“What we are showing is a simple, biodegradable pathway that can both work quickly and be reused. It makes gas storage safer, greener and more adaptable,” Linga added in the press release on Oct 2. Faster storageThe current methods for storing natural gas at scale — either under high pressure or cooled to −162°C (liquefied natural gas) — are energy-intensive and costly. An alternative storage technique, called solidified natural gas, traps methane within an ice-like structure known as a hydrate, but this process is generally too slow to be practical for large-scale applications. The team found a simple solution by freezing water with a small amount of naturally occurring amino acids – the building blocks of proteins.