We treat methane gas as a waste by product.All of the landfills burn off the methane..Oil refineries burn off methaneMethane gas is the largest pollutant today and the climate "warriors" are yelling about it...
So why are we spending hundreds of millions of dollars to do this research?
Actually the stick and carrot are taxation/penalties for excessive emissions or flaring at production locations, and that methane (and the other component gasses in wellhead gas, with some exceptions) is marketable.
Ambient methane (and other VOCs and flammable gasses) near production facilities are a safety hazard, not to mention a waste of marketable product, so leaks are undesirable.
While sometimes, the G.O.R. (Gas/Oil Ratio) is so low and the site so remote as to make capture of those gasses uneconomical, those gasses can be flared and waivers granted.
Flaring is also used as a way to dispose of gas which cannot be transported due to capacity problems in the gathering and processing system. However, when the gas is flared, the Methane is burned (CO2 and Water vapor result).
The reason that the Climate Gang is having fits about methane is that it is a byproduct of Oil production, and even coal mining. This is a back door attack on the production of those fuels, and Methane is the desired product in Natural Gas operations.
IOW, whatever it is, they hate it, especially if it works.
Remember when Natural Gas was marketed as the "safer, cleaner alternative" to bunker fuels (fuel oil) and coal?
Well, typically, those goalposts have been moved, and now we're all supposed to be sunning our arses on a beach somewhere next to Hudson's Bay in January without benefit of so much a a popgun to ward off those poor fuzzy polar bears who just came ashore because they were out of ice floes to paddle around.
