Researchers hope bugs speed methane take

Researchers are studying whether microbes can be manipulated by science to expand the life of coal-bed methane wells in the Powder River Basin of Montana and Wyoming.
So far, results look “very promising,” said Seth Snyder, a researcher at Argonne National Laboratory. Argonne, located 25 miles southwest of Chicago, is one of the U.S. Department of Energy’s largest research centers.

Argonne and other laboratories are trying to find ways to enhance the microbes. Based on the large volume of coal in the basin, enhancing microbes could extend methane production by several hundred years according to some estimates, Snyder said.

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