The US Government is providing nearly $25 million (£19m) for 16 projects to advance natural gas infrastructure technology development in the country.

The projects aim to develop tools, methods and technologies to cost-effectively enhance the safety and efficiency of natural gas production, gathering, storage and transmission infrastructure.

Projects that have been chosen fall under three areas of interest: advanced technologies to mitigate emissions from and increase the efficiency of natural gas transportation infrastructure; process-intensified technologies for the upcycling of flare gas into transportable, value-added products; and advanced methane detection and measurement technology validation.

Steven Winberg, Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy said: “All of these developing tools and technologies have transformative potential.

“From mitigating emissions to converting flare gas into value-added products, they are vital to ensuring that America can continue to safely and efficiently use our vast fossil energy resources.”