Methane bursts from frozen tundra

sea-maid submitted, created time 1 month 1 day (www.nature.com)

As the autumn cold begins to bite in the Arctic tundra, the freezing ground releases a large and unexpected burst of methane into the air. The emissions, thought to be squeezed out by the growth of surface frost, match up with an atmospheric methane surge that had previously gone unexplained.

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"Flammable ice" could be mined for fuel

sea-maid submitted, created time 7 months 4 weeks (environment.newscientist.com)

Many signs point toward an energy crisis at some point in the future, so this may come as a pleasant surprise: "'Flammable ice' could be mined for fuel." A team of geologists from Canada and Japan has extracted methane much more efficiently, and without hot water, by pumping air out of drill holes in the frozen structures. This reduces the pressure, raising the melting point of the ice so that the methane could be removed.

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Trash-Based Biofuels: From Landfill to Full Tank of Gas

sumsung submitted, created time 10 months 3 weeks (www.sciam.com)

The remains of plants processed for human purposes molder in landfills across the world. Whether waste paper or raked leaves, the plant remnants still contain cellulose, a sugar in greenery that bonds with the chemical compound lignin to furnish a plant's structure. Microbes living in the landfills break down this cellulose into methane, which slowly seeps to the surface and into the atmosphere, where it is a potent greenhouse gas. BlueFire Ethanol, Inc., in Irvine, Calif., would rather harvest that energy for use as cellulosic ethanol fuel.

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If Life Gives You Methane, Make Methane Energy

Oil-eating bacteria make light work of heavy fuel

Eric wu submitted, created time 1 year 3 weeks (www.nature.com)

Researchers have worked out how natural bacteria deep within the Earth break down crude oil and produce methane. This knowledge could help with projects to encourage these bacteria to covert more oil, faster. And it could point towards a way to produce hydrogen — an even cleaner fuel — by using these natural fuel-processing plants.

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