this biogas and biomethane, Despite being more climate-friendly, they emit twice as much methane as previously thoughtAccording to a study published in ‘One Earth’ by Imperial College London. Although they are still cleaner than non-renewable alternatives, researchers call for better leak control and repair ensuring that biogas and biomethane continue to meet their green identities.
Both are produced decomposition of organic matterincluding food, animal waste, energy crops, grass or sewage sludge, making them renewable alternatives to natural gas, coal and oil. However, the researchers identified potential pitfalls in energy supply chains for these climate-changing gases and concluded: More efforts are needed to reduce methane leaks.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s AR6 report, methane causes about 27 times more heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide (CO2) and is responsible for at least a quarter of global warming.
New Imperial research reveals that biomethane and biogas supply chains are releasing twice as much methane as the previous International Energy Agency (IEA) estimate. It also reveals 62% of these leaks are concentrated in a small number of plants and equipment in the chain.What they call “super emitters” but methane has been found to be released in all phases.
The researchers say urgent attention needs to be paid to resolving methane leaks, and knowing exactly where many of them occur will help manufacturing facilities do just that.
“Poorly designed and managed facilities”
D., of the Department of Chemical Engineering and the Sustainable Gas Institute at Imperial, the study’s lead author. Semra Bakkaloğlu, said in a statement, “biomethane and biogas are great candidates for renewable and clean energy sources, but they can also release methane. To really help reduce the warming effects of energy use, We must act urgently to reduce emissions. We want to promote the continued use of biogas and biomethane as a renewable resource by taking the necessary steps to reduce methane emissions,” he adds.
Researchers state that Compared to the oil and gas industry, the biomethane industry suffers from poorly designed and managed production facilities as well as a lack of investment in its modernization, operation and control.. Because oil and gas supply chains have been run by large companies with enormous resources for decades, they have been able to invest more in leak detection and repair.
In response to the climate crisis, many countries are replacing large amounts of carbon-emitting energy sources such as natural gas, coal and oil with biomethane and biogas. Although they are made from a mixture of CO2 and methane, biomethane and biogas emit less of either gas, making them greener energy alternatives.
However, these backup fuels continue to release methane throughout their supply chain. in processing plants and long pipelines. This new analysis gives us a better understanding of where, when and how much methane is released into the biomethane and biogas source.
researchers Analyzed 51 previously published studies on mobile methane measurements and data from emission sources throughout the biomethane and biogas supply chain. Using a statistical model called Monte Carlo, they analyzed the data and calculated total methane emissions. This allowed them to account for all measurements of total supply chain emissions at each stage of the chain, and then compared them to off-site emissions reported from field-wide measurements in previously published studies.
They found their supply chain Methane emissions of up to 343 g of CO2 equivalent per megajoule with higher heating value, which can reach 18.5 megatons of methane per year. IEA Estimates reported emissions as just 9.1 megatonnes Although total methane emissions from biogas and biomethane are lower than from oil and natural gas, the amount of methane released by supply chains relative to total gas production is much higher than that from oil and gas.
…..
Environment department contact address:[email protected]
Source: Informacion
