The global oil industry is burning more natural gas than an entire continent.

The new methane binding agent can prevent the burning of huge amounts of natural gas wasted every year.




The global oil industry burns almost the same amount of natural gas as Central and South America each year.

A report reveals that the new binding factor could help turn much of this gas into economically liquid fuel.

Methane problem in the oil industry

Oil production is currently responsible for about 40 percent of methane emissions in the oil and gas industries. Until now, oil companies have had no economically viable option to capture methane that leaks during oil exploration. So they burn gas instead, releasing it into the atmosphere, where global warming is 84 to 87 times more likely to be carbon dioxide. This results in approximately 265 million tons of CO2 emissions.
Researchers at the University of New South Wales believe they have made significant progress in the form of a more efficient and cheaper catalytic conversion method.

University of New South Wales researchers used computer modeling to help identify mineral osmium, the highest density element found in nature, as an ideal target for methane binding. James Watson, lead author of a new study, explained: "We have found that methane, generally inactive, will interact with species that focus on osmium and metal to form a relatively stable osmium compound and methane." "Our complex has an effective half-life of about 13 hours."
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Help move away from fossil fuels

Osmium complexes allow scientists to perform in-depth molecular analyses that will lead to new catalytic processes that use more available elements - because osmium is one of the rarest elements on Earth.

"One way to convert methane into liquid fuel is through the use of catalysts containing transitional mineral elements," said study co-author Professor Graham Poole. But also [come] at a much lower energy cost."

"If there are commercially effective and feasible ways to convert methane into methanol, for example, this will also provide an incentive to retain methane in order to convert it and avoid burning it aimlessly, reducing the overall use of fossil fuels and damaging emissions. We hope our discovery will help design the next generation of more efficient and potentially commercially viable catalysts. "
Hydrocarbon fuels, of course, release CO2 emissions, which means that this solution will not be environmentally friendly. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres recently argued that the global energy system was "damaged" and that further tough action was needed. In this context, this may not be enough.

However, the new method can prevent the extraction of other fuels which means it will reduce the problem a little. It also prevents huge amounts of natural gas from disappearing. After that, there is a possibility that liquid fuel derived from methane can also be mixed with biofuels. Combined, it could be an important step in the transition from fossil fuel consumption.