Item — HN Reader

Yes but the issue is we almost always encounter & have to remove lots of natural underground methane to get to the oil below it.

If the oil drills lose incentive to sell the methane off, they just burn it on site as waste. Horrible I know.

So synthetic methane also needs to reduce crude oil demand I’m thinking.

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I don't think it does, though that would be great. Burning the methane on site as waste is still significantly better than releasing it into the air (converting methane to mostly CO2 is still better than not doing it).

This technology doesn't need to solve global warming. Even if it just buys us some more time, it is fantastic news.

If you could get that methane and use it for something productive, what would you propose? I'm looking for ideas, some process that has relatively easy to transport equipment (no expensive big buildings which have to be demolished when oil field is depleted), energy intensive and makes some valuable product with that energy. If someone has any wild/interesting ideas in this space, I'd like to hear it.

Methane and its siblings (methanol, ethanol, ethane) are used as a basic feedstock for more advanced chemical processes, like plastic synthesis, or drugs, or plenty of other organic compounds.

Obviously the easiest one is "store, then burn it for energy", but it seems to me, with this technology, that methane or propane powered vehicles might see lower fuel costs. This process would just make them carbon neutral.

https://chemistry.stackexchange.com/questions/27789/conversi...