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 Ashwin Kumar Mar 4, 2013 01:31  |
Thank you for the proposal!
1) Are there documented sites with large enough concentrations of methane above the surface, so that methane can be spark-ignited?
2) Would one goal be to, at the same time, avoid igniting the sub-surface methane? Could this be achieved?
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 Andrew Lockley Mar 5, 2013 01:44  | Proposal contributor
Yes, there are videos online of researchers igniting gas over karst lakes.
Sub surface methane is produced in hypoxic environments. It's unlikely, therefore, that dangerous underground ignitions could occur. However, leaks into well-ventilated caves and mines would be dangerous to ignite - as the minerals industry is already well aware.
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 Michael Maccracken May 2, 2013 06:55  |
Given there is energy in the methane that could be used, are there not catalysts that could decompose the methane without igniting it? Might there be organisms that would feed on the methane, if given a chance?
Do you have any sense of whether the energy (or radiative forcing) footprint needed to implement this idea is more or less than the radiative forcing the released methane would exert on the Earth system?
Are there not organisms that feed on sub-surface methane releases? Might it not make more sense to release them instead of have to reignite the methane relatively frequently?
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Andrew Lockley May 3, 2013 03:10 | Proposal contributor
Methanotrophs can indeed metabolise methane, but they require oxygen to do so. It may disturb the lake's ecology to add oxygen. Moving water or gas bubbles into deep strata may increase turbidity.
I think the energy requirements would be very low. Your car engine has 100 sparks per second - far more than is needed to ignite a methane stream. The components needed to generate a spark are also very simple - 1930's technology is quite sufficient!
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 2013geoengineeringjudges 2013geoengineeringjudges Jul 10, 2013 11:13 |
Thank you for sharing your ideas and for the work invested to create this proposal. Your proposal has been considered carefully by the judges, and while the proposal has interesting ideas, and we appreciate the response to questions that were raised, it is unclear how much methane is released in this way and what part of it the scheme would address and whether it can be developed to ignite most of the methane that is released in this way.
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