
Researchers in Mark Zondlo’s lab created a mobile laboratory, the Princeton Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment, to measure the concentration of gases in the air near natural gas wells. Dana Caulton, former postdoctoral researcher in the lab, is shown here in the mobile laboratory doing field sampling in the Marcellus Shale basin. Photo provided by the researchers (The Atmospheric Chemistry and Composition Group)
A team of Princeton researchers led by Mark Zondlo, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, discovered that natural gas wells in a region known as the Marcellus Shale in the eastern United States are emitting significant amounts of methane into the atmosphere.
The largest component of natural gas is methane, which is a significant greenhouse gas. It is about 30 times better able to trap heat than carbon dioxide.
The researchers, including Elie Bou-Zeid, professor of civil and environmental engineering, used laser technology to detect and measure the concentration of methane in the air at these wells. Surprisingly, only a small subset of these wells—about 10%—are emitting methane. These small number of wells are responsible for more than three quarters of gas leaked into the atmosphere as a byproduct of extraction, Zondlo said.
Zondlo said that fixing a relatively small number of these “super-emitting” wells could lead to a major reduction in emissions, but cautioned that identifying the leakiest wells is not always easy.
The new research is the first to look at operations over the Marcellus Shale, a basin that stretches from West Virginia into New York State and is one of the world’s largest gas-producing regions.