• Question: can humans (if modified) live off methane

    Asked by dondon1 to Cathy, Jaz, Mark, Roma, Rory on 23 Jun 2014.
    • Photo: Mark Greaves

      Mark Greaves answered on 23 Jun 2014:

      Hello.

      I don’t think that would be possible. Methane is toxic in its pure form, not to mention highly flammable when mixed with air. We can use bio-methane for electricity generation though.

      Mark

    • Photo: Cathy Fraser

      Cathy Fraser answered on 23 Jun 2014:

      Morning!
      I’m not great on chemistry I’m afraid – but perhaps one of the engineers here knows the answer?

    • Photo: Jaz Rabadia

      Jaz Rabadia answered on 23 Jun 2014:

      Methane is a global warming gas and harmful. i dont think we could live off it… i prefer oxygen 🙂

    • Photo: Roma Agrawal

      Roma Agrawal answered on 23 Jun 2014:

      I don’t think that would work- and it stinks! (our farts have methane ;))

    • Photo: Rory Hadden

      Rory Hadden answered on 24 Jun 2014:

      I don’t think we could. The earth atmosphere used to be full of methane and may species of bacteria were adapted to survive. So maybe evolution would find a way!

      It is interesting that methane actually doesn’t smell of anything on its own. The smell of ‘gas’ comes from something they add so people know if there is a leak.

      Rory

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