When it comes to methane emissions, most people think of oil, coal, gas and livestock, says Louise Parlons-Bentata, co-founder and CEO of the UK-based start-up Blue Methane, but what many people don’t know about is water, she says.
“Methane emissions from water are not only an environmental disaster, but also a waste of a valuable resource that can be converted into clean energy. Anthropogenic sources of methane emissions from water, such as rice cultivation, wastewater channels and reservoirs, are responsible for more than 3 billion tonnes of CO2e per year through methane emissions, yet awareness of this is very low.”
Founded in 2021 by Perlon Ventata and engineer Nestor Rueda Vallejo, Blue Methane is part of the fifth batch of the AgFunder GROW Impact Accelerator. [Disclosure: AgFunder is AgFunderNews’ parent company] The company is on a mission to remove methane from various water sources, starting with wastewater treatment in the UK, where utility companies have committed to reaching net zero by 2030.
AgFunder News (AFN) met with Perlons Bentata (LPB) to discuss how methane is released from water sources, how to monetize methane reductions, and the financing challenges to address a market opportunity that is not yet fully understood.
AFN: Tell us about the origins of blue methane.
LPB: I started my career at L’Oreal. [as a brand manager]After earning his MBA, he worked for Johnson & Johnson. [as a global marketing manager]I then ran my own strategy firm for about 10 years before moving to work for an engineering firm. [a client] They were creating something very valuable that ended up in landfills.
I said, “I’m sorry.”we project [to tackle this problem]?’ And he said “No, you are not qualifiedI said.So what does it take to qualify??’ He said “I don’t know, but I can tell you you’re not qualified to do it.”“So he took this woman on to the project and I told her, “I want to do this.What are you qualified for? And she said, “I just came back from Cambridge. [University]where I completed my graduate studies. [course] Sustainable Business LeadershipSo I said,Okay, then I’ll sign up for that.
When COVID started [in 2020]I signed up for a nine month course at night whilst working. [the day job] And then three kids and in 2021 I enrolled in a climate tech fellowship program called On Deck. I didn’t know what I really wanted to do, but I wanted to do something new.
On the first day [in March 2021]In 2015, I met my co-founder Nestor. He was an engineer studying how hydroelectric reservoirs were emitting billions of tons of greenhouse gases. By May or June, we had given up what was supposed to be a mortgage payment without ever meeting in person. We met for the first time in September 2021. [the] Carbon 13 [climate accelerator].
AFN: Why is methane present in water, and when can it cause problems?
LPB: Methane is produced by the decomposition of organic matter [by microbes] In an oxygen-poor environment, sewers are almost completely oxygen-free. [oxygen-free] Environment. Rice cultivation also releases methane because farmers often flood the fields, creating anaerobic conditions where microbes eat the organic matter and produce methane.
There are a lot of academic papers on this, but they are few and far between compared to those on CO2 capture, but it’s a really big problem: At least 3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent are emitted just from human-made bodies of water like reservoirs, rice fields, and sewage.
AFNWhy don’t the oceans release large amounts of methane gas?
LPB: Actually, the water is moving, so it’s less of an issue than other sources. [methane released in the deep ocean can be diluted and dispersed by ocean currents over vast areas, making it less likely to reach saturation and escape into the atmosphere]More oxygen is circulated [inhibiting the activity of anaerobic microbes that produce methane].
AFNWhat determines whether methane stays in the water or is released into the atmosphere?
LPB: There are three ways that methane is released. The first is bubbling. You see this in shallow waters. The methane bubbles up, and the bubbles rise and burst at the surface. This is because the water pressure above is not enough to keep the methane dissolved. For example, in a reservoir with a lot of methane, you’ll see bubbles near the edges but not at depth.
Then there’s diffusion, and if the concentration of methane in the water is higher than in the air, the molecules move at the surface and become a gas.
“And degassing causes a sudden change in pressure that causes the dissolved gases to be released rapidly. Imagine a ton of water going through the wall of a dam. Suddenly the weight of the water above it is gone, and the water comes through and you see lots of bubbles.”
AFNHow easy is it to measure methane emissions from a body of water?
LPB: Atmospheric methane emissions are easier to measure than methane concentrations in liquids. To measure atmospheric methane, we have satellites and drones and things like that, which are getting more and more accurate for very large sources. But that doesn’t help us, because we’re running liquid through the system, and we need to know how much methane it has at the beginning and at the end, so we know how much we’ve removed.
There is very little technology available to measure dissolved methane in complex liquids… there’s a lot of it in sewage! However, we recently won a grant to develop a system to measure dissolved methane, which we offer as a paid service, but which is very difficult with current technology.
AFNWhat technologies are currently in place to remove methane from water?
LPB: There are a variety of technologies including thermal, aeration, membrane-based technologies, vacuum towers, and more. [by lowering the pressure, the solubility of gases in water decreases, causing them to come out of solution and form bubbles that rise to the surface of the water and are removed]However, they are not suitable for all applications because they require large energy inputs or do not treat water quickly enough.
The membrane is very clever because it can remove almost all of the methane. [of a body of water passing through them]But it takes a lot of energy to push the methane out, plus you need pretty clean water or it will clog.
Vacuum towers are interesting in places where there are very high concentrations of methane — for example, there’s a lake in Rwanda called Lake Kivu, where they’re capturing the methane for energy. [Known as the ‘killer’ or ‘exploding’ lake,’ Lake Kivu contains large amounts of methane and carbon dioxide through thousands of years of volcanic activity and through high levels of organic material from rivers and the surrounding densely populated and agriculturally active regions.]
This approach wouldn’t work in the UK because there isn’t enough methane produced. [from concentrated sources such as Lake Kivu] To justify this kind of investment.
AFN: How does Bluemethane’s technology work?
LPB: We have always viewed removing the most methane with the least amount of energy as the way to accomplish our mission. This is not the same as removing the most methane at all costs. We use physical separation technology, no chemicals or membranes, and we do not heat the water.
Imagine you have a bottle of carbonated water. You don’t see any bubbles in the bottle, but if you shake it and open the lid, bubbles appear. Shaking speeds up the bubbles, and opening the lid creates a sudden change in pressure. We use turbulence to replicate that process, speeding up the process of gravity-driven separation. It’s a very simple process.
What goes into our system is a water stream containing dissolved methane, and we end up with a biogas stream containing methane and carbon dioxide. What we do with that will depend a lot on the customer, but our initial markets will be places that already have anaerobic digestion facilities and are already using biogas.
AFN: What is the technology and what kind of partners are you targeting initially?
LPB: Our technology fits inside a 20-foot container for all applications except large reservoirs, but over the next few years our focus is on wastewater treatment plants, industrial pretreatment, and anaerobic biomethane facilities.
Our partners in municipal wastewater and sewage treatment are the people in charge of the bioresource centers, the people who treat the sludge and create value from it. For industrial wastewater, our partners are more likely to be the operators who manage the wastewater treatment plants. And for biomethane treatment plants, our partners are the energy companies.
AFN: What is your business model?
LPB: It really depends on the operating model. In the UK typically the water companies want to own the technology, but for industrial wastewater we might own the technology and operate it, or we might own the technology and a management company maintains it.
The most important first step is to know how much methane is there, so we start with a methane measurement service that estimates your biomethane potential. This is a paid service. Then, depending on the results of a cost-benefit analysis, we decide whether to deploy this technology or not. TThere are two ongoing value streams: the first is the energy value of the biogas itself, and the second is clean energy credits.
AFNHow have you funded the company so far and how are investors perceiving this opportunity?
LPB: We did a pre-seed round two years ago and it was oversubscribed. We’re just starting our seed round now and it’s a bit of a different environment. I think one of the challenges is that we’re in a space where we’re not very familiar. We understand the technology, but it’s an unfamiliar market with no clear benchmarks.
AFN: What IP do you have and how and where did you validate the technology?
LPB: We have filed a patent application with the hope of it being granted within the next 12 months.
Cranfield University has a prototype called Bluey, but is currently developing its TRL6 technology, Harvey, which is due to remove its first tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent at a customer site this year, and Stephanie, due next year, which will remove 100 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, which will make it ready for commercialisation.
AFN: Why did you focus on the UK initially?
LPB: We start in the UK because we are based here and we understand the market. We were going to do a project in Rwanda, which was a great project until we realised that our customers would never match up to Rwanda and that investors would never visit Rwanda…
AFNWhat is the biggest challenge you face?
LPB: The biggest challenge we see is not technology development, but financial innovation. In a market where there is little regulation for reducing methane from these sources and no carbon market for methane credits, the question arises: why should people do it?
For example, hydroelectric reservoirs are attractive because they can process large volumes of water despite having fairly low methane concentrations, but the local infrastructure to upgrade them is not there. [the methane] It can be used for anything, such as biogas or as a feedstock for hydrogen or ammonia production.
We needed to find a mechanism that would enable hydropower producers to adopt new technologies without taking on the risks that come with new technologies that are outside their scope of operations, so we worked with the Global Innovation Lab for Climate Finance to develop a finance product for hydropower reservoirs that separates technology ownership from profits.
This equipment for operation in Brazil involves special purpose vehicles. [managed by a firm called Open Hydro] It will own both the methane recovery plant and the biogas plant. [to handle the captured methane]Blue Methane will develop the methane capture plant, a local developer will be in charge of the biogas plant and the hydroelectric plant operator will provide the water rights.
The advantage of this “methane capture as a service” approach is that although the technology is on-site at the hydroelectric dam, it is owned by a third-party investor.
