<p>When you say produced, do you mean chemically made from another substance, or you do mean released into the atmosphere, or do you mean captured and stored?</p>
<p>Methane, or CH4, is a biogas as it is gas biologically created by organisms. Methane is created in natural processes from which it may be immediately released into the atmosphere or on much slower time scales, such as millennia and more. Methane is also released in some artificial processes, such as the flaring on oil wells. Likewise, in petroleum processing facilities, methane can leak out in other ways than is intended. So, that is how it gets out, or is &quot;produced&quot; as a free gas.</p>
<p>However, if you are asking if CH4 is produced chemically as a product of processing OTHER gases, then the answer is only a mild &quot;sort of&quot;. When natural gas from within the Earth is removed from the ground, it contains methane, propane and other gases that are separated into their components. However, most of the nat gas IS methane to begin with. So, saying it is &quot;produced&quot; is sort of true and easily misunderstood.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-11-05T20:56:55.710Z
Reading your answers I've come to the conclusion of that what I was trying to get my head around was how can methane be both a harmful greenhouse gas and used as a form of renewable energy. Like, how do we produce and use biogas, for example in public buses, so that methane isn't released into the atmosphere?
Nerey
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-11-20T22:01:02.707Z
Well, energy used to make methane (CH4) can be renewable (including complicated channels like using plants to make biogas). Of course, when it is then burned, it is no longer methane, just CO2 and H20. (CO2 is less bad for ACGW than CH4). While still contributing to ACGW, using bio-derived or renewable CH4 can be better than using dirtier fuels or less efficient production channels. For example, coal gasification may produce "clean-burning" fuel, but the process requires extra energy (and thus releases extra CO2), plus it has other environmental costs..
Bruzote
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-11-03T02:58:35.020Z
2020-11-03T02:58:35.020Z
Bruzote
<p>As Jean-Marie Prival commented, methane <em>is</em> the biogas (after removing impurites such as <span class="math-container">$H_2S$</span> and <span class="math-container">$CO_2$</span>).</p>
<p>Biogas is renewable because <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biogas" rel="nofollow noreferrer">&quot;From a carbon perspective, as much carbon dioxide is absorbed from the atmosphere in the growth of the primary bio-resource as is released, when the material is ultimately converted to energy.&quot;</a></p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-11-02T23:25:34.967Z
2020-11-02T23:25:34.967Z
Keith McClary
<p>I should point out first that I don't know the first thing about environmental science, I study mathematics, and the reason I am asking this question is because I want to understand the processes behind climate change better. And, after hearing that methane is such a powerful greenhouse gas, it sounded weird to me that it was also produced during the process of producing biogas, so I basically want to understand how that process works and why the production of methane in it isn't harmful.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-11-02T13:33:27.997Z
Not an expert but I think methane *is* the biogas, and it's being burnt to produce heat/electricity, so it doesn't go into the atmosphere where it could have greenhouse effect.
Jean-Marie Prival
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-11-05T20:08:14.883Z
@Jean-MariePrival Ok, thank you!
Nerey
<climate-change><greenhouse-gases><methane><biomass><energy>
What part does methane play in the process of producing biogas?
Nerey
# What part does methane play in the process of producing biogas?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2020-11-02)

I should point out first that I don't know the first thing about environmental science, I study mathematics, and the reason I am asking this question is because I want to understand the processes behind climate change better. And, after hearing that methane is such a powerful greenhouse gas, it sounded weird to me that it was also produced during the process of producing biogas, so I basically want to understand how that process works and why the production of methane in it isn't harmful.

**Tags:** climate-change, greenhouse-gases, methane, biomass, energy

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Not an expert but I think methane *is* the biogas, and it's being burnt to produce heat/electricity, so it doesn't go into the atmosphere where it could have greenhouse effect.  
> **username_0**: @username_1 Ok, thank you!  

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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2020-11-03. Score: 2

When you say produced, do you mean chemically made from another substance, or you do mean released into the atmosphere, or do you mean captured and stored?

Methane, or CH4, is a biogas as it is gas biologically created by organisms. Methane is created in natural processes from which it may be immediately released into the atmosphere or on much slower time scales, such as millennia and more. Methane is also released in some artificial processes, such as the flaring on oil wells. Likewise, in petroleum processing facilities, methane can leak out in other ways than is intended. So, that is how it gets out, or is "produced" as a free gas.

However, if you are asking if CH4 is produced chemically as a product of processing OTHER gases, then the answer is only a mild "sort of". When natural gas from within the Earth is removed from the ground, it contains methane, propane and other gases that are separated into their components. However, most of the nat gas IS methane to begin with. So, saying it is "produced" is sort of true and easily misunderstood.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Reading your answers I've come to the conclusion of that what I was trying to get my head around was how can methane be both a harmful greenhouse gas and used as a form of renewable energy. Like, how do we produce and use biogas, for example in public buses, so that methane isn't released into the atmosphere?  
> **username_2**: Well, energy used to make methane (CH4) can be renewable (including complicated channels like using plants to make biogas). Of course, when it is then burned, it is no longer methane, just CO2 and H20. (CO2 is less bad for ACGW than CH4). While still contributing to ACGW, using bio-derived or renewable CH4 can be better than using dirtier fuels or less efficient production channels. For example, coal gasification may produce "clean-burning" fuel, but the process requires extra energy (and thus releases extra CO2), plus it has other environmental costs..  

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### Answer by username_3 on 2020-11-02. Score: 1

As username_1 commented, methane *is* the biogas (after removing impurites such as $H\_2S$ and $CO\_2$).

Biogas is renewable because ["From a carbon perspective, as much carbon dioxide is absorbed from the atmosphere in the growth of the primary bio-resource as is released, when the material is ultimately converted to energy."](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biogas)


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