In late August of 2024, International Business Machines (IBM) corporation and Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) led an effort with seven other organizations (Butterfly Photonics, University of Utah, Utah State University, New Mexico Tech, EarthDaily Analytics, University of California Merced, and SkyCam Aviation) to submit a proposal to the Department of Energy (DOE) funding opportunity for a methane emissions reduction program that targets oil and gas methane monitoring and mitigation. The area of focus for this work is around developing consistent, accurate, granular, and transparent multi-scale (e.g., optical, tower, aerial, satellite) methane emission measurement approaches over different time scales. These measurements will be used to inform the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) programs such as the Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks and the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program, as well as assist State, Tribal, and industry mitigation efforts. The team (led by Dr. Hendrik Hamann) will focus on comprehensive multi-scale methane measurements, efficient data fusion & assimilation, and scalable inversion modeling.
On December 20th, 2024, the DOE announced the projects selected for funding, which consisted of over $800 million in support. In this list, IBM was awarded approximately $20 million in funding to carry out their proposal over a 44 month period. IBM and team will develop and demonstrate their work in the western region of the United States, targeting the Unita, Four Corners, San Joaquin, Green River, Montana, Big Horn and Alaska basins. The University of California Merced team (led by Prof. YangQuan Chen, and Dr. Derek Hollenbeck) will utilize the Center for Methane Emissions Research and Innovation (CMERI) to help make boots on the ground measurements in California and Alaska.
See the DOE project selection page for more information on the program and selected projects. https://www.energy.gov/fecm/project-selections-foa-3256-methane-emissions-reduction-program-oil-and-gas-methane-monitoring
