Burning last of methane in piping (8)
I believe the answer is:
singeing
'burning last of methane in piping' is the definition.
'singeing' can be an answer for 'burning' (thesaurus). I am not certain of the 'last of methane in piping' bit.
'burning last of methane in' is the wordplay.
'burning' becomes 'singing' (singing is a kind of burning).
'last of methane' becomes 'e' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'singing' placed around 'e' is 'SINGEING'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for singeing that I've seen is " Scorching".)