Revolutionizing Ocean Methane Detection: A New Breakthrough in Mass Spectrometry

Sunday - May 5 2024, 23:41 UTC - 9 months ago

A research team led by Professor Chen Chilai has achieved a 500-fold improvement in detection sensitivity for dissolved methane in water, allowing for baseline detection in oceans and lakes. This breakthrough has significant implications for accurately measuring ocean methane emissions and exploring clean energy sources. The results were published in Talanta on March 11, 2024.

A new breakthrough in mass spectrometry has revolutionized the detection of methane in oceans and lakes. In a research study led by Professor Chen Chilai from the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the team achieved a remarkable 500-fold improvement in detection sensitivity, allowing for baseline methane detection in water bodies.

The results of this groundbreaking research were published in the journal Talanta on March 11, 2024. This advancement is crucial for accurately measuring ocean methane emissions, which is essential for understanding climate change and identifying clean energy sources such as natural gas hydrates.

Existing data on dissolved methane in the ocean is limited, leading to significant uncertainties in estimating oceanic methane flux due to sensitivity limitations. While deep-sea mass spectrometry is a useful tool for rapid detection of dissolved gases in the ocean, its limited sensitivity restricts its application to specific regions or anomalous events. To address these challenges, the team developed a small-volume, low-power online water removal system and integrated it into the Intelligent Microsystem Laboratory's Underwater Mass Spectrometry (ims-UMS).

By optimizing the gas sampling route design, the team achieved a significant improvement in detection sensitivity. The methane detection limit plummeted from above 16 nmo/L to an impressive 0.03 nmol/L, resulting in a remarkable 500-fold enhancement.

The team's dedication to deep-sea mass spectrometry, micro-electromechanical systems technology, and intelligent microsystem technology played a crucial role in this breakthrough. This research lays an important technological foundation for further methane flux calculations, global climate research, plume tracking, and cold seep discovery.

Reference: "Online water vapor removal membrane inlet mass spectrometer for high-sensitivity detection of dissolved methane" by Han Wang, Changjie Liu, Haiyun Song, Haobin Wang, Yupeng Cheng, Youjiang Liu and Chilai Chen, 11 March 2024, Talanta. DOI: 10.1016/j.talanta.2024.125907 .