| By Aaron Clark Like a detective gathering clues, Itziar Irakulis Loitxate scans her computer monitor looking for yellow-colored clouds in satellite data that suggest the presence of methane, a pernicious greenhouse gas that can escape from the Earth when coal, oil and fossil gas are produced. The 27-year-old Ph.D. student isn't a detective but she may be the closest thing the world has to climate police. She's one of the world's foremost remote sensing scientists who uses satellite observations to identify some of the most damaging emissions. She uncovered and published a paper last year on a massive release of methane spewing from an offshore oil and gas platform in the Gulf of Mexico that eventually forced government-owned Petroleos Mexicanos to acknowledge a leak. Before that, she identified 29 pieces of equipment in the central Asian country of Turkmenistan leaking so much methane they had a similar climate impact as the annual emissions from all the cars in Alabama.  Itziar Irakulis Loitxate working at her computer at the Polytechnic University of Valencia in Spain, on Sept. 22. Photographer: Maria Contreras Coll/Bloomberg As record temperatures threaten devastating ecological and human impact from Athens to Phoenix, governments are under increasing pressure to take measures to slow climate change. Because of methane's short-term climate impact — the gas has more than 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide in its first two decades in atmosphere — halting releases could do more to ease heating in the next few years than almost any other single measure. That means the work of Irakulis Loitxate and fellow scientists who identify and attribute leaks is more important than ever. In September, she started work at the United Nations Environment Programme's International Methane Emissions Observatory, including on a new initiative called the Methane Alert and Response System, or MARS, that notifies governments and companies to methane leaks from their fossil fuel infrastructure. "When I find a plume I look for the source. When I know the source we can do something about it,'' said Irakulis Loitxate (i-RA-kuu-lis loy-CHA-teh). IMEO has detected hundreds of methane clouds in dozens of countries and has alerted operators and governments in about half of the nations in which large emissions events have occurred. "More and more countries are trying to help us and improve the system and they are very receptive.''  Irakulis Loitxate points to a yellow-colored cloud in satellite data that suggest the presence of methane. Photographer: Maria Contreras Coll/Bloomberg Satellites detect concentrations of methane from space by observing the way sunlight reflects off the Earth. As light passes through a cloud of the gas, its intensity is weakened on certain wavelengths. Methane absorbs light in the short-wave infrared portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, which is invisible to humans. To find clouds of the potent greenhouse gas Irakulis Loitxate works with scientists at SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research who mine low-resolution imagery from the European Space Agency's Sentinel-5P to identify global methane hotspots. Once Irakulis Loitxate has tagged areas with potential emitters she searches for an image of the same area from high-resolution satellites like the Italian Space Agency's Prisma or Germany's EnMAP. These cover less ground but can offer close-up detail of methane clouds. "In many cases, the emissions are challenging to identify even by humans if you don't have a well-trained eye and previous knowledge of the area you are studying,'' said Irakulis Loitxate, who holds a research position at Polytechnic University of Valencia and expects to defend her Ph.D. by early next year.  Irakulis Loitxate uncovered a massive release of methane spewing from an offshore oil and gas platform in the Gulf of Mexico that eventually forced government-owned Petroleos Mexicanos to acknowledge a leak. Photographer: Maria Contreras Coll/Bloomberg One objective of IMEO, through its MARS initiative, is to identify and halt so-called super emitters — large leaks that research shows accounts for as much as 12% of emissions from oil and gas production and transport. A recent leak in Kazakhstan captured by Sentinel-5P and the Prisma satellites illustrates the danger posed by these events. The release, which started June 9 after a natural gas well blowout, was ongoing as of Sept. 21 according to an analysis of satellite data from Kayrros SAS, which estimated an emissions rate of between 35 and 107 metric tons an hour. Assuming the release has been constant its short term climate impact is equivalent to the annual emissions from between 1.6 and 4.8 million US cars. But the climate transparency generated by satellite observations and scientists like Irakulis Loitxate are expanding awareness of the devastating impact methane leaks have on the planet has started to trigger stronger action from officials. "Governments and fossil fuel operators are more and more concerned about the problem with methane'' said Irakulis Loitxate. "In some countries they weren't concerned, but now, with a bit of training and education they realize that this is a big issue and they should do something.'' Click here for the full version of this story. Semi trailer-sized machines could provide a unique solution to a major source of the fossil fuel industry's methane problem. Rather than flaring or venting the planet-warming gas into the atmosphere, the machines can convert it into methanol, a useful industrial material and fuel. Florida-based startup M2X Energy has raised more than $20 million from investors, including Bill Gates-backed Breakthrough Energy Ventures, to build its gas-to-methanol trailers. The methanol plants on wheels could help reduce methane emissions at remote locations like North Dakota's Bakken shale play where gas is often produced as a byproduct of oil and a dearth of pipeline space means the fuel isn't transported to market. In the US, more than 286.7 billion cubic feet of gas was wasted through flaring or venting in 2021 from upstream oil and gas facilities, although the actual figure is likely far larger because some releases don't get reported and the total doesn't include emissions from some key producing states that don't track the data. Even so, that's enough gas to supply roughly 4.9 million US homes for an entire year. Globally, about $15.9 billion worth of gas was wasted through flaring last year, according to the World Bank. The practice also damages the climate. "The idea is to tackle the problem of flaring and venting, especially in the oil and gas industry, which is one of the biggest problems as far as carbon emissions and methane emissions are concerned,'' said Max Pieri, chief executive officer of M2X, which currently has a demonstration unit hooked up to a well in North Dakota.  A semi-trailer truck hauls M2X Energy's gas-to-methanol unit. Source: M2X Energy Methane, which is made up of carbon and hydrogen atoms, is the primary component of natural gas and has a devastating impact on the climate. The invisible, odorless gas has more than 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide during its first 20 years in the atmosphere. Although combusting the gas through a flare significantly reduces the climate impact, the practice isn't optimal because it wastes fuel that would otherwise be sold and still contributes to global warming because the byproduct of burning it is carbon dioxide. New studies also show that flaring may have a bigger climate impact than previously thought. Governments and industry have historically assumed that flares combust methane at a 98% efficiency rate. But scientists using airborne sampling across three US fossil fuel basins found flares effectively only destroyed 91.1% of methane. The new amount constitutes 4% to 10% of total US oil and gas methane emissions, according to a study published in Science last year. Oil wells typically produce a mixture of crude, gas and water that are separated with heat. When an M2X trailer arrives on site, gas that is normally piped to a flare a safe distance away is diverted through a pipe.  M2X Energy's gas-to-methanol unit at an oil well in North Dakota. Source: M2X Energy Once inside the trailer, the engine oxidizes the gas to produce a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide known as syngas. Methanol is produced by passing the syngas over a standard methanol copper zinc oxide catalyst. Methanol is primarily used as a feedstock for producing chemicals such as formaldehyde, and it's a building block in thousands of products from car parts to paint to construction materials. Roughly 98 million metric tons of methanol are produced annually, according to the Methanol Institute. But the compound could also play a significant role in the energy transition because when combusted as a fuel, it generates less CO2 and particulate matter than many other fossil fuel-derived products. That means it could help curb the climate impact of sectors like marine shipping. Click here for the full version of this story. | 
