UN “information note” on which removal techniques might be recognized under carbon market accounting rules still in the making. The aggressively dismissive note said “engineering-based removal activities are technologically and economically unproven, especially at scale, and pose unknown environmental and social risks.” Pushback was sharp, with scores of carbon removal start-ups and several independent research groups pointing out glaring scientific inaccuracies underlying the report. “This tells us that there’s a lot of money at stake as to which technologies are given the green light,” noted Alden Meyer, a senior policy analyst at climate think tank E3G. Residual emissions So what’s the right balance between reducing fossil fuel use and finding ways to scrub CO2 from industrial processes and the air? “Machine based removal is simply unlikely to work at any meaningful scale,” said scientist Jonathan Foley, executive director of Project Drawdown, which evaluates the potential of mitigation solutions.  “Ninety-five percent of what we need to do is cut emissions,” he said. “Five percent is carbon removal, and 90 percent of that should be nature based removal such as ecological restoration and regenerative agriculture.” But those ratios are not in line with the long-term national strategies for reaching net zero emissions by 2050, according to a recent study in Nature Climate Change. Most wealthy countries still allow for large “residual emissions” when they hit net zero — on average, 18 percent of current emissions — on the assumption that technology will be available to capture and remove them by then. The post Tackling Carbon Dioxide: Strategies for a Livable World appeared first on The Tico Times | Costa Rica News | Travel | Real Estate.

CO2
Climate
Chemicals

Startup lands $23M to upcycle CO2 into plane fuel

Airplanes generate copious amounts of carbon dioxide emissions every time they fly. A startup in Oxford, England is working to turn that CO 2 back into jet fuel, potentially creating a cleaner way to power the highly polluting, hard-to-decarbonize aviation sector. On Tuesday, OXCCU said it raised nearly $23 million…

Airplanes generate copious amounts of carbon dioxide emissions every time they fly. A startup in Oxford, England is working to turn that CO 2 back into jet fuel, potentially creating a cleaner way to power the highly polluting, hard-to-decarbonize aviation sector. On Tuesday, OXCCU said it raised nearly $23 million…

CO2

From Forgotten Formula to Climate Game Changer: A New Tool for Converting Carbon Dioxide

Scientists from Cornell University have revisited a century-old electrochemical equation, the Cottrell equation, to aid in the conversion of atmospheric carbon dioxide into a functional...

Scientists from Cornell University have revisited a century-old electrochemical equation, the Cottrell equation, to aid in the conversion of atmospheric carbon dioxide into a functional...

CO2
Chemicals
Technology

Biden's carbon-capture agenda faces hurdles on the left

Environmentalists are fighting projects around the country that aim to transport carbon dioxide and bury it underground.

President Joe Biden wants to combat climate change by taking carbon dioxide out of the air and burying it underground. But some environmental activists on the left are working to stop him. The activists say a focus on carbon capture would give industry political cover to keep polluting instead of reducing emissions, and their argument is gaining traction in communities across the country. They convinced the New Orleans City Council to pass a resolution opposing underground carbon storage last year. Elsewhere in Louisiana, they're trying to delay the permitting of a pipeline that would carry carbon to storage facilities. The growing opposition is threatening to delay the full rollout of billions of dollars in new federal spending on carbon capture — and it's showing the difficulties the Biden administration faces in trying to prioritize both industrial carbon removal and disadvantaged communities. "The developers of carbon injection projects are not going to get environmental justice advocates on board," said Jane Patton, campaign manager for plastics and petrochemicals at the Center for International Environmental Law. "There is no environmental justice to be found in the injection of carbon under the ground." The Biden administration has made communities that are located near industrial facilities a focus of its climate policies. The White House pledged in 2021 to make sure at least 40 percent of climate and clean energy spending benefits disadvantaged communities. Biden signed an executive order last month emphasizing “that the pursuit of environmental justice is a duty of all executive branch agencies.” But activists are alarmed by the sheer volume of funding for carbon capture, which includes $3.5 billion for direct-air capture "hubs" and another $2.5 billion for six carbon capture facilities. They say it implies the administration is prepared to override environmental objections. "As long as that enormous amount of money is being rapidly pushed out by the federal government, that undermines any attempts to engage with or have conversations with environmental justice communities," Patton said. The Energy Department has been holding community workshops around the country, including one in California's Central Valley in March. Its application process for the direct air capture hubs requires applicants to submit a community benefits plan that addresses how the project will boost the local workforce, advance diversity, equity and inclusion, and engage labor and communities. DOE has also asked advocates to help review applications. “It’s a very fraught piece of the puzzle and one that we are committed to getting right but know that it’s definitely a marathon, it’s not a sprint, and we’ve only run the first miles,” said Noah Deich, deputy assistant secretary for DOE's Office of Carbon Management. Environmental groups are fighting new projects spurred by the promise of federal support, as well as projects that have been on the drawing board for years. Their opposition is rooted in worries about the potential hazards of more pipelines, but it's also ideological, based in longstanding objections to focusing on carbon dioxide to the exclusion of the conventional pollutants that often accompany it. Two environmental groups, the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice and the Alliance for Affordable Energy, helped persuade the New Orleans City Council to pass a moratorium on underground carbon storage in June 2022. Three months later, nearby Livingston Parish passed a similar ban, prompting a lawsuit from Air Products, a company planning a $4.5 billion hydrogen plant and pipeline to send captured carbon to storage wells under nearby Lake Maurepas. Air Products has been trying to quell local opposition through question-and-answer sessions at town halls, said Art George, a company spokesperson. “We're trying to be very transparent in our approach and explain the technology and what we're trying to do,” he said. Activists have also been slowing projects down at the state level. Louisiana had waited for two years for EPA to decide whether to allow the state to handle permitting for its CO2 wells before receiving preliminary jurisdiction in late April. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) blamed the delay on environmental justice groups' opposition. “That was what was holding it up," he said in an interview. Carbon capture opponents plan to continue protesting, regardless of whether the state or federal government takes the lead on permitting. “Who issues the permits is not the key problem here," Patton said. "The permits being issued is the key problem here." Nicole Parra, a former state lawmaker working with California Resources Corp., a petroleum company that's seeking a federal grant to build a direct-air capture system in California's Central Valley, is trying hard to win activists over. Parra is director of the California Renewable Energy Laboratory at the Kern Community College District, which is partnering with CRC on the project. She said she carries around a 16-point list of demands from a coalition of groups that are worried about the project's potential impact on local residents. "Literally, it's in my hand right now," she said. Among the demands: a minimum distance of 10 miles between projects and disadvantaged communities; and a requirement that projects not increase air, water, noise or light pollution. One of the activists whose organization compiled the list, Dan Ress, an attorney at the Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment, said they don't think CRC's project is well suited to the region because its geology is too porous, pockmarked from decades of oil and gas production. “I'm very skeptical that Kern County is actually a good candidate for this, given that we have 100,000 holes in the ground,” Ress said. Parra acknowledged their opposition but said it shouldn't determine the project's fate. "Will we have the environmental justice endorsement of the grant at this time? No," she said. "I don't think any group, whether it's industry, EJ, community, academia, should have the ability to kill projects if they meet the requirements that the president has outlined.”

CO2
Activism
Climate

How south-east Asia is fighting back to save corals – photo essay

A series of initiatives involving scientists, NGOs and fishing communities across south-east Asia is attempting to breathe new life into vital marine ecosystems damaged by heating waters, acidification and years of overfishingText and photographs by Giacomo d’OrlandoCoral reefs are some of the most diverse ecosystems on the planet. A home for fish, invertebrates and other marine life, they are crucial for maintaining the health and balance of the ocean. As well as generating half of Earth’s oxygen – it is said that the ocean gives us every second breath we take – oceans absorb more than 25% of all carbon dioxide emissions, and capture 90% of the excess heat generated by these emissions, up to four times faster than the same area of tropical forest.A sample of Pocillopora acuta is tested in a continuous nitrogen chamber at Macorin (Marine and Coastal Research Institute) at Prince of Songkla University, Thailand Continue reading...

A series of initiatives involving scientists, NGOs and fishing communities across south-east Asia is attempting to breathe new life into vital marine ecosystems damaged by heating waters, acidification and years of overfishingText and photographs by Giacomo d’OrlandoCoral reefs are some of the most diverse ecosystems on the planet. A home for fish, invertebrates and other marine life, they are crucial for maintaining the health and balance of the ocean. As well as generating half of Earth’s oxygen – it is said that the ocean gives us every second breath we take – oceans absorb more than 25% of all carbon dioxide emissions, and capture 90% of the excess heat generated by these emissions, up to four times faster than the same area of tropical forest.A sample of Pocillopora acuta is tested in a continuous nitrogen chamber at Macorin (Marine and Coastal Research Institute) at Prince of Songkla University, Thailand Continue reading...

CO2
Forests
Health

Suggested Viewing

THE SPRAYER

In the land occupied with the sprayers army, no one has the right to grow any kind of plants either in public or private. So many of the people and soldiers do not even know how a plant grows or looks like, until one day one of the soldiers finds a seed buried deep down in the dust and his curiosity is just the beginning of something extraordinary, something big, something revolutionary.

Plants
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A Low Carbon Future for China’s Furnace Cities

China’s economic development and rapid urbanization has led to a dramatic rise in energy consumption due to excessive heating and air-conditioning causing carbon emissions of immense proportions. China’s government has set the ambitious target of reducing CO2 emissions by 40–45% by 2020 against the 2005 baseline. A UK/China-funded team working on how to solve the problem in some of the most extreme climate regions in China. The team discovers groundbreaking solutions using computational-fluid-dynamics simulations.

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Energy
Climate

CO2? CO-Nee!

Joep van Dijk is a passionate climate scientist. He likes to search for extreme examples that show how life can be lived sustainably. This documentary follows Joep on his CO2-neutral journey from Amsterdam to the United States of America and shows how this choice inspires himself and others to live a climate conscious life.

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The Carbon Chronicles

The Carbon Chronicles: Who owns the air? The Carbon Chronicles is an experimental animated visualisation of the build-up of CO2 and other greenhouse gasses has radically altered the Earth’s atmosphere. It is a collaboration between artists from the Manifest Data Lab and scientists from the British Antarctic Survey. The animation maps from the industrial revolution to the present day the regions contributing most to the climate crisis, which can be traced through the stalagmite growths representing CO2 emissions growing out from the different countries. Beginning with the UK in the 1750s, emissions from coal start enveloping the planet, other regions soon follow. By the late 1800s through to the current period, growing industrial and extraction activity in the Global North is responsible for 92% of CO2 with 8% coming from the Global South. The spread of CO2 described in the animation mirrors the wider historic processes of power distribution visited on poorer countries and shows that the atmosphere is as contested a space as the territories beneath it. The work describes a living breathing planet, under the pressure of human produced exhalations of CO2. It attributes responsibility in ways that can inform the need for equitable solutions to the climate crisis that are mindful of the historic consequences of carbon exploitation and its impacts. The Carbon Chronicles informs the need for equitable solutions to the climate crisis that are mindful of the historic consequences of carbon exploitation to ask: Who Owns the Air?

Animation
CO2
Experimental

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