High efficiency method destroys methane from low concentration sources

A unique new method developed by a research team at the University of Copenhagen’s Department of Chemistry and spin-out company Ambient Carbon has succeeded in removing methane from air. The method, suited to low-concentration sources including livestock and

biogas production, wastewater treatment and fermentation, is described in an article published today in Environmental Research Letters, in a Special Issue on Methane Drawdown.

"A large part of our methane emissions come from millions of low-concentration point sources like cattle and pig barns. In practice, methane from these sources has been impossible to concentrate into higher levels or remove. But our new result proves that it is possible to control these emissions using the MEPS reactor," says Matthew Stanley Johnson, the UCPH atmospheric chemistry professor who led the study.

Earlier this month, Johnson presented the research results at COP28 in Dubai via an online connection, and in Washington D.C. at the National Academy of Sciences, which advises the US government on science and technology. The research is funded by a grant from Innovation Fund Denmark for the PERMA project, a part of AgriFoodTure. The research was conducted in collaboration between the University of Copenhagen, Aarhus University, Arla, Skov and the UCPH spin-out company Ambient Carbon, started and now headed by Professor Matthew Stanley Johnson. The company was started to develop MEPS (Methane Eradication Photochemical System) technology and make it available to society.