[Ambia, Indiana – October 1, 2024] Ambient Carbon, a Denmark-based company focusing on methane mitigation technology, today announces its new partnership with Benton Group Dairies to field-test a prototype of Ambient Carbon’s Methane Eradication Photochemical System (MEPS), a first-of-a-kind non-invasive technology to remove methane from dairy barn exhaust. As part of the project, Ambient Carbon also has a Memorandum of Understanding with Danone North America, which sources milk from Benton. This month, Ambient Carbon will install methane monitors at Benton’s dairy farm in Ambia, Indiana in preparation for installing and testing a MEPS field prototype in early 2025.

Methane is 84 times more powerful a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide when measured over a 20 year period. Livestock emit approximately 30% of worldwide anthropogenic methane, with dairy cattle generating half of those emissions. Tomorrow, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) will release a new report on the need and potential for atmospheric methane removal. MEPS significantly reduces the amount of methane from dairy cows and other point sources getting into the ambient air.

MEPS is a point-source methane removal system. It is the only scalable, cost-effective solution for eradicating low-concentration (non-flammable) methane from cattle and manure, as well as other point sources. It uses a patented gas-phase photochemical process that combines chlorine atoms and UV light in a reaction chamber, mimicking a natural process of methane destruction in the atmosphere. As dairy barn air is cycled through MEPS, it breaks down methane at its source, preventing its release into the ambient air. The chlorine atoms are generated onsite via electrolysis of saltwater, and after eradicating 80-90% of the methane, the chlorine is recycled in a closed system.

“We have found that chlorine is the Achilles heel of methane,” said Matthew Johnson, co‑founder and CSO of Ambient Carbon. “MEPS only requires salt water (sodium chloride) and UV light to break down methane. It operates at ambient temperatures, so it is safe, and it’s automated, efficient, and highly cost-effective. Methane mitigation technologies such as regenerative thermal oxidation operate with expensive catalysts at high temperatures and aren’t cost effective for the relatively low concentrations of methane in a dairy barn. MEPS has world record efficiency for the low concentrations found in agriculture and waste management. Field-testing MEPS in Indiana will showcase its advantages and give us data showing just how efficient and cost-effective MEPS will be for dairy farms. MEPS is located outside the barn and doesn’t disturb dairy operations.”

“Benton Dairies places a substantial emphasis on conservation,” said Chris Williams,  Conservation Lead at Benton Dairies. “We are committed to increasing our positive environmental influence while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. MEPS is a non-invasive technology that will remove more methane from our farms than any available technology we’ve encountered. We are excited to work alongside Ambient Carbon to push the boundaries of what sustainable milk production can be.”

While the Indiana tests are underway, Ambient Carbon will also test another MEPS field prototype in Denmark as part of the AgriFoodTure PERMA Project, which includes Northern European dairy cooperative Arla, and is publicly funded by Innovation Fund Denmark and the EU’s NextGenerationEU. Data from the Indiana and Denmark tests will be used to refine the MEPS system for a full-scale MEPS pilot in late 2025. Ambient Carbon anticipates MEPS will reach commercialization and be available for installation in Q2 of 2026, and will scale globally through distribution and manufacturing partnerships.

The company plans an ambitious ramp-up of its solutions and envisions making a significant contribution to lowering greenhouse gas emissions in the next five years. “We believe that by 2030, Ambient Carbon will be eliminating well over one gigaton of CO2 equivalent annually by destroying methane from dairy barns and other low-concentration methane sources such as wastewater treatment plants and biogas plants,” said David S. Miller, Ambient Carbon’s co-founder and COO.

Ambient Carbon’s mission is to develop and commercialize effective, safe, and scalable technologies that mitigate greenhouse gas emissions.