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A Re-Explosion (An Explosive Breakthrough 4 Questions)


1. Why were the biogas methane levels too high? 

The biogas methane levels would have been too high because of methane’s high content within biogas (approximately 50-70%), and the alkane’s unique bacterium called methanogens. This bacterium is a type microorganism that produces methane as a metabolic byproduct in anoxic (extreme hypoxia, total depletion of oxygen) conditions. Methanogens are found in the digestive tracts of animals, and in the study conducted by the University Negeri Surabaya in Surabaya, Indonesia, the use of cow dung as an organic waste provided high levels of methane.




2. If biogas was being tested why were methane levels in the atmosphere relevant?
      
      Rob Jackson, a scientist at Stanford University conducted a study that measured levels of methane gas within the environment. He said that these levels have spiked since 2007 (the most recent level measure being in 2016 and having results of 1,840 parts per billion) due to methane being a natural gas and thus present in many drilling operations and biological processes. The methane gas leaks from these processes and is expelled into the atmosphere, therefore driving scientists to look to different possibilities for how methane levels could become a controlled variable.

      3. Were there any specific locations in the world that this experiment was aimed towards? 
      
      Agriculture is seen as the number one contributor to rising methane levels in the atmosphere and in biogas. Scientists that have pointed fingers at the agricultural industry are looking specifically at livestock (mostly cattle), rice paddies (flooded land where semiaquatic rice is grown), landfills, marshes/wetlands, and the management of manure.


      A study conducted by M Yantidewi at the University Negeri Surabaya in Surabaya, Indonesia was purposed for developing a method to control the levels of methane within biogas and potentially in the atmosphere. A mixture composition of 1:1 of cow dung and water was placed into a biogas reactor and connected to an airtight container, which allowed for both the methane gas and oxygen gas to leak into a gas reservoir. The scientists used a data acquisition system and gas sensors to retrieve data and process it into a PC, all in real-time. Inside of the gas reservoir was a methane gas sensor that processed methane levels continuously for thirteen days. On the thirteenth day, the PC’s data tables displayed that the oxygen levels were consistent while the methane levels were inconsistent, but it was a promising step towards controlling methane gas production.
      
      http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/997/1/012018/pdf

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