After the carbon capture technology, the world now needs Methane capture technology to protect the environment from global warming. We are aware about the global warming and its affects on the environment and human beings. CCS technology was brought in after realizing that the carbon dioxide in the air affects the atmosphere and increases global warming.
Huge industries and fossil fuel power plants were considered as the major source of releasing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere therefore a carbon capture technology was introduced. This technology captures carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and prevents it from entering into the atmosphere by storing it and reusing it in the form of fuel or for making plastic.
Oliver Boucher and Gerd Folberth from UK Met Office’s Hadley Center in Exeter are of a view that a technology to capture Methane from the atmosphere must also be invented. According to their findings methane affects the ozone layer and the atmosphere 100 times more than carbon dioxide. But it only remains in the atmosphere for 10 years whereas the carbon dioxide remains in the air for 100 years. In the pre industrial era the level of methane in the atmosphere was around 700 parts per billion and now it is more than 1800 ppb. If methane is captured from the atmosphere and brought down to the pre industrial level, the atmosphere will get cooler to half a degree.
A type of bacteria called methanotrophs digests methane and produces by-products like formaldehyde. This by-product can be used to manufacture hydrogen fuel. Currently there exist methods of capturing methane from these bacteria but the process is very slow. The world now needs technology that can capture methane from the atmosphere at a larger scale. Methanotrophs need to be speeded up and this can only be done by the genetic engineering. I think countries all around the word should put some concentration on capturing toxic gases from the atmosphere and do a collective effort in reducing the global warming.
