A Study on Methane Emissions and Its Mitigation Strategies in Present Scenario

Abstract

Methane is an important gas of earths environment. It emits from various naturally as well as anthropogenic sources and responsible for maintaining earths global temperature favorable for humans and other organisms to live. In recent years many activities of human development led to generation of a large volume of methane which has exhibited catastrophic effect on humans as well as animal lives on earth. Methane poses high global warming potential and has been found second most abounded gas in the environment responsible for global warming of earth after carbon dioxide which is well documented in gigantic body of literature. Methane emission is projected to reach 254 Gg/year by the year 2025. The sources of methane generation are scattered in nature that includes marshes, paddy crops, landfills and natural anaerobic decomposition of the organic matter present in the environment and digestion in ruminants as well handling and use of fossil fuels. The versatile sources of methane generation are uncontrolled and tough to be tamed. However, its emissions and negative effects could be reduced by effectively and efficiently managing its sources of emission and utilizing generated volume for energy production. This study emphasize on the harmful as well as beneficial aspects of the methane, its utilization and strategies to control emission from various sources.

Mitigating Methane: Emerging Technologies To Combat Climate Change’s Second Leading Contributor

“…For example, Utgikar and Scott 56 note that accurate estimates and forecasts of energy demand are hampered by barriers associated with technology adoption; socio-economic factors; and volatile economic policies. Moreover, as noted by Feng and Zhang 57 and Aydin et al 58 current trends in energy use may conceivably change drastically in coming years as some countries adopt widespread energy 9,36,8,10,24 − Rice farming 37,10,8,[38][39][40][41][42]24 − Landfills, 43,10,8,44,45,24 Permafrost thaw 9,46−48 − Coal mines 9,8,10,[49][50][51]24 Biomass burning 9,8,10,52,53,24 − Domestic and industrial wastewater 54,10,8,55,24 − Livestock manure 18,8,10,24,25 ). saving measures whereas other developing countries surge in energy demand to meet growing economies.…”

“…Figure 1. CH 4 emissions (a) in the context of the principal GHGs (*LUC = land use change) and (b) as a function of the key CH 4 sources amounting to a total CH 4 emission estimate of 9.5 Gt CO 2 -e yr −1 in our study (compared with 7.8 Gt CO 2 -e yr −1 from the IPCC, 1 8.5 Gt CO 2 -e yr −1 from Karakurt et al 8 and 6.2 Gt CO 2 -e yr −1 from Stolaroff et al 9 ); horizontal dashes in each category represent standard errors for mean emission estimates compiled from the following references (Enteric 18,19,12,20−25 − Hydroelectric dams 26−35 − Oil and gas9,36,8,10,24 − Rice farming37,10,8,[38][39][40][41][42]24 − Landfills,43,10,8,44,45,24 Permafrost thaw 9,46−48 − Coal mines9,8,10,[49][50][51]24 Biomass burning 9,8,10,52,53,24 − Domestic and industrial wastewater54,10,8,55,24 − Livestock manure18,8,10,24,25 ).…”