Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, about 80 times more powerful than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere over a 20-year period. It's a major contributor to climate change, and significantly reducing the atmosphere’s level of methane is crucial for limiting warming and its associated impact.

When talking about the climate, scientists talk about two ways we can reduce the amount in the air: mitigation and removal.  What’s the difference?

Imagine a leaky boat: mitigation is plugging the holes to stop the water from coming in; removal is bailing the water out that's already inside. When you’re sinking, both are important.

Methane Mitigation: Plugging the Holes

Methane mitigation refers to reducing or preventing methane emissions from various sources like oil and gas wells and production, landfills, and even livestock. Reducing or eliminating emissions is the most effective and efficient way to reduce methane's impact on the climate.

Methane Removal: Bailing Out the Boat

Methane removal focuses on cleaning up the methane that's already been released into the atmosphere. Just like mitigation, it’s essential.

That’s because there are more than 4 gigatons of “excess” methane in the atmosphere compared to pre-industrial years. Even if we were to magically close every methane leak on Earth, there’s already enough excess methane to warm the planet for several more decades.

Where Bennu Fits In

Our equipment destroys the methane molecule – it’s no longer there.

So if it’s gone, we’ve removed it, right?  Yes, in English.  But when talking about the climate, “remove” means something specific, as above.

In fact, removing methane from the air just after it’s been released is called ‘reduction’ or  “post-emission mitigation”!  So the language can be confusing.

Whatever you call it, Bennu’s purpose is to get rid of methane and slow the rate of temperature increase. By destroying it, we can help companies mitigate their emissions, by reducing them or removing  “post-emissions.” We can do this at various concentrations of methane in the airflow. The higher the concentration, the more efficient our technology becomes.In the coming months, Bennu will share more on how we are enhancing and piloting our technology to make excess methane disappear. Exciting progress ahead, stay tuned to learn more.