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Radiocarbon Analysis of Methane at the NERC Radiocarbon Facility (East Kilbride)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 April 2019

M H Garnett Open the ORCID record for M H Garnett [Opens in a new window] ,
C Murray ,
P Gulliver  and
P L Ascough
M H Garnett*
Affiliation:
NERC Radiocarbon Facility, East Kilbride, UK
C Murray
Affiliation:
NERC Radiocarbon Facility, East Kilbride, UK
P Gulliver
Affiliation:
NERC Radiocarbon Facility, East Kilbride, UK Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Facility, East Kilbride, UK
P L Ascough
Affiliation:
NERC Radiocarbon Facility, East Kilbride, UK
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected].
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Abstract

Methane is the second most important anthropogenically produced greenhouse gas, and radiocarbon (14C) analysis is extremely valuable in identifying its age and source in the environment. At the NERC Radiocarbon Facility (East Kilbride, UK) we have developed expertise in analysis of methane 14C concentration and methodological approaches to field sampling over the past 20 years. This has opened a wide range of applications, which have mainly focused on (1) the age and source of methane emitted by peatlands and organic soils (e.g. to quantify the release of ancient carbon), (2) the source of aquatic emissions of methane, and (3) the age of methane generated by amenity and illegal landfill. Many of these scientifically important applications involve challenging sampling and measurement considerations, which our development program has continually aimed to overcome. Here, we describe our current methods, and recent improvements to aid field collection of samples in remote locations. We present the results of tests which (1) show the effectiveness of our methods to remove contaminants, especially CO2, (2) quantify the 14C background contribution, and (3) demonstrate the reliability of metal gas storage canisters for sample storage.

Keywords

methanemethodsradiocarbon (14C)
Type
Conference Paper
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 61 , Issue 5: Radiocarbon 2018 Conference Proceedings Trondheim, Norway, June 17–22, 2018 Part 1 of 2 , October 2019 , pp. 1477 - 1487
Copyright
© 2019 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

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Footnotes

Selected Papers from the 23rd International Radiocarbon Conference, Trondheim, Norway, 17–22 June, 2018

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