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Methane and the greenhouse-gas footprint of natural gas from shale formations
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  • Published: 12 April 2011

Methane and the greenhouse-gas footprint of natural gas from shale formations

A letter

  • Robert W. Howarth1,
  • Renee Santoro1 &
  • Anthony Ingraffea2 

Climatic Change volume 106, pages 679–690 (2011)Cite this article

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Abstract

We evaluate the greenhouse gas footprint of natural gas obtained by high-volume hydraulic fracturing from shale formations, focusing on methane emissions. Natural gas is composed largely of methane, and 3.6% to 7.9% of the methane from shale-gas production escapes to the atmosphere in venting and leaks over the life-time of a well. These methane emissions are at least 30% more than and perhaps more than twice as great as those from conventional gas. The higher emissions from shale gas occur at the time wells are hydraulically fractured—as methane escapes from flow-back return fluids—and during drill out following the fracturing. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, with a global warming potential that is far greater than that of carbon dioxide, particularly over the time horizon of the first few decades following emission. Methane contributes substantially to the greenhouse gas footprint of shale gas on shorter time scales, dominating it on a 20-year time horizon. The footprint for shale gas is greater than that for conventional gas or oil when viewed on any time horizon, but particularly so over 20 years. Compared to coal, the footprint of shale gas is at least 20% greater and perhaps more than twice as great on the 20-year horizon and is comparable when compared over 100 years.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA

    Robert W. Howarth & Renee Santoro

  2. School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA

    Anthony Ingraffea

Authors
  1. Robert W. Howarth
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  2. Renee Santoro
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  3. Anthony Ingraffea
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Robert W. Howarth.

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Open Access This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0), which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.

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Howarth, R.W., Santoro, R. & Ingraffea, A. Methane and the greenhouse-gas footprint of natural gas from shale formations. Climatic Change 106, 679–690 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-011-0061-5

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  • Received: 12 November 2010

  • Accepted: 13 March 2011

  • Published: 12 April 2011

  • Issue Date: June 2011

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-011-0061-5

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Keywords

  • Methane
  • Greenhouse gases
  • Global warming
  • Natural gas
  • Shale gas
  • Unconventional gas
  • Fugitive emissions
  • Lifecycle analysis
  • LCA
  • Bridge fuel
  • Transitional fuel
  • Global warming potential
  • GWP
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