Properties of graphene-coated carbon. Credit: Wang et al. (Nature Energy, 2025).
Methane (CH4), one of the most abundant natural gases on the planet, is widely used to power several buildings and fuel several types of vehicles. Despite its extensive use, safe storage and transport of this gas remains challenging as it is highly flammable and requires compression at a high pressure of around 25 megapascals (MPA).
Most existing solutions for storing CH4 at high pressure rely on expensive equipment and infrastructure, such as reinforced tanks, specialized valves, and advanced safety systems. Additionally, damage from this device or its malfunction that causes gas leaks can lead to explosions, fires or other serious accidents.
Therefore, some researchers are trying to devise alternative strategies for storing and transporting CH4, which are safer and more cost-effective. One of these recently proposed methods known as absorbed natural gas (ANG) involves the use of nanoporous materials, solid materials containing small pores where gas molecules are trapped in moderate pressure.
Despite their promise, many ANG approaches have been found to be unreliable as slight increases in temperature can encourage release from the CH4 material into the surrounding environment. This means that some of the stored gas can be easily lost, potentially causing fires and explosions.
Researchers at Shinshu University, Morgan Advanced Materials and other laboratories have recently introduced a new and promising strategy for preserving CH4, leveraging graphene-coated porous carbon materials. This new approach, outlined in a paper published in Nature Energy, has been found to allow safe storage of gas at ambient temperature and pressure, while reducing the release of CH4 molecules when temperatures rise.
Temperature-dependent TEM observation of graphene-coated carbon at high temperatures. Credit: Nature Energy (2025). doi:10.1038/s41560-025-01783-z
“The storage and transport of methane remains challenging as it cannot be liquefied at ambient temperature and instead needs to be stored as compressed gas at high pressure (about 25 MPa),” wrote Shuwen Wang, Fernando Vallejos-Burgos and colleagues.
“Alternatively, it could be stored in the nanoporous material at moderate pressure (e.g. 3.5 MPa), but this “adsorbed natural gas” approach can suffer substantial desorption with only mild temperature rises. Therefore, additional safety measures are required in both ways. ”
The main objective of this recent study was to overcome the limitations of existing solutions for storing CH4 using graphene coatings and porous carbon-based materials. These materials can capture CH4 molecules at high pressures and maintain them at ambient pressures and temperatures below 318K.
“Our data suggest that graphene acts as a thermally controlled lock that blocks or activates pores to trap or release CH4, allowing a pressure equivalent load of 19.9 MPa at 298 K, and releases when heated to 473 K.”
“The resulting reversible CH4 volume capacity reaches 142 V/V, exceeding that of a variety of adsorbed natural gas materials of 3.5 MPa and 298 K, considering the use of container space.”
The initial findings gathered by Wang, Vallejos-Burgos and colleagues highlight the potential of proposed methane storage strategies, suggesting that they may be more effective and safer than other methods currently used. After being validated with further testing, this newly introduced strategy can be deployed in a real setting, significantly reducing the risks and difficulties associated with transporting this widely used fuel.
It was written for you, edited by author Ingrid Fadelli by Gaby Clark and fact-checked and reviewed by Andrew Zinin. This article is the result of the work of a careful human being. We will rely on readers like you to keep independent scientific journalism alive. If this report is important, consider giving (especially every month). You will get an ad-free account as a thank you.
Details: Shuwen Wang et al, ambient pressure storage of high density methane in graphene-coated nanoporous carbon, Nature Energy (2025). doi: 10.1038/s41560-025-01783-z.
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