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A microbial route from coal to gas

“…any coal wells produce methane through the microbial decomposition of coal (1). About 7% of methane that reaches the atmosphere is derived from coal beds and contributes considerably to the greenhouse effect (2). But how is coal converted into methane?…”

“…Analysis of microbial communities in coal wells has suggested that breakdown products of coal are first converted to simpler, more palatable carbon compounds through the activity of microbial food chains (5-7), thus supplying the methanogens with substrates. In fact, different classes of methanogens seem to govern methane formation in unrelated coal wells (2,8,9). It is unclear which organic molecules of the coal are actually converted to methane, although immature coal (lignite) seems to be more biologically accessible than mature (bituminous) coal (1, 10).…”