Abstract
Solution gas is a natural gas consisting of primarily methane and small amounts of non-methane organic compounds. When the amount of solution gas released at individual locations is relatively small and the quality is low, it is not economically feasible to recover this gas. Therefore, environmentally acceptable methods are needed for their control. This research is focused on assessing the viability of using methane biofiltration technology to control point source, low volume solution gas emissions. Unlike the systems with which methane biofilters have already been tested, solution gas contains diverse pollutants in addition to methane, particularly hydrogen sulfide and non-methane organic compounds. A comprehensive set of laboratory experiments were undertaken and the results showed that methane oxidation is not affected by the presence of low concentrations of ethane and propane that could be present in solution gas. However, in flow-through column experiments, the methane oxidation efficiency was adversely affected by increasing the inlet loading rate of ethane.
Keywords: Greenhouse gas, methane biofiltration, MMO, NMOC, solution gas, trace gases.
Graphical Abstract
9