Methane leakage can erase the climate benefits of wastewater biogas recovery
Wastewater utilities use anaerobic digestion and biogas utilization to reduce energy costs and emissions, but methane leakage can undermine both the climate benefits and project economics of these systems, especially as power grids decarbonize. Safeguarding climate integrity will require performance-based methane policies that pair robust monitoring with enforceable leakage thresholds and targeted leak detection and repair.
Authors
- Zhiyong Jason Ren (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7606-0331)
- Jun‐Jie Zhu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7546-2870)
- Yuqing Yan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6403-8620)
- Xiatong Li
- Trung Le
Institutions
- Princeton University (US)
- Brown and Caldwell (United States) (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Sustainability
- Published
- 2026-04-27
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-026-01805-y
- Primary Topic
- Anaerobic Digestion and Biogas Production
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment