4 ms·

I wonder if it would be possible to harness these methane reserves for energy production?

• 24gttghh 10y ago
  That's basically what Natural Gas is. While it appears to burn the "cleanest" out of the fossil fuels, it still releases CO2 emmisions.
  • Diederich 10y ago
    Right. Many roots of the modern environmental movement trace back to the early 70s where smog in US cities was a thick, visible and almost always present irritant. That, and burning rivers. Very few of us had a clear understanding of global warming and climate change at the time. Indeed, some brief panicked warnings of an impending ice age have been endlessly presented and re-presented as proof that climate science is bogus. The term 'clean' was really all about particulate emissions. The shit that polluted the air and the water in visible ways. CO2 and methane missions are invisible and odorless, and so weren't really considered at the time. I'm not an expert on chemistry, but I believe that CO2 pretty much HAS to come out of any energy producing reaction of fossil fuels.
    • 24gttghh 10y ago
      This lines up with my understanding of the history as well. And actually, I found an article on phys.org that says to the contrary[0]! I was surprised myself. >Instead of burning methane (CH4), its molecular components, hydrogen (H2) and carbon (C), can be separated in a process called 'methane cracking'. This reaction occurs at high temperatures (750°C and above) and does not release any harmful emissions. https://phys.org/news/2015-11-energy-fossil-fuel-carbon-dioxide.html https://phys.org/news/2015-11-energy-fossil-fuel-carbon-diox...
• jackmott 10y ago
  sure, but that still releases the co2. at least you get something useful from the co2 though.