Study shows methane not a significant problem in the Gulf.
Why am I not surprised?
People think methane is an unnatural thing and not compatable with earth eccology–maybe a little less anxiety and a little more common sense?
http://www.tallahassee.com/article/20140324/NEWS01/303240014/Scientists-Gulf-able-absorb-methane-from-oil-spill?nclick_check=1
BP should ask for their money back. In the seventies the Ixtoc-1 offshore well blew out with a spill very similar in size (ie enormous). Within 5 years it was almost impossible to detect any effects…because natural anaerobic bacteria ate it. The difference was Ixtoc-1 was owned by the Mexican government, so when people asked them for compensation they were told to impolitely go away.
BP being private could not do that. Governments are the proverbial 800lb gorilla.
Sulfate reducing bacteria (SRB) can eat any reduced compound, extracting oxygen from sulphate ions to burn the compound and produce energy. At the Budel zinc smelter they are used to remove sulfate salts from effluent. Initially they were provided ethanol as the carbon source. Then they were adapted to hydrogen plus CO2 because it was cheaper. They’d eat methane happily too, the limitation only being that methane isn’t very soluble, so the mass transfer issues are significant for an existing bit of gear. But that’s not the case in the whole of the Gulf.