CMERI MISSION
"The Center for Methane Emission Research and Innovation (CMERI) at UC Merced takes closed-loop thinking (sensing/actuation) for taking climate actions against methane emissions due to both environmental and anthropogenic emissions. CMERI aims to develop actionable information from methane emission sensing and quantification for emission reduction and mitigation actions, and to contribute to education, outreach and workforce development for disadvantaged communities."
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RESEARCH DIRECTIONS
CMERI's research focuses on methane-negative technologies, including biogas and biochar applications for emissions reduction. Our work is driven by three key research thrusts: methane mitigation, developing technologies to convert unpurified biogas into usable energy; methane measurement, advancing mobile and satellite-based sensing for accurate quantification; and digital twins, integrating smart sensing, physics-informed modeling / machine learning and behavior matching to enhance the detection and quantification of emissions and mitigation strategies.
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RECENT UPDATES
- November 24-26, 2025 - Derek Hollenbeck and Rafal Krzysiak presented their research at the 13th International Conference on Control, Mechatronics and Automation (ICCMA). See Derek's paper, "An Optimal Mobile Sensing sUAS Platform Using Digital Twins and the Observability Gramian", and Rafal's paper, "Modeling and Control of a Prescribed Fire with UAVs as Sensors and Actuators", for more details.
- November 2, 2025 - Derek Hollenbeck and YangQuan Chen published the first book on "Smart Sensing with Digital Twins: Methane Emission Source Determination with sUAS" with CRC Press.
- August 18-20, 2025 - Sachin Giri presented his work at the 21st IEEE/ASME International Conference on Mechatronic and Embedded Systems and Applications (MESA) titled, "AVIRIS-NG-Like Smart Virtual Remote Sensing via Spectra-Aware Physics Informed GANs".
- July 16, 2025 - Principal Investigator Marc Beutel, CO PI's Peggy O'day, YangQuan Chen, and Senior Personnel Derek Hollenbeck, were awarded a $350k grant from Savanna River Nuclear Solutions LLC for a project titled, "Development and Testing of Small Unmanned Aerial Systems for Real-Time Detection of Methane Leaks and Mercury Emissions".
- February 20, 2025 - UC Merced news article published, "Researchers Developing New Tools in Fight Against Methane EmissionsResearchers Developing New Tools in Fight Against Methane Emissions", by Patty Guerra.
- January 30, 2025 - CMERI hosts a Spring 2025 Mini-Workshop on Methane Detection and Quantification. Special Guest James Zhan from KT Photonics.
- January 25, 2025 - Derek Hollenbeck, Kristen Manies, Colin Edgar, and Eugenie Euskirchen, published a paper in Drones focusing on understanding wind measurements using a joust configured sUAS for gas flux quantification. https://doi.org/10.3390/drones9020094
- December 20, 2024 - DOE selected a proposal submitted by IBM to characterize methane emissions in western region of the US. CMERI will act as subcontractor to help measure with sUAS.
- October 18, 2024 - Rafal Krzysiak presented his research at the DTPI conference. https://doi.org/10.1109/DTPI61353.2024.10778902
- September 2, 2024 - Dr. Hollenbeck presented research at the MESA Conference in Genoa Italy. https://doi.org/10.1109/MESA61532.2024.10704862
- June 21, 2024 - CMERI hosts 2024 Summer International Workshop on Methane Emission with talks from Prof. YangQuan Chen, Dr. Derek Hollenbeck, Prof. Pawel Domanski, and undergraduate student Andrew Amavizca.
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