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April 29, 2026Nature Sustainability0 citationsOpen Access

Methane leakage can erase the climate benefits of wastewater biogas recovery

XLXiatong LiJZJun‐Jie ZhuYYYuqing Yan

Key Points

  • This research examines how methane leakage affects the environmental benefits of biogas recovery systems in wastewater management.
  • Analyzed the impact of methane emissions on climate benefits of anaerobic digestion systems.
  • Evaluated the economics of wastewater utilities using biogas utilization for energy reduction.
  • Proposed performance-based methane policies for monitoring and leak management.
  • Methane leakage undermines the greenhouse gas reduction benefits of wastewater biogas systems.
  • Implementing robust monitoring can safeguard the climate integrity of these energy systems.
  • Enforceable leakage thresholds are necessary to enhance project economics and sustainability.

Abstract

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.

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Cite This Study

Li et al. (2026) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/69f19f9cedf4b468248065d6https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-026-01805-y
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