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Please be aware that this old REACH registration data factsheet is no longer maintained; it remains frozen as of 19th May 2023.

The new ECHA CHEM database has been released by ECHA, and it now contains all REACH registration data. There are more details on the transition of ECHA's published data to ECHA CHEM here.

Diss Factsheets

Environmental fate & pathways

Biodegradation in water: screening tests

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Description of key information

The results of the QSAR predictions for  methane indicate that it is expected to degrade rapidly, with an estimated half life of 3.187 days.

Key value for chemical safety assessment

Biodegradation in water:
readily biodegradable

Additional information

As methane is a gas at standard temperature and pressure conducting a standard ready biodegradability test is technically difficult,and based on exposure estimates the test may not be relevant. Therefore, the use of a QSAR to predict the biodegradability of methane is an appropriate technique to use a part of a weight of evidence approach. The use of BioHCwin and Biowin is appropriate for methane as this compound clearly falls within the applicability domains of these models as all substructures in methane are included in the models. The results from both QSAR indicate that methane is expected to biodegrade rapidly.