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A new satellite which can detect methane emissions. It is great to see innovative new technologies being developed and deployed that can help us reduce our carbon footprint and accelerate our global energy transition.

Scottish spin-out aims to seal 100,000 methane-leaking wells by 2034 - by Peter A Walker, insider.co.uk ''Rockit, a cleantech initiative from Heriot-Watt University, has unveiled plans to help seal 100,000 methane-leaking wells within the next decade. Potentially preventing millions of tonnes of harmful greenhouse gas emissions being released into the atmosphere every year, the project’s technology uses an efficient chemical injection method that turns permeable rocks into a permanent seal of insoluble minerals. The unique solution can infiltrate even the smallest pores and cracks, where existing methods fall short, offering a more comprehensive sealing method for both shallow onshore and deeper offshore wells. Based in Edinburgh, Rockit has been accepted into Scottish Enterprise's High Growth Spinout programme, securing £75,000 in funding to develop its solution. The International Energy Agency has reported that methane has more than 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide over a 20-year period. It is calculated that cutting methane emissions by 45% by 2030 could help meet the Paris Agreement's goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. The technology has potentially broader applications, including enabling safe carbon and large-scale hydrogen storage.'' #ghg Read the full article here - https://lnkd.in/dd-XF4Nc

🌍 Advancing Towards Reduced Flaring and Methane Emissions with Equinor Launched in 2015 by the World Bank, the 'Zero routine flaring by 2030' initiative commits governments and oil companies, to end routine flaring no later than 2030. The commitment also aims to ensure new oil fields are developed with associated gas utilization solutions and without routine flaring or venting. At Industrial Decarbonization Network's ‘Methane Mitigation Europe Summit’, Bjørn Ove Jansen, Project Manager - Sustainability and Climate at Equinor, shared an emissions reduction checklist, along with exclusive insights, facts, and figures on mitigating routine and non-routine flaring. Download your copy of the presentation to learn more about:  ● How to utilize the waste hierarchy to reduce flaring and methane emissions  ● How to explore an internal carbon price on CO2 and CH4 emissions  ● Create flaring targets, flaring minimizing procedures and benchmarking between assets  ● Think value chain optimization, go beyond single asset optimisation  ● Examining Practical Operational measures which lead to Substantial Flare Reduction 📅 Interested? Don't miss the upcoming Methane Mitigation Technology & Innovation Summit in Austin from June 11-13! Join industry leaders and experts for a deep dive into the latest technologies and strategies. Access Presentation: https://lnkd.in/eSyNAijS #OGIQ #MethaneMitigation #Sustainability #ClimateAction #ZeroFlaring 

Climate and energy reporter Casey Crownhart has done a stellar job of summarizing a recent Nature Portfolio study in this MIT Technology Review article 👉 https://lnkd.in/eP_m7Ka3 Portfolio company Insight M (formerly Kairos Aerospace) provided key data for this important analysis. As Crownhart notes, the paper draws on "one of the largest surveys of US fossil-fuel production sites to date. Starting in 2018, Insight M and the Carbon Mapper Project mapped six major oil- and gas-producing regions, which together account for about 50% of onshore oil production and about 30% of gas production. Planes flying overhead gathered nearly 1 million measurements of well sites using spectrometers, which can detect methane using specific wavelengths of light.” The findings are striking. As the paper notes, "technology limitations have hampered efforts to determine these emissions accurately." By using technology like Insight M's "remote-sensing surveys conducted aerially and by satellite," we can get a more accurate picture – and what we're seeing suggests that the US government's current approach may "undercut emissions by up to 40%." While the new figures might be sobering, it's only by getting better data that we can effectively tackle the issue. We're looking forward to seeing the continued impact of Insight M's technology, in the pursuit of cutting harmful methane emissions. You can read the full paper in Nature here 👉 https://lnkd.in/ewxEChGi #MethaneEmissions #MethaneDetection #MIT

The groundbreaking research coming out of Edinburgh University on sealing methane wells is truly exciting. With an estimated 100,000 abandoned oil and gas wells in the UK alone, the potential impact of this work on reducing greenhouse gas emissions is immense. What's particularly interesting is the innovative approach using bacteria to create a natural, long-lasting seal. This could be a breakthrough in addressing the persistent issue of methane leaks from abandoned wells, which contribute significantly to global warming. The scale of the problem is staggering - with millions of abandoned wells worldwide, each potentially leaking methane for decades. This research not only offers a solution to a major environmental challenge but also presents an opportunity for the UK to lead in an emerging field of environmental remediation. I'm particularly impressed by the interdisciplinary nature of this project, bringing together geoscientists, microbiologists, and engineers. It's a prime example of how collaboration across fields can lead to innovative solutions for complex problems. For those of us in the energy sector, this raises some interesting questions: How might this technology impact decommissioning strategies for oil and gas companies? Could this approach be scaled up to address methane leaks globally? What role might this play in the broader context of achieving net-zero targets? How do you see this technology fitting into the future of oil and gas field management and environmental remediation? I'm keen to hear your thoughts. #MethaneMitigation #SustainableEnergy #EnvironmentalInnovation #OilandGas #Sustainability

Producers of #methane gas have a problem. What they are selling is a climate-killer 80 times more powerful than #carbondioxide. For many decades, the world has focused on carbon dioxide when planning ways to address #globalheating. If you read the final reports from the #Paris climate conference in 2015, the word “methane” is largely absent from any texts. The result of that historic international meeting was all about reducing #carbonemissions, and why not? The world has a nervous eye on the carbon tracker at Mauna Loa, Hawaii, the one that measures the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Until recently, there was no similar tracker for methane. But now there is. At #COP27 in #Scotland, the #UN announced a new high-tech, satellite-based global methane detection initiative — Methane Alert and Response System (MARS) — which will leverage satellite data to alert governments, companies, and operators about large methane sources to enable faster mitigation. The data from those satellites shows for the first time huge plumes of methane from oil and gas operations around the world, many in former #SovietUnion nations or in #Russia itself, but many in #Europe, the #US, and #China as well. Methane has a nasty habit of escaping into the atmosphere, but since it is odorless and colorless, its release often goes undetected. Methane Monitoring After the truth about methane became public knowledge, a new industry was born — methane monitoring. Supposedly, a new generation of methane monitors became available that promised to detect methane leaks. The industry was quick to glom onto these new devices to “prove” that their methane supplies were not being released into the atmosphere. That, in turn, led to a new marketing strategy — marking up the supposedly “certified gas” and selling it at a premium. Sounds good on paper, but according to a report by Oil Change International and Earthworks published June 18, 2024, the monitoring systems have yet to be proven effective in real world use. Credit: Oil Change International and Earthworks The report says, “#Fossilfuel companies are under public pressure to address the #climatecrisis and reduce #pollution. In response, almost 40% of US gas is now “certified” by third party companies, allowing fossil fuel producers to claim reduced methane emissions from their operations. The problem? The claims are false. Gas certification threatens climate goals by promoting false data and enabling gas companies to expand operations under the guise of reduced emissions. The report finds: - Industry operated continuous emissions monitors (CEMs) at well sites regularly miss pollution events. - “Continuous” monitors belonging to Project Canary – a certifying company – are inexplicably offline over 25% of the time. - Fossil fuel companies rarely take action to address pollution when it is detected. - Industry and regulators see opportunity for profit in certification schemes.

MethaneSAT marks a significant advancement in global emissions monitoring. The Environmental Defense Fund initiative, backed by the Bezos Earth Fund, not only highlights the problem but also provides a tool for accountability. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the technology already exists to cut 75% of methane emissions from oil and gas, underlining a notable lack of industry action on a problem that can often be addressed inexpensively. Given that valves contribute to 60% of industrial emissions, the Zero Emissions ES Stemless Valve stands at the forefront of these available solutions for reducing global methane emissions. It offers a cost-effective and efficient approach to tackling a major root cause of the issue. As over 150 countries commit to methane emission reductions, it's imperative for the oil and gas sector to embrace such solutions. https://lnkd.in/en8wVG5z

March 4, 2024 - By Pipeline Journal, "Just after 2:00pm Pacific Time today MethaneSAT is scheduled to lift off aboard a SpaceX Falcon9 rocket (live video (https://www.spacex.com/)). The satellite is designed to help protect the Earth’s climate by accelerating reductions of a powerful greenhouse pollutant, focusing first on oil and gas operators, the world’s largest industrial source of #methaneemissions.    Developed by a subsidiary of the non-profit Environmental Defense Fund, MethaneSAT will see and quantify total methane emissions over wide areas that other satellites can’t and identify large emitters in places they aren’t looking. Data from MethaneSAT will enable both companies and regulators to track emissions, and give stakeholders – citizens, governments, investors, and gas importers – free, near-real time access to the data, and the unprecedented ability to compare the results against emission goals and obligations.    “Cutting methane pollution from #fossilfueloperations, agriculture and other sectors is the single fastest way to slow the rate of warming as we continue to decarbonize our energy systems,” said EDF President Fred Krupp. “To do that requires comprehensive data on this pollution on a global scale. MethaneSAT will show us the full scope of the opportunity by tracking emissions to their source.”   Krupp announced MethaneSAT in a 2018 TED Talk as part of the TED Audacious Project. EDF has been a global leader in methane science and solutions for more than a decade, putting the problem on the map by organizing a pioneering series of 16 independent studies that showed methane emissions across the U.S. #oilandgas supply chain were 60% higher than EPA estimates at the time. MethaneSAT is a direct outgrowth of these efforts.    “MethaneSAT’s superpower is the ability to precisely measure methane levels with high resolution over wide areas, including smaller, diffuse sources that account for most emissions in many regions,” said Steven Hamburg, EDF Chief Scientist and MethaneSAT project leader. “Knowing how much methane is coming from where and how the rates are changing is essential.” Circling the Earth 15 times a day, MethaneSAT will measure changes in methane concentrations as small as three parts per billion. High sensitivity together with high resolution and a wide field of view will enable MethaneSAT to see the whole emissions picture (see more detail here: (https://lnkd.in/eyrP7SZy). These unique capabilities usher in a new era of transparency for the industry. Interactive emissions data will be available to anyone directly from www.MethaneSAT.org and on Google Earth Engine, a premier geospatial data platform used by over 100,000 experts and analysts. MethaneSAT was made possible entirely by the support of EDF donors and our partnership with the Government of New Zealand. Among the largest contributors to MethaneSAT are the Bezos Earth Fund, Arnold Ventures, the..."  #climateaction #satellitedata Continue reading

Read about a new satellite which can detect methane emissions in this new article. It is great to see innovative new technologies being developed and deployed that can help us reduce our carbon footprint and accelerate our global energy transition.