Engineered sponge offers method of harvesting oceanic methane
Underwater, methane bubbles could be seen quickly moving into the body of the sponge and the deeper the sponge sits, the more methane it can absorb because the pressure increases, squeezing more gas into the same volume. And what about wringing the sponge out? The group fixed a pipe to the top of the sponge and showed that once the sponge was saturated, it released bubbles up through the pipe, driven by the difference in pressure between the depth of the sponge and the air above. This allows the sponge to suck up more methane while the ‘bubble off’ can be collected above.
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