Startup Windfall Bio has developed microbes that can address some of the most challenging sources of methane.
Methane is about 83 times more potent than carbon dioxide in its first 20 years in the atmosphere, and while some of the world's largest oil and gas producers have pledged to significantly reduce methane emissions by 2030, the largest anthropogenic source is agriculture, particularly beef and dairy production, which has proven difficult to avoid.
“This is particularly difficult because agriculture is so important and we all need to eat,” said Stephanie Díaz, an associate on the technology and innovation team at Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
That’s where Windfall hopes to step in. In addition to destroying methane, the process also creates organic fertilizer. The startup is currently piloting its technology with customers including Whole Foods, which has provided Windfall with access to its network of dairy farmers.
Josh Silverman, co-founder and CEO of Windfall, said methane "has been a huge blind spot," and MEMS could be a way to turn harmful emissions into a useful substance and revenue source.
He compares the microbes to yeast; MEMS love to eat methane just as yeast loves to eat sugar, and Windfall’s MEMS use the energy in the methane they eat to extract nitrogen from the air, creating an organic fertilizer that customers can use on their farms or sell for a profit.
This technology works best with closed methane sources, such as dairy barns, tarp-covered manure lagoons, or enclosed feedlots, where the gas can be easily vented and disposed of. At oil and gas facilities, this might look like diverting methane from pipelines that would otherwise be flared. At landfills, this might mean capturing methane from wells drilled into the structure or from cracks and leaks in the landfill cap.
At dairies, farmers can spread microorganisms (mems) on compost piles. Methane produced in barns, lagoons, or feed lots can be piped to treated compost. For customers who can’t compost directly, they can grow microorganisms on any solid, inert surface, such as biochar or even plastic beads in fiberglass buckets, which can be reused. In the latter case, the transformed cells can be sprayed and dried into a high-nitrogen paste.
Silverman said fertilizer made with Windfall’s MEMS is 50% cheaper than traditional organic fertilizer, and the company’s main challenge now is meeting demand. He added that this is why the fundraising comes so quickly following Windfall’s $9 million seed round last year. The company’s focus in the coming year is on scaling up its manufacturing process so it can start supplying commercial quantities of MEMS in 2025.
Source: Bloomberg (2024.4.8) Methane-Eating Microbes Show Promise for Wiping Out Planet-Warming Emissions
