Core Concept
QET-NG: Tokenized Natural Gas with Verified Multi-Pollutant Carbon Intensity
A QET-NG is how Greentruth makes the carbon-intensity story of a specific volume of natural gas portable, machine-readable, and audit-defensible. This page explains what the token is, what it carries, what it does not do, and how it plugs into the regulatory and disclosure frameworks natural-gas producers and buyers actually file against.
QET-NG (Natural Gas Attribute Token). One MMBtu of natural gas with a verified multi-pollutant carbon intensity in kgCO₂e/MMBtu — covering CH₄, CO₂, and N₂O converted via IPCC AR5 GWP100 factors (CH₄ = 28, N₂O = 265) — issued on the EarnDLT registry (on Hedera Hashgraph) under ISO 14064-3 reasonable assurance. The token is a fuel-attribute certificate, not a carbon credit, and does not transfer Scope 1 emissions between parties.
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See a QET-NG End-to-End in the Registry
Request a demo and we'll walk a QET-NG through the EarnDLT registry — primary data ingestion, verifier sign-off, mint, and retirement.
What Is a QET-NG?
A QET-NG is a per-MMBtu natural gas fuel-attribute certificate that carries the verified emissions attributes of the gas it represents and is anchored on-chain so its provenance survives an audit. It is the natural-gas core of Greentruth's QET family, sitting alongside QET-RNG, QET-CCS, and QET-ELEC.
Each certificate is single-mint enforced and retired irrevocably on-chain. A buyer who acquires and retires the token has anchored a specific verified MMBtu of natural gas to a specific GHG accounting claim — and no other party can use that same MMBtu to support a different one. A producer that issues the token keeps its own Scope 1 inventory; the buyer's retirement sharpens the inputs to its own number, not the producer's.
Greentruth issues the certificate on top of EarnDLT's tokenization infrastructure. It is delivered to the holder's wallet in both PDF and JSON form and then portable for reporting, retirement, or transfer — like any other QET.
What the Token Carries: Multi-Pollutant CI, Geography, MRV Tier
The token carries the attributes a producer, buyer, or framework export needs to make a credible natural-gas fuel-attribute claim. At minimum:
- Unit. One MMBtu of natural gas.
- Multi-pollutant carbon intensity. CH₄, CO₂, and N₂O emissions converted to kgCO₂e/MMBtu using IPCC AR5 GWP100 factors (CH₄ = 28, N₂O = 265). Methane is not the only pollutant the certificate carries — though it is the most consequential one.
- Geography and pathway. Producing basin and operator, plus — for transmission — the validated pipeline pathway across EarnDLT's 32,000-segment Lower-48 network model (origin basin center, full operator chain, segment count, total mileage).
- MRV tier. Where the underlying data sits in the methodology's data hierarchy: site-specific primary → process-specific primary → peer-reviewed secondary → industry-average secondary. Higher tiers strengthen defensibility; lower tiers remain auditable.
- Methodology version. The exact methodology and reference dataset used to produce the values, including the R&D GREET 2025 version (refreshed annually within the first 30 business days of each year), recorded as a token attribute so framework exports can be reconstructed.
- Verifier of record. The accredited third-party that signed off on the underlying data under ISO 14064-3 reasonable assurance.
- Optional grade attributes. Where a producer carries a third-party grade (for example, a MiQ grade), it is encoded directly on the token rather than referenced externally.
For project-level technical specifics — pollutant treatment, transmission boundary conditions, segment-level allocation — the long-form methodology is the authoritative reference.
How a QET-NG Differs from a Generic Gas Attestation
The token is built to substantiate a specific verified MMBtu of natural gas in machine-readable form. Other gas attestations were built for other purposes — and the differences matter when an auditor, a regulator, or an EU importer asks where the number came from.
| Instrument | What it conveys | Verification standard | Chain-of-custody | Retirement |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| QET-NG | 1 MMBtu of natural gas, multi-pollutant CI in kgCO₂e/MMBtu, geography, pathway, MRV tier, methodology version | ISO 14064-3 reasonable assurance per methodology v2.3 | Pipeline-pathway resolved across the 32,000-segment EIA network model | Irrevocable on-chain |
| Producer self-attestation (spreadsheet) | A producer's claim | Self-declared | Self-declared | N/A |
| Single-pollutant methane certificate | Methane intensity only | Issuer-specific | Issuer-specific | Issuer-specific |
| National or basin-average emission factor | An industry default | None at the unit level | None | N/A |
The certificate is portable. It does the work of a producer-side methane attestation, a multi-pollutant CI carrier, and a machine-readable export into the buyer's disclosure stack — in a single record.
Framework Anchoring: NGSI v2.0, OGCI, and ONE Future (US); OGMP 2.0 + EEMDL (EU)
The token is anchored to public, named frameworks rather than to a private Greentruth construction. The methodology distinguishes the US framework stack from the EU compliance extension that activates for gas placed on the EU market.
| Lane | Primary framework anchors | Verification standard |
|---|---|---|
| US reporting | NGSI Protocol v2.0; OGCI Reporting Framework; ONE Future v6.2023 | ISO 14064-3 reasonable assurance |
| EU Methane Regulation compliance | OGMP 2.0 reporting; EEMDL Protocol (UT Austin); EU Methane Regulation Article 28 chain-of-custody; Article 8 reasonable assurance | ISO 14064-3 reasonable assurance |
A US producer reporting under NGSI v2.0, OGCI, and ONE Future can issue QET-NG that satisfies those frameworks today. The same producer placing gas on the EU market activates the EU compliance extension, which layers OGMP 2.0 alignment and the EEMDL Protocol's source-level reconciliation on top of the core methodology. The Payne Institute for Public Policy at the Colorado School of Mines — in commentary by Liam O'Byrne and Brad Handler (Tracking and Transacting Clean Natural Gas: Operationalizing Environmental Attribute Tokens, April 2026) — uses the QET-NG / QET-LNG architecture as its illustrative example of a compliant attribute token under the EU Methane Regulation, describing it as “a universal bridge between heterogeneous North American MRV practices and the EU's harmonized reporting requirements.”
How EU Methane Regulation compliance works
How a QET-NG Is Minted, Transferred, and Retired
A QET-NG moves through four stages on the EarnDLT registry, all anchored on-chain:
- Mint. The producer (and its Measurement Partner where applicable) submits primary data into EarnDLT. An accredited third-party verifier reviews the data to ISO 14064-3 reasonable assurance and signs off. Only after sign-off is the certificate issued — single mint, methodology-versioned, verifier-stamped.
- Discover. Buyers search the Marketplace by attribute: basin, operator, multi-pollutant CI, MRV tier, methodology version, and producer-carried grades.
- Acquire. Buyers acquire QET-NG via on-chain transfer. The transfer is recorded on the Hedera ledger and the token lands in the buyer's wallet.
- Retire. The buyer retires the certificate to anchor a specific claim — for a reporting period, a delivery point, or a disclosure line. Retirement is irrevocable on-chain. The retirement record is the artifact a buyer's auditor inspects.
How QET-NG feeds GHG Protocol Scope 1 / Scope 3 Category 3
What a QET-NG Is NOT
A QET-NG is not a carbon credit, not an offset, and does not transfer Scope 1 emissions between parties. It is a natural-gas fuel-attribute certificate. It substantiates a specific verified MWh — read MMBtu — of natural gas, retired on-chain to anchor a specific claim against the retiring company's inventory. A producer that issues these certificates keeps its own Scope 1 emissions on its own books; a buyer that retires them sharpens the inputs to its own Scope 1 or Scope 3 Category 3 numbers — it does not net Scope 1 across the chain by some other route.
Three corollaries:
- Voluntary carbon market integrity initiatives that govern carbon credits and offsets do not govern the token. The relevant integrity frame is the US framework stack (NGSI v2.0, OGCI, ONE Future) and the EU Methane Regulation compliance extension (OGMP 2.0, EEMDL Protocol).
- Token retirement is not a Scope 1 transfer mechanism. The retirement record anchors a single, irrevocable, on-chain claim — nothing more.
- A QET-NG is not a methane-only certificate. It carries CH₄, CO₂, and N₂O converted via AR5 GWP100, in line with how reporters actually account for the gas they consume.
Frequently Asked Questions
A QET-NG is one MMBtu of natural gas with a verified multi-pollutant carbon intensity in kgCO₂e/MMBtu — covering CH₄, CO₂, and N₂O via IPCC AR5 GWP100 — issued on the EarnDLT registry under ISO 14064-3 reasonable assurance.
Request a Demo
See a QET-NG End-to-End in the Registry
Request a demo and we will walk a QET-NG through primary data ingestion, third-party verifier sign-off, on-chain mint, retirement, and the framework-aligned exports your reporting team will actually file.