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The impact of methane leakage on the role of natural gas in the European energy transition.

ABSTRACT: Decarbonising energy systems is a prevalent topic in the current literature on climate change mitigation, but the additional climate burden caused by methane emissions along the natural gas value chain is rarely discussed at the system level. Considering a two-basket greenhouse gas neutrality objective (both CO₂ and methane), we model cost-optimal European energy transition pathways towards 2050. Our analysis shows that adoption of best available methane abatement technologies can entail an 80% reduction in methane leakage, limiting the additional environmental burden to 8% of direct CO₂ emissions (vs. 35% today). We show that, while renewable energy sources are key drivers of climate neutrality, the role of natural gas strongly depends on actions to abate both associated CO₂ and methane emissions. Moreover, clean hydrogen (produced mainly from renewables) can replace natural gas in a substantial proportion of its end-uses, satisfying nearly a quarter of final energy demand in a climate-neutral Europe.

SUBMITTER: Shirizadeh B

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10505150 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The impact of methane leakage on the role of natural gas in the European energy transition.

Shirizadeh Behrang B Villavicencio Manuel M Douguet Sebastien S Trüby Johannes J Bou Issa Charbel C Seck Gondia Sokhna GS D'herbemont Vincent V Hache Emmanuel E Malbec Louis-Marie LM Sabathier Jerome J Venugopal Malavika M Lagrange Fanny F Saunier Stephanie S Straus Julian J Reigstad Gunhild A GA

Nature communications 20230916 1

Decarbonising energy systems is a prevalent topic in the current literature on climate change mitigation, but the additional climate burden caused by methane emissions along the natural gas value chain is rarely discussed at the system level. Considering a two-basket greenhouse gas neutrality objective (both CO<sub>2</sub> and methane), we model cost-optimal European energy transition pathways towards 2050. Our analysis shows that adoption of best available methane abatement technologies can ent ...[more]

PMID: 37717065

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Project description:BackgroundNatural gas seeps contribute to global climate change by releasing substantial amounts of the potent greenhouse gas methane and other climate-active gases including ethane and propane to the atmosphere. However, methanotrophs, bacteria capable of utilising methane as the sole source of carbon and energy, play a significant role in reducing the emissions of methane from many environments. Methylocella-like facultative methanotrophs are a unique group of bacteria that grow on other components of natural gas (i.e. ethane and propane) in addition to methane but a little is known about the distribution and activity of Methylocella in the environment. The purposes of this study were to identify bacteria involved in cycling methane emitted from natural gas seeps and, most importantly, to investigate if Methylocella-like facultative methanotrophs were active utilisers of natural gas at seep sites.ResultsThe community structure of active methane-consuming bacteria in samples from natural gas seeps from Andreiasu Everlasting Fire (Romania) and Pipe Creek (NY, USA) was investigated by DNA stable isotope probing (DNA-SIP) using 13C-labelled methane. The 16S rRNA gene sequences retrieved from DNA-SIP experiments revealed that of various active methanotrophs, Methylocella was the only active methanotrophic genus common to both natural gas seep environments. We also isolated novel facultative methanotrophs, Methylocella sp. PC1 and PC4 from Pipe Creek, able to utilise methane, ethane, propane and various non-gaseous multicarbon compounds. Functional and comparative genomics of these new isolates revealed genomic and physiological divergence from already known methanotrophs, in particular, the absence of mxa genes encoding calcium-containing methanol dehydrogenase. Methylocella sp. PC1 and PC4 had only the soluble methane monooxygenase (sMMO) and lanthanide-dependent methanol dehydrogenase (XoxF). These are the first Alphaproteobacteria methanotrophs discovered with this reduced functional redundancy for C-1 metabolism (i.e. sMMO only and XoxF only).ConclusionsHere, we provide evidence, using culture-dependent and culture-independent methods, that Methylocella are abundant and active at terrestrial natural gas seeps, suggesting that they play a significant role in the biogeochemical cycling of these gaseous alkanes. This might also be significant for the design of biotechnological strategies for controlling natural gas emissions, which are increasing globally due to unconventional exploitation of oil and gas.

Dataset Information

The impact of methane leakage on the role of natural gas in the European energy transition.

Publications

The impact of methane leakage on the role of natural gas in the European energy transition.

Similar Datasets

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