Transforming Methane to Value in the Oil & Gas Industry

A first-of-its-kind technology powered by biology and backed by millions of years of evolution... meet the microbe!

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Josh Silverman
02/20/2025

Contributed by: Windfall Bio

Long overlooked in climate change efforts, methane is finally receiving attention for its outsized impact on global warming. It was a major talking point at COP29 in Azerbaijan, and the inspiration for a new methane abatement initiative formed by the European Commission, the U.S., Canada, and other partners.

This attention will no doubt remain fixed as new satellite data from the organization Carbon Mapper rolls in. This survey -- which is one of a few collecting data (GHG Sat and MethaneSAT among them) -- monitors some 17,000 methane and carbon plumes emanating from landfills and oil and gas operations around the world, and current numbers show higher methane emissions rates than previously assumed.

For the oil and gas industry in particular, methane emissions present high stakes and immense opportunities. Losses from venting, flaring, and leaks are staggering – nearly $47 billion in lost revenue by one estimate. Yet low-cost strategies for mitigating these losses are readily available – including leak detection and repair campaigns; emissions control devices; and the replacement of subpar or broken parts. Used in tandem, they have the potential to slash methane emissions by up to 60% – more than any other high-emitting sector can achieve with existing technologies.

This is more than an opportunity for oil and gas companies to prevent revenue loss and waste. This is a moment for oil and gas industry leaders to emerge as trailblazers in a global movement to mitigate methane emissions whilst operating more efficiently and producing economic returns.

Existing methane abatement solutions offer some progress — but they’re not without challenges. Cost-effectiveness and scalability can be real issues for remote and challenging oil and gas operations. Windfall Bio's innovative approach addresses these limitations by leveraging biological processes to transform and remove methane emissions. Low-cost and easily scalable, this system removes methane in a nondisruptive manner while adding value back into the operation — even with methane streams that would otherwise be too low in volume and concentration for other existing solutions.

As a first-of-its-kind technology, this isn’t a traditional oil and gas installation, but one that’s powered by biology, and backed by millions of years of evolution, creating a self-replicating, self-perpetuating, and nature-based solution.

At its core is a single organism: the microbe...

Image: Dried Fertilizer (Windfall Bio)

READ: Top Reasons to Attend the Methane Mitigation Summit Series

Activating Methane-Eating Microbes
Quick biology refresher: microbes are the smallest living things on the planet, and they exist in vast numbers. In fact, there are more microbes on Earth than there are stars in the observable universe. Microbes are hearty, determined life forms. They can thrive in inhospitable places, and they eat all kinds of things, including material toxic to most life forms, such as sulfur, radioactive waste, plastic – and methane.

Yes, methane-consuming microbes are a thing. They’re called methanotrophs, and they’ve been active on our planet for billions of years. We at Windfall have studied and cultivated these special microbes – called mems – and built systems around their biologically-driven instinct to consume methane. As a part of an easily scalable solution, we can deploy our mems almost anywhere methane emissions occur: on farms, at landfill and waste sites – and at oil and gas operations.

Removing methane isn’t the only thing our mems accomplish. As a byproduct of their consumption, they produce biomass. This is a nutrient-rich material that’s transformed into either a nature-based fertilizer, primed for sustainable and organic farming; or a sprayable biocover that traps rogue emissions emanating from the surface of landfills. Biomass can be used by the customer, or sold for profit, adding value to the methane-removal process. And because converting methane emissions into fertilizer permanently eliminates methane, Windfall is developing a new carbon credit methodology for methane abatement.

Here’s how this system might look when deployed at an oil and gas facility:

Windfall sets up a bioreactor containing mems opposite a flaring or venting site
Methane coming from that site is piped into the bioreactor, where it’s fed to the colony of mems, along with water, air, and nutrients
The methane-consuming-mems produce biomass, which is harvested from the reactor, processed into fertilizer, and shipped to a fertilizer distribution center, where it’s sold for profit. For operators who would prefer not to manage this part of the process, Windfall can handle the transportation and distribution of the biomass through an offtake agreement
Throughout this process, the amount of methane removed is measured and recorded with data processing methodology so that it can be verified by independent auditors. This data can be used to generate sustainability reports as well as be used for carbon credits

Here’s what the numbers might look like if Windfall’s system were set up at a compressor station:

If the exhaust emitted by the compressor contains 1% methane – which is average; some contain up to 4% – that equals 2.94 Metric Tonnes (MT) of methane per day
Passing that exhaust through Windfall’s system can reduce the amount of methane it contains by 80-90%, resulting in a much “cleaner” exhaust
Removing this amount of methane (i.e., between 1.47 MT and 2.06 MT of methane) and feeding it to our mems produces 1 ton of fertilizer per day
That ton of fertilizer can be given away to local farmers or sold to generate an economic return

Unlike other methane mitigation technologies, this is not a ‘fix’ in the traditional sense, but rather a closed-loop system powered by nature. We are transforming methane – a high-potency greenhouse gas – into a feedstock for microbial life, which in turn produces a valuable, sustainable product that’s good for the Earth. It’s biology in its most elegant form, and has the ability to trigger a much-needed reduction in methane emissions.

Cut Losses, Cut Emissions, Add Value
The staggering amount of natural gas that’s wasted during standard industry practices such as venting and flaring is worth highlighting:

Based on numbers reported by operators to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, venting and flaring on U.S. federal oil and gas leases waste enough natural gas to meet the energy needs of 15 million homes per year (source: NRDC)
Add leaks to that equation, and methane emissions equate to 6 million tons per year in the U.S. alone, and 135 million tons globally, according to researchers at Stanford University who collected data from six of the nation’s most productive regions. This wasted methane amounts to $1 billion in losses per year for energy producers in the U.S. alone

Tackling methane emissions in the oil and gas industry – and tackling them now – makes sense from economic and strategic perspectives. And the plethora of low-cost, low-tech solutions available makes even the 30% industry-wide reduction target established by Global Methane Pledge in 2023 entirely achievable.

Windfall’s system can play a critical part in this effort: by removing methane while improving operational efficiency, adding value back into the operation, and increasing economic returns - all through the power of biology.

Fermentation Process