In order to combat global warming, people have spent a lot of effort and energy to reduce carbon emissions, but methane, although less abundant, is more destructive to the earth. It is more efficient than carbon at absorbing heat. Getting rid of it is crucial to meeting global climate goals.
Methane emissions come primarily from agriculture, landfills and oil production. While some companies are working to reduce methane emissions, others are working to capture and eliminate the methane produced. A California startup called Windfall Bio has come up with a method that sounds a little gross, but may lead the way in cleaning up methane from the atmosphere.
Windfall uses “mems” – methane-eating microorganisms. These naturally occurring microorganisms live in the soil and feed on methane. Just like yeast eats the sugar in bread and produces substances that ferment it, mems eat methane and produce fertilizer. They are commonly found in methane-rich soils and wetlands where decaying organic matter is present. But wherever methane is found, MEMS eat it. This is where the windfall comes in.
“We provide these microelectromechanical systems and then whoever has access to the methane can capture the methane themselves, turn it into fertilizer and create value from it,” said Josh Silverman, CEO of Windfall Bio.
“Our customers can be farmers, they can be dairy farmers, they can raise dairy cows (think cow farts), they need to make their own fertilizer. But we also work with customers in the oil and gas sector, and they produce waste methane every day. We can work with landfills and waste management authorities.
If farmers use MEMS, they can apply fertilizer themselves. If it’s an oil producer or a landfill, Windfall will buy the fertilizer back from them so they can get paid for capturing the methane.
Traditional fertilizer production requires a lot of energy and generates significant carbon emissions, especially when making ammonia fertilizers. Using MEMS will be a truly “clean” fertilizer.
Windfall conducted a decade of research into the use of these microorganisms and launched them to customers two years ago.
“Honestly, I’m pretty shocked at the high demand,” Silverman said. “So it’s well ahead of our best forecasts and we now have customers on essentially every continent and we’re getting more inbound interest than we could deliver.”
While there is competition in the fertilizer industry and other emerging methane capture technologies, the mem approach appears to be unique to Windfall. Investors say they are not worried about its rapid expansion.
“We’ve seen the data and are very motivated by what we’ve seen so far. We’ll continue to make progress in multiple pilots across a number of different industries,” said managing director Brett Morris. Morris said. “As an early-stage company, they don’t have all the solutions yet, but I think they are quickly doing everything they can to meet growing customer demand around the world.”
Windfall Bio is planning a pilot program with Whole Foods Market dairy suppliers. This will reduce methane emissions and allow grocery companies to make climate-friendly claims for their milk and other products.
In addition to Cavallo Ventures, Windfall is backed by Prelude Ventures, Amazon Climate Pledge Fund, Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Mayfield. The company has raised $37 million in funding to date.
CNBC climate producer Lisa Rizzolo contributed to this article.
