Methane Removal

Spark is currently supporting scientific research to advance our understanding of existing atmospheric oxidation processes, and study the potential efficacy and safety of interventions intended to enhance atmospheric oxidative capacity, which could be able to help accelerate the destruction of atmospheric methane, potentially in addition to other pollutants. We will be expanding our research granting program to also include other methods for oxidizing methane at atmospheric concentrations (2 ppm) and at low-concentrations emission-sources (2-2,000ppm).

Our grantees to date include:

For research on advancing our understanding of existing atmospheric oxidation processes hypothesized to be naturally removing more atmospheric methane than previously studied

• University of Copenhagen for project management, smog chamber laboratory studies of mineral dusts, and local plume modeling.
• Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) for global atmospheric chemistry modeling.
• Utrecht University for atmospheric sample analysis.
• Cornell University for global aerosol modeling.
• Acacia Impact Innovation BV for project management support, sensor research, atmospheric  modeling support, and study design.
• OceansX for coordination of atmospheric sampling to study existing natural phenomena.

For research on advancing our understanding of spatially resolved methane emissions, removals, and impacts

• ‍Texas A&M University & NCAR: Global Earth system modeling and exploring the sensitivity of responses to various future emission scenarios, including methane emissions, removals, and feedbacks.

Near-term Warming Management

For research on metric design to support management of both near-term and long-term warming in parallel

• Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development (IGSD) for study on metrics that would inform mitigation strategies to address temperature pathways and meeting near-term and longer-term targets.

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