The revelation occurred when associate professor Desiree Plata and three engineering doctoral students were looking at ways to combat methane emissions from distributed sources, like agriculture, dairy farming, and coal mining. The team found that zeolite clay —an inexpensive material used in conventional cat litter—was treated with small amounts of copper, it could pull methane from the air. When particles of copper-treated zeolite were placed in a reaction tube and externally heated, methane from air flowing through the tube was extracted.
Pure zeolite clay. (Photo: The Seed Supply)
But what happens to the methane once it’s been isolated? The zeolite system converts the methane into carbon dioxide, which has far less of an environmental impact than methane itself. Methane is at least 25 times as potent as carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, meaning it traps more heat and exacerbates climate change at a higher rate than carbon dioxide does. While turning methane into carbon dioxide using zeolite clay might not be an environmental activist’s dream solution, it should help to reduce the near-term impact of greenhouse gasses while scientists and policymakers devise even more effective long-term solutions.
This isn’t the first time scientists have developed a method of methane extraction, but Plata’s team’s method might be safer than the rest. Existing strategies rely on expensive minerals like platinum or palladium and must be heated to temperatures exceeding 1,112 degrees Fahrenheit, while the zeolite method is successful at 572 degrees Fahrenheit. Older strategies are also highly combustible, relying on a constant back-and-forth between methane-oriented and oxygen-oriented gas flows. As one might imagine, high heat and combustible gasses don’t make for a very safe work environment.
Plata’s team’s discovery also appears to help eliminate methane in lower concentrations (meaning less than a percent of total gas) and work in everyday air instead of pure oxygen, which means it’s far easier to scale. They hope to bring the technology to coal mines and dairy farms, and thanks to a recent $2 million grant from the US Department of Energy, they should be able to do just that.
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