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Oil reservoirs could have an environmental make-over with the help of bacteria. A report in Nature has shown how crude oil in deposits around the world is naturally broken down by microbes to methane. Scientists say that increasing microbe activity would produce a more energy-efficient method of methane recovery. It is likely field tests will start by 2009. The ability to recover methane directly from deeply buried oil reserves means energy-intensive and thermal polluting processes are removed. But methods like injecting steam into the reservoirs to heat and loosen the heavy viscous oil, so it can be pumped to the surface, are no longer needed say the authors of the Nature report. "The main thing is you'd be recovering a much cleaner fuel," says co-author Steve Larter, a petroleum geologist from the University of Calgary. "Methane is, per energy unit, a much lower carbon dioxide emitter than bitumen. Also, you wouldn't need all the upgrading facilities and piping on the surface." Co-author Martin Jones, from the University of Newcastle, told the BBC News website that recovering methane from microbe biodegradation could also be used in exhausted oil fields: "Typically more then half of the oil that is in the reservoir is left there after the field is exhausted. In cases where they can't get the oil out economically, then they could convert it to gas."

The EBRD, through the Netherlands Emissions Reduction Co-operation Fund, is purchasing more carbon credits from a renewable energy wastewater treatment projects in Bulgaria that will help significantly reduce Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. This project entails the production of electricity and heat at Sofiyska voda’s Kubratovo wastewater treatment plant, 20 km outside of Sofia using methane that would have otherwise been emitted into the atmosphere. Methane produced at the plant will be captured and used in a combined heat and power plant for electricity and heat production. It is expected that about 1.1 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent will be reduced by 2012, which is the equivalent of the amount released annually by over 180,000 Dutch households. This is the EBRD’s second carbon credit transaction for the account of the Netherlands signed this week, following the signing of a hydro power project along the river Iskar, which aims to cut 336,462 tonnes of CO2 by 2012. The carbon credit sale is in accordance with the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty to reduce GHGs that came into force on 16 February 2005*. The Kyoto Protocol covers six GHGs, including carbon dioxide and methane, which contribute the most to worldwide GHG emissions. Methane has a global warming potential of 21 times that of carbon dioxide. Carbon credits are created when a project reduces or avoids the emission of GHGs when compared to what would have been emitted without its implementation. The Kyoto Protocol has created a market in which companies and governments that reduce GHG levels can either use such reductions for compliance or sell the ensuing carbon credits. Jacquelin Ligot, EBRD Director for Energy Efficiency & Climate Change, said that by purchasing carbon credits from this project, the EBRD-managed Netherlands Emissions Reduction Co-operation Fund is helping the Bulgarian plant maximise generation of electricity from renewable sources, which helps the country diversify its fuel mix. The sale of carbon credits provides an additional incentive that renders such projects viable, Mr Ligot said. The GHG emission reductions will be verified by an independent entity to ensure that the emission reductions claimed have actually been realised. The Government of Bulgaria will then transfer these credits to the account of the Netherlands. The Netherlands has agreed to cut its 1990 GHG emissions by 6%, which translates into a reduction target of 200 million tonnes by 2012. To date, the EBRD, on behalf of the Dutch Fund, has signed four carbon credit projects in Bulgaria, which are expected to generate 2 million carbon credits. These projects include the switch to biomass energy at the Paper Factory Stambolijski, an energy efficiency investment programme at Svilocell, a portfolio of energy efficiency and renewable energy projects with bank UBB and Vez Svoghe, a hydro power project signed this week. As the Dutch Fund is nearly fully invested new carbon projects in Bulgaria will be developed under the Multilateral Carbon Credit Fund (“MCCF”), a joint EBRD-EIB initiative which facilitates the purchase of carbon credits from projects across the high energy intensity countries of central and eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States. Typical projects will include industrial energy efficiency, fuel-switch, renewable energy (for example, biomass, wind and mini-hydro) and landfill gas extraction and utilisation projects. The EBRD is the largest investor in Bulgaria with more than EUR 1.3 billion committed to projects across the country. Working with its many partners, the Bank has mobilised more than EUR 5.4 billion for projects in Bulgaria. * The Protocol requires 36 industrialised countries and countries undergoing the process of transition to a market economy to reduce GHGs by at least 5 percent below 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012.

Torino Motors Industrial Vehicles AD delivered the first Iveco Daily running on methane in Bulgaria. The vehicle is model 50C11GV, with loading capacity 15,6 cub.m. and CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) 2,8l engine with 106 hp. After filling the fuel tank to the top, the vehicle can run from 326 to 360 km. The price for this run accoring the the current market prices is approximately 20 leva. The engines in CNG versions are considered by many for the engines of the future, because of the ecology and much lower expense of the methane engines, compared to the diesel engines. At the moment in Bulgaria is accepted the European standard for ecology and safety Euro 4. At the same moment the CNG engines cover much higher ecological norms and assure several times lower pollusion of the environment. The fact that in Bulgarian currently appear more and more methane stations, makes the management of vehicles with CNG engines easier. Due to the new developments of IVECO contenting the growing requirements, Torino Motors soon will offer to its customers vehicles with CNG engines with 140 hp.

Methane is a colorless, odorless gas with a wide distribution in nature. It is the principal component of natural gas, a mixture containing about 75% CH4, 15% ethane (C2H6), and 5% other hydrocarbons, such as propane (C3H8) and butane (C4H10). The "firedamp" of coal mines is chiefly methane. Anaerobic bacterial decomposition of plant and animal matter, such as occurs under water, produces marsh gas, which is also methane. At room temperature, methane is a gas less dense than air. It melts at –183°C and boils at –164°C. It is not very soluble in water. Methane is combustible, and mixtures of about 5 to 15 percent in air are explosive. Methane is not toxic when inhaled, but it can produce suffocation by reducing the concentration of oxygen inhaled. A trace amount of smelly organic sulfur compounds (tertiary-butyl mercaptan, (CH3)3CSH and dimethyl sulfide, CH3–S–CH3) is added to give commercial natural gas a detectable odor. This is done to make gas leaks readily detectible. An undetected gas leak could result in an explosion or asphyxiation. (The attached scratch-and-sniff sheet from Madison Gas & Electric Company is for your use outside of class.) Methane is synthesized commercially by the distillation of bituminous coal and by heating a mixture of carbon and hydrogen. It can be produced in the laboratory by heating sodium acetate with sodium hydroxide and by the reaction of aluminum carbide (Al4C3) with water. In the chemical industry, methane is a raw material for the manufacture of methanol (CH3OH), formaldehyde (CH2O), nitromethane (CH3NO2), chloroform (CH3Cl), carbon tetrachloride (CCl4), and some freons (compounds containing carbon and fluorine, and perhaps chlorine and hydrogen). The reactions of methane with chlorine and fluorine are triggered by light. When exposed to bright visible light, mixtures of methane with chlorine or fluorine react explosively. The principal use of methane is as a fuel. The combustion of methane is highly exothermic.