Methane leaks from sites like rice paddies, landfills, dairy farms and coal mines could be plugged with the help of gas-guzzling bacteria, helping to curb near-term global warming.

Later this year, researchers in the US will deploy a bioreactor filled with a specially bred strain of methane-eating bacteria at a landfill site in Washington.

They hope the field test will prove that these bacteria, known as methanotrophs, can be deployed in bioreactors to harvest methane from…