Latest Methane Stories

The nearly 200,000 tons of methane released into the Gulf of Mexico during last year's Deepwater Horizon oil spill were ingested by microbes in just four months, according to a new study published in Thursday's edition of the journal Science.Methane, which made up one-fifth of the crude oil that was leaked into the Gulf following an explosion on the BP-operated rig in April 2010, sank mostly into the deepest part of the waters. There, according to what researcher David Valentine of the...

An international, NOAA-led research team took a significant step forward in understanding the atmosphere's ability to cleanse itself of air pollutants and some other gases, except carbon dioxide. The issue has been controversial for many years, with some studies suggesting the self-cleaning power of the atmosphere is fragile and sensitive to environmental changes, while others suggest greater stability. And what researchers are finding is that the atmosphere's self-cleaning capacity is rather...

An international team of scientists has released data indicating that greenhouse gas uptake by continents is less than previously thought because of methane emissions from freshwater areas.John Downing, an Iowa State University professor in the ecology, evolution and organismal biology department, is part of an international team that concluded that methane release from inland waters is higher than previous estimates.The study, published in the journal Science, indicates that methane gas...

Dart Energy, Essar Exploration and more take the stage at the 4th UGas Summit to unveil latest developments on unconventional gas investments & projects. Also on the authoritative panel of experts is Trevor Morgan (former Senior Economist for IEA) addressing natural gas markets, plus presentations from leading CBM players. Singapore (Vocus/PRWEB) January 05, 2011 From Asia, to Australia and America, reports on new large shale gas reserves discoveries are spurring a rush for companies...

UA scientists have inserted metal atoms into methane gas molecules -- a potential advancement for industrial hydrocarbon chemistry and our understanding of how nature uses metals in the molecules of living organismsFor the first time, chemists have succeeded in plugging a metal atom into a methane gas molecule, thereby creating a new compound that could be a key in opening up new production processes for the chemical industry, especially for the synthesis of organic compounds, which in turn...

HOUSTON, Dec. 20, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Far East Energy Corporation (OTC Bulletin Board: FEEC) today announced that the Company and its Chinese partner, CUCBM, have initiated the process for nomination of initial gas for sales, with delivery to occur between late December and January 20, 2011. In accordance with the Gas Sales Agreement, Shanxi Guoxin Energy Development Group, the Purchaser, will prepay for gas volumes each month when volumes are nominated. Thus, it is anticipated that...

ESA's Earth-observing satellites are helping to understand the intricate role that Eurasia's boreal forest "“ the planet's largest land ecosystem "“ plays in the chemical make-up of the atmosphere and the global climate system.By fostering new use of Earth observation data through the Atmosphere-Land Interaction Study (ALANIS), insight is being gained into how boreal forests contribute to greenhouse gas and aerosol concentration, and into the processes governing the interplay between...

Discovery opens door to new class of exoplanetsA team led by a former postdoctoral researcher in MIT's Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences and the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics, recently measured the first-ever planetary atmosphere that is substantially enriched in carbon. The researchers found that the carbon-to-oxygen ratio of WASP-12b, an exoplanet about 1.4 times the mass of Jupiter and located about 1,200 light years away, is greater than one. As they report in...

By Diana Lutz , Washington University in St. LouisIt sounds a bit like spinning straw into gold, but novel metal catalysts may be able to turn greenhouse gases like methane and carbon dioxide into liquid fuels without producing more carbon waste in the process.If fossil fuels burn completely, the end products are carbon dioxide and water. Today the carbon dioxide is a waste product, one that goes into the air "” adding to global warming; or the oceans "” acidifying them; or underground...

Concentrations of greenhouse gases approached record levels in 2009 and could set off even greater methane emissions from the Arctic, the UN's weather agency warned Wednesday. "Greenhouse gas concentrations have reached record levels despite the economic slowdown. They would have been even higher without the international action taken to reduce them," Michael Jarraud, secretary general of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), said in a Wednesday press release."In addition, potential...