Methane is the second most important anthropogenically produced greenhouse gas, and radiocarbon (14C) analysis is extremely valuable in identifying its age and source in the environment. At the NERC Radiocarbon Facility (East Kilbride, UK) we have developed expertise in analysis of methane 14C concentration and methodological approaches to field sampling over the past 20 years. This has opened a wide range of applications, which have mainly focused on (1) the age and source of methane emitted by peatlands and organic soils (e.g. to quantify the release of ancient carbon), (2) the source of aquatic emissions of methane, and (3) the age of methane generated by amenity and illegal landfill. Many of these scientifically important applications involve challenging sampling and measurement considerations, which our development program has continually aimed to overcome. Here, we describe our current methods, and recent improvements to aid field collection of samples in remote locations. We present the results of tests which (1) show the effectiveness of our methods to remove contaminants, especially CO2, (2) quantify the 14C background contribution, and (3) demonstrate the reliability of metal gas storage canisters for sample storage.

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NERC 放射性碳设施（东基尔布赖德）的甲烷放射性碳分析

甲烷是第二重要的人为产生的温室气体，而放射性碳（14C) 分析对于确定其在环境中的年龄和来源非常有价值。在 NERC 放射性碳设施（英国东基尔布赖德），我们开发了甲烷分析方面的专业知识14过去 20 年现场采样的 C 浓度和方法学方法。这开启了广泛的应用，主要集中在（1）泥炭地和有机土壤排放的甲烷的年龄和来源（例如量化古代碳的释放），（2）水体甲烷排放的来源，以及 (3) 便利设施和非法填埋所产生的甲烷的年龄。许多这些具有科学意义的应用都涉及具有挑战性的采样和测量考虑，我们的开发计划一直致力于克服这些问题。在这里，我们描述了我们当前的方法，以及最近的改进，以帮助在偏远地区现场收集样本。我们展示了测试结果，其中 (1) 显示了我们去除污染物的方法的有效性，尤其是 CO2, (2) 量化14C 背景贡献，以及 (3) 证明金属储气罐用于样品存储的可靠性。