This startup will sell methane-eating microbes to Whole Foods
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/08/13/this-startup-will-sell-methane-eating-microbes-to-whole-foods.html
by cnbc_official
This startup will sell methane-eating microbes to Whole Foods
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/08/13/this-startup-will-sell-methane-eating-microbes-to-whole-foods.html
by cnbc_official
2 comments
Much energy and effort is spent on reducing carbon emissions in the fight against global warming, but methane, while less abundant, is more destructive to the planet. It is far more efficient than carbon at trapping heat. Getting rid of it is essential to reaching global climate goals.
Methane is emitted from, among other things, agriculture, landfills and oil production. While some companies are trying to reduce methane emissions, others are trying to capture and remove it as it’s produced. A California-based startup called Windfall Bio has come up with a method that sounds slightly disgusting but could take a lead in cleaning up the atmosphere of methane.
Windfall uses “mems” — methane-eating microbes. These naturally occurring microscopic organisms live in the soil and eat methane as food for survival. Much like yeast that eats sugar in bread and produces substances that make it rise, mems eat methane and produce fertilizer. They’re commonly found in soils and wetlands where decaying organic matter is present and methane is abundant. But mems will eat methane wherever they find it. That’s where Windfall comes in.
“We provide those packets of mems, and then whoever has access to that methane can capture the methane themselves, turn it into fertilizer and create the value from it,” said Josh Silverman, CEO of Windfall Bio.
More: [https://www.cnbc.com/2024/08/13/this-startup-will-sell-methane-eating-microbes-to-whole-foods.html](https://www.cnbc.com/2024/08/13/this-startup-will-sell-methane-eating-microbes-to-whole-foods.html)
I didn’t see a description in the article about how this can be employed by methane producers. Landfills for example, they siphon methane gas through pipes in the landfill cells, and then either convert it to liquidized natural gas or they burn it via flares, converting it to CO2 before it enters the atmosphere. Not all methane is captured of course. How would these MEMs be applied in this scenario? Same in agriculture, how would a wetlands agricultural plot (rice paddies for example) apply this stuff? Sprinkle it into the field?