Methane Fuel Cells
OK so I don’t really have a post to go with the title. I just googled methane fuel cells. As usual, some engineers promise that they have solved the problem.
The claim is that, with a new catalyst, methane (and oxygen of course) can be used to generate electricity at the temperature of an auto engine (500 c). They do not promise that the fuel cell is stable and especially don’t promise that it is stable if the fuel isn’t pure methane but rather contains, to use the technical term, smelly stuff.
The reason I am interested is that lots of shit and garbage and stuff produces methane which is a potent greenhouse gas. If fuel cells converted it to C02 and also paid for themselves by producing electricity, that would be wonderful. The methane from landfills and swine feces lagoons now escapes into the atmosphere. It isn’t worth collecting and purifying it (do you want to buy it ? How much would it cost to make it smell like pure methane (that is not at all)) ? A practical methane fuel cell would be very useful.
I have no understanding of the chemistry and engineering and even less of the economics. But I think that this is an important technology.
To be really impractical, I imagine dealing with the methane in frozen tundra in a way that it is C02 before it gets in the atmosphere.
Also, methane clathrates on seabeds.
Robert:
To your point of being interested in shit:
Had my fill of Christmas music and switched over to public radio completely and which I listen to when driving long distance. Two days ago; this was being talked about on NPR. It may satisfy your interest. Big Companies Bet On Cleaner Power From Pig Poop Ponds
By the way, they also deodorize it.
Robert,
What in hell is so great about converting methane to CO2?
While methane is a more potent greenhouse gas than CO2, methane is rapidly cleared from the atmosphere, whereas CO2 persists for millennia.
https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-earth-060313-054843
and
https://www.nature.com/articles/nclimate2998.epdf?referrer_access_token=5nFV_lWyEPcr4xjD7lNFndRgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0OqxOmcFLIkN0PlgzWOw_cNeeo67A1IHRo31fqEVd3uAeGaJmdRZcwjmtuJDhXjRX_OHFs4XEJAROylS8q3kR3P-1X4aSuuHJgHku9DjzWfr40Gb3X1HhOO0Z1sijy3zpekzaFjsnvK8096peEFCixdskQm8vXnOoNPCcv73DmtsCNRO55eQLcN4iLaBw3dQ3lJc34nnzQJlG_QVNcnX5-oVEY_Ub81NV4D5WqBvXyv8sTiGR6bhjdiq2OsxJYzxUNsFnBveJvSr49eo4XjWlNe&tracking_referrer=www.washingtonpost.com
Bob,
Yes my view exactly. But the point is that the methane is there anyway and when it gets cleared from the atmosphere what remains in CO2 anyway. We may as well benefit from the transition. What it isn’t is fossil fuel.
Bob,
to explain more of course – we should actually be looking to produce less methane in the first place (for instance by changing agricultural methods, diet etc.
This is perhaps more interesting:
https://www.hypergiant.com/green/
they’re converting tons of methane to CO2 in Texas, right now, as we speak…in the Permian basin of west Texas, they are now burning off or venting 752 million cubic feet of natural gas per day, which i figure to be 10 times more natural gas than what West Virginia’s households consume over a year (here’s the annual data on WVa’s consumption, divide by 365 to get their daily use; https://www.eia.gov/dnav/ng/hist/n3010wv2a.htm )….the burned gas all goes into the atmosphere as CO2, while what’s vented is released as methane….they’re doing this because they’re after the oil, and the natural gas (methane) that comes up with it is an inexpensive byproduct they don’t want…
here’s my Oil & Gas Journal source for the 752 million cubic feet of natural gas per day, but you really have to look at the graph that comes with this article:
https://www.ogj.com/drilling-production/article/14071389/rystad-energy-permian-gas-flaring-reaches-another-high
speaking of methane, we are now building 134 pipelines, mostly in the Southcentral and Northeast regions, to move the stuff around the country and to Canada, (so it can be reimported at a higher price and thus get around public utility regulations)…
https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=41933#
those who are investing in those pipelines expect them to be in use 50 years or more…but they really want to keep the climate people worrying about the methane that comes from cows…