Mitigating atmospheric methane through nature inspired chemistry
Project ID: 2228cd1378 (You will need this ID for your application)
Research Theme: Energy and Decarbonisation
UCL Lead department: Chemistry
Lead Supervisor: David Rowley
Project Summary:
Greenhouse gases leading to global warming have been increasing in abundance due to human activities since industrialisation. Consequent global warming effects are starkly apparent from climate impacts such as extreme temperatures, wildfires, droughts and floods. The ‘Paris Climate Agreement’ (2015) is an international treaty aimed at keeping the rise global temperatures below 2 C from preindustrial times and preferably at a limit of 1.5 C by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It recognises that future reductions in both CO2 and methane emissions are urgently required, to stand a chance of avoiding catastrophic climate change. Methane is a far more effective greenhouse gas than CO2 per unit mass so, despite its lower abundance, it contributes significantly to global warming. Methane levels in the atmosphere are also rising faster than those of CO2. So called ‘super-emitters’ of methane also exist, but of even more concern are the vast reserves of methane stored naturally in permafrost regions, which may lead to further methane release as the planet warms. As well as the climate impact, methane also leads to increases in toxic ozone levels in the lowermost atmosphere, representing another environmental and health threat. This project aims to investigate artificial methane removal from air through new gas phase chemistry, studied by instrumental and numerical (modelling) methods. The instrument will consist of a reaction chamber with gas (air) delivery. This air will be subject to ultraviolet radiation to initiate gas reactions destroying methane. Gas sensors before and after the reaction chamber will be used to measure the efficiency of methane removal. Modelling of this chemistry and optimisation of methane removal will guide and interpret the experiments. These findings will be used to investigate the potential for scale-up of such instruments on levels of atmospheric methane and therefore the possibility of so called ‘negative’ methane emissions.