Methane mitigation for climate goals: A life-cycle review of source control, recovery, destruction and removal from the atmosphere

Abstract

Methane mitigation is often evaluated by sector or by reactor performance, although deployment changes energy, food, waste, and wastewater systems beyond the point of treatment. This critical review evaluates prevention, recovery, destruction, and atmospheric removal within a common life-cycle framework. Evidence is screened by methane concentration, source controllability, recovery value, auxiliary demand, burden shifting, evidence maturity, governance fit, and net cost and incentives. Across sectors, prevention is considered first when methane generation or release can be avoided before dilution. Recovery is credible for concentrated streams only when collection losses are low and recovered products displace existing supply. Destruction is justified for controlled residual streams, but conversion efficiency alone does not establish net benefit. Atmospheric methane removal remains an early stage option. At a concentration of approximately 1.9 ppm, methane removal requires large volumes of air and may impose substantial energy, land, and material demands. Reported technology rankings are conditional on the counterfactual, system boundary, operating context, and evidence scale. The resulting stage-gated framework links production and consumption choices to intervention timing, life-cycle performance, and verification. Atmospheric removal is treated as a research contingency, not a substitute for source mitigation. The final gates specify the evidence required before an emerging approach can progress beyond controlled research.