We’re excited to announce the first cohort of research projects funded through Spark’s Exploratory Grants for Atmospheric Methane funding opportunity. Methane removal research remains in its very early innings, with approaches yet to be discovered, and significant research needed to understand and develop potential approaches. With 0.5°C, and growing, of warming from methane, it is crucial to explore whether there are ways in which the breakdown of methane might be safely accelerated. Infusing the field with another $1 million in research funding, the four new awards enable research into two entirely new biological approaches and further core atmospheric chemistry research to improve our understanding of current oxidation dynamics and inform future development of additional methane removal approaches.

Methane removal could be a critical additional climate solution to help reduce warming, along with urgent and rapid greenhouse gas emissions cuts, removal of CO₂ and other greenhouse gases, and other climate interventions. Exploration of methane removal is particularly urgent considering expected methane climate feedbacks this century, including from wetlands and permafrost thaw.  As part of our broader program working to advance the field across science, law, governance, policy, and other areas, Spark’s research funding directly supports the growth of this early scientific field. 

There are a variety of methane removal approach categories starting to be researched, including enhancing biological methane-consumption activity, designing catalytic reactors, optimizing surface treatments, and discovering and evaluating novel ways to enhance atmospheric oxidation. Each of these areas need more innovation and research. There’s strong interest from the scientific community to accelerate work in this space; Spark’s Exploratory Grants funding opportunity received over 45 proposals in the first round, and we're currently evaluating 70+ more we received in the second round. 

Methane-eating microbes, known as methanotrophs, currently break down about 5% of methane in the atmosphere. Various approaches are currently being studied to enhance this activity to accelerate breakdown, including potential soil amendments through previously Spark-funded work. Two new approaches will be studied with newly-awarded Exploratory Grants.

With support from Spark, and following up on his recent discovery that upland trees are uptaking methane, Prof. Vincent Gauci, a Professorial Fellow in the School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Birmingham, and team will refine estimates of the contribution of tree-based methanotrophs to the global methane sink, and investigate approaches to enhance that sink. Read more →

Other plant-based approaches may also hold promise for highly-scalable and low-energy-consumption methane removal. Spark has awarded Elysia Creative Biology, led by CEO Dr. Eli Hornstein, a grant to explore the possibility of expressing the enzyme that methanotrophs use to break down methane in crop plants. “Each year agricultural vegetation processes enough of the atmosphere to photosynthetically capture ~3% of all the CO₂ in the atmosphere. If all of those plants could oxidize methane, the potential impact could be enormous: hundreds of millions of metric tons of methane removed every year, which would have a similar climate impact over the next few decades as tens of GTs per year of additional carbon dioxide avoided or removed,” Hornstein shared. Read more →

Atmospheric radicals, primarily hydroxyl, and to a lesser extent, chlorine, break down about 95% of methane in the atmosphere. Spark has awarded two Exploratory Grants to advance scientific understanding of current atmospheric sinks, and what is influencing them. This work will be critical to understanding potential future pathways to increase atmospheric methane sinks.

‍Prof. Arlene Fiore, a professor of atmospheric chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, has been intrigued that small changes in atmospheric chemistry can drive big changes in what we observe in atmospheric methane. Known as the “detergent” of the atmosphere, hydroxyl radicals are powerful oxidants, and are highly reactive with many atmospheric species including carbon monoxide, hydrogen, and volatile organic compounds. Spark has awarded Fiore and postdoctoral researcher Dr. Qindan Zhu, also at MIT, a grant to explore how the capacity of the atmosphere to breakdown methane will change as the composition of the atmosphere responds to perturbations such as decreasing fossil fuel burning, increasing use of hydrogen as a fuel source, climate change, and other anthropogenic and natural trends. This work will advance understanding of the levers affecting the hydroxyl radical sink and how they might be leveraged in the future for atmospheric methane removal. Read more →

Differentiating when methane breakdown is caused by hydroxyl or chlorine radicals is a critical input to climate models and essential to better understanding how atmospheric chemistry might be leveraged for atmospheric methane removal, but is currently challenging and expensive. Prof. Jesse Kroll, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is undertaking research which could change that. Focused on understanding how volatile organic compounds (VOCs) degrade in the atmosphere by recreating their reaction conditions in the lab, Kroll realized that the VOCs he studies might provide a pathway to indirectly measure chlorine-based oxidation of methane. His novel approach will closely replicate real-life conditions in remote parts of the atmosphere, like over oceans, where chlorine chemistry can be more common. If successful, this Spark-funded research could lead to a new, lower-cost tool to better understand the mechanisms and side effects, such as aerosol formation, of atmospheric methane oxidation and potential pathways for atmospheric methane removal. Read more →

Spark’s support of scientific research is focused on building the overall field — discovering new approaches, advancing emerging approaches, developing tools, and supporting related science, while enabling researchers to join the field, bringing new ideas and perspectives. Spark is approach-agnostic; the awarded proposals represent the outcome from an independent scientific peer-review process, and deliberation with Spark’s Atmospheric Methane Research Fund Oversight Committee. 

Spark is excited to support these grantees as they explore critical questions around atmospheric methane removal. These grantees join a growing community of scientists funded and supported by Spark exploring new ideas towards addressing rising methane concentrations. To build community and knowledge around key challenges to continue to accelerate research progress, we’ve published problem statements derived from submitted proposals. 

Later this summer, Spark will announce awards from the second Exploratory Grants call for proposals; join the mailing list to stay up to date on funding opportunities, field updates, and other announcements. Beyond funding, Spark supports scientists, policymakers, and peer organizations to advance research, funding availability, governance, and community growth in under-resourced, high impact climate fields. Spark thanks the Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment and Quadrature Climate Foundation and for their support of the Atmospheric Methane Research Fund, which backs this funding opportunity. Support for additional research funding is needed to further grow this emerging, high-impact field; contact Spark if interested in learning more about the field and discover how you can get involved.