It seems like an obscure and technical debate , but a new theme has raise the possibility that measurement of methane escape when drill for raw gas are severely flawed . If correct , the newspaper will throw globose Department of Energy plan into pandemonium , and while it is just one shot in a long - run warfare , the newspaper is already pull some sovereign support .
As the world moves to replace coal as the chief source of electrical energy , natural accelerator pedal is often the cheapest result . At its best , however , gas is still responsible forhalf of the atomic number 6 dioxideemissions per megawattas coal generates .
Moreover , methane(CH4 ) , the main component in natural gas , has28 to 36 timesthe global thaw potential of carbon copy dioxide over a century . If even a few percent of natural gas tapped for energy leaks , any climate advantage throttle has over coal evaporates . This makes the question of how much leaks perfectly crucial .
Estimates here vary ; measuring have been taken set out from0.1%to10.1 % , but modal performance is far more authoritative than the extreme vitrine . Unsurprisingly this has been surd to receive . report ofmethane clouds in drilling regionslend weight to the gamey estimates , but are difficult to measure .
The problem , accord toTouché Howard , is that the Texas study was done using theBacharach Hi - Flow Sampler ( BHFS)to measure methane around well caput . Howard argues that the BHFS “ has been shown to exhibit sensing element failures leading to underreporting of [ Natural Gas ] emission . ”
The BHFS has two samplers , one of which value very low spirit level of gas , the other design to try out in high spirits concentration . Sometimes , Howard reason , the high concentration sampler go wrong to turn on , farm measurements that can be too low by a agent of 100 . “ Although this failure is not well silent , ” Howard claims , “ It does not seem to occur when measuring pure CH4streams , but has been honor in four different samplers when measuring stream with CH4contents wander from 66 % to 95 % . ”
Howard goes into considerable detail on the record of BHFS failure , and why it is likely to have occur in many of the University of Texas measurement . TheNew York Times reportsthat even the maker of the BHFS , while questioning of Howard ’s claims , acknowledge that their twist was validated on dissimilar sorts of gaseous state flow from those at wellhead , and may necessitate further examination .
Some leak during instinctive gas descent can befixed comparatively cheaply , potentially leaving gaseous state on the board as a fuel for the time to come . However , others are think to be harder to plug , and if Howard is correct that these are much larger than antecedently recognized , it is potential that governments will need to empty vim transitions plans that involve using accelerator as a transition fuel between ember and renewables .
