Methane In the Membrane
CH4: flammable, gaseous hydrocarbon
Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas emitted by human activities such as leakage from natural gas systems and the raising of livestock, as well as by natural sources such as wetlands. It has a direct influence on climate, but also a number of indirect effects on human health, crop yields and the quality and productivity of vegetation through its role as an important precursor to the formation of tropospheric ozone.
Read our article to get a background understanding of methane as a fuel.
Atmospheric methane concentrations have grown as a result of human activities related to agriculture, including rice cultivation and ruminant livestock, coal mining, oil and gas production and distribution, biomass burning, and municipal waste landfilling.
Emissions are projected to continue to increase past2030 unless immediate action is taken.
Impacts caused by Methane:
Climate Impacts
Methane is generally considered second to carbon dioxide in its impact to climate change. The presence of methane in the atmosphere can also affect the abundance of other greenhouse gases, such as tropospheric ozone, water vapor and carbon dioxide.
Recent research suggests that the contribution of methane emissions to global warming is 25% higher than previous estimates.
Health Impacts
Methane is a key precursor gas of the harmful air pollutant, tropospheric ozone. Globally, increased methane emissions are responsible for half of the observed rise in tropospheric ozone levels. While methane does not cause direct harm to human health or crop production, ozone is responsible for about 1 million premature respiratory deaths globally. Methane is responsible for about half of these deaths.
Primary sources of methane emission
Emissions from coal mining and the oil and gas sector could be reduced by over 65% by preventing gas leakage during transmission and distribution, recovering and using gas at the production stage, and by pre-mine degasification and recovery of methane during coal mining.
Refining, transmission, storage and distribution operations are the primary sources of energy-sector methane emissions among major fuel importers.
Tackling downstream emissions can be challenging because it requires exacting measures, such as monitoring lengthy pipeline infrastructure and repairing equipment that is difficult to access. However, about 75% of downstream emissions can be avoided with the help of existing technologies. Solutions such as SuperVision Earth’s leak detection and repair programmes or infrastructure upgrades can often drastically reduce emissions from these segments.
Methane Clouds
Delicate clouds made from cyanoacetylene and hydrogen cyanide, which form from reactions of methane byproducts with nitrogen molecules, also have been found there.
Satellite monitoring of Methane point sources from oil and gas production
Rapid identification of anomalous methane sources in oil and gas fields could enable corrective action to fight climate change.
Reducing methane emissions from oil and gas production and transmission facilities are considered to be one of the most immediately actionable ways to abate climate change, because the captured methane can be sold. Studies of U.S. oil and gas fields have shown that a small number of high‐emitting facilities are responsible for the bulk of the total emission from oil and gas operations.
So far, the only way to identify and quantify these sources has been through field studies involving aircraft and ground‐based observations, but these are expensive, and much of the world cannot be observed in this way. Hence we use satellite instruments to identify and quantify anomalously large point sources from oil/gas fields.
Satellite instruments can be used to monitor methane emissions from individual point sources across the world. They point to an observing strategy where instruments with global coverage at coarse spatial resolution can first identify methane hot spots and then instruments with fine spatial resolution but limited coverage can zoom in to identify the facilities responsible for the hot spots.
Large methane clouds spotted near Iran gas pipelines
The nation of Iran is the third-biggest emitter of the super warming greenhouse gas from oil and gas production, according to the International Energy Agency.
Satellites spotted several large clouds of methane near fossil fuel infrastructure in Iran.
There were two other leaks in September in the same area, one on Sept. 17 that emitted 34 tons per hour and another on Sept. 24 that released 36 tons per hour. Additionally, on Sep. 12, just south of Tehran, a leak released about 54 tons of methane per hour.
SuperVision Earth’s satellite-based AI risk detection technology monitors gas pipelines and other infrastructure with satellite images and artificial intelligence to ensure secure and safe pipeline infrastructure.
To learn more, visit https://supervision.earth.
References:
- https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/12791/nasa-finds-methane-ice-cloud-in-titans-stratosphere/
- https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1029/2019GL083798
- https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-10-08/large-methane-clouds-spotted-near-gas-pipelines-in-iran
- https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/18/15959/2018/
- https://www.ccacoalition.org/en/slcps/methane
- https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0004-637X/747/1/36#apj415473s2
- https://www.iea.org/commentaries/the-case-for-regulating-downstream-methane-emissions-from-oil-and-gas
- https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-54210367
