Spark Climate Solutions

This set of problem statements is derived from submissions to the first round of the Exploratory Grants for Atmospheric Methane Research funding opportunity. Each of these problem statements isn't endorsed, edited, or corrected by Spark.

Evaluation of several unexplored atmospheric methane removal mechanisms

Submitted by

Maarten van Herpen (Acacia Impact Innovation BV)

High-resolution atmospheric chemistry modeling to maximize the effectiveness and minimize unintended consequences of atmospheric methane oxidation enhancement methods

Submitted by

Hannah Horowitz (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)

Liquid capture of atmospheric methane: rethinking an abandoned technology

Submitted by

Yat Li (University of California Santa Cruz)

Catalyst-Coated Fibers for Room-Temperature Direct Conversion of Methane from Air to Methanol

Submitted by

Request to remain anonymous

Fundamental Investigations of Gas–Surface Interactions Towards Adsorbent Design Rules to Enable Atmospheric Capture Technologies

Submitted by

C. Michael McGuirk (Colorado School of Mines)

Single-atom solid-oxide electrolyzers for efficient removal of atmospheric methane

Submitted by

Meenesh Singh (University of Illinois Chicago)

Atmospheric methane removal using engineered multimetallic catalysts

Submitted by

Matteo Cargnello (Stanford University)

Establishing an efficient hollow fiber membrane unit for atmospheric methane removal

Submitted by

Mari Karoliina Winkler (University of Washington)

Stimulation of microbial atmospheric methane oxidation with low-concentration methane generated in situ using organic wastes

Submitted by

Sukhwan Yoon (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology

Marker species and aerosol formation from chlorine-initiated oxidation in the remote atmosphere

Submitted by

Jesse Kroll (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

Awarded Spark grant

Ab initio calculation of kinetic isotope effects (KIE) for reaction of CH4 with ▪OH, ▪Cl, and O(1D)– towards improving the constraints for monitoring the atmospheric CH4 cycle

Submitted by

James Farquhar (University of Maryland)

Halogen-Driven Sinks Using a Novel Autonomous Low-Cost Solar Spectrometer Network

Submitted by

Joshua Paul (Butterfly Photonics, Inc.)

Analytical system for CO isotope analysis

Submitted by

Thomas Röckmann (Utrecht University)

Improving heat recovery for thermal oxidation reactors

Submitted by

Will Sawyer (Convivial Earth)

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Impacts of anthropogenic-driven changes in reactive chlorine on the methane lifetime and its isotopes

Submitted by

Becky Alexander (University of Washington)

Quantifying methane sources and sinks simultaneously

Submitted by

Xueying Yu (Stanford University)

Quantifying methane removal from CO isotope measurements at global scale

Submitted by

Thomas Röckmann (Utrecht University)

Constraining the response of the hydroxyl radical to changes in its drivers with machine learning and satellite proxy data

Submitted by

Daniel Anderson (University of Maryland Baltimore County)

Improved modeling of tropospheric OH to guide methane reduction strategies

Submitted by

Daniel Jacob (Harvard)

Methane loss rate sensitivity to emissions, climate change and variability, and key uncertainties

Submitted by

Arlene Fiore (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

Awarded Spark grant

Assessing Global Soil Methane Sink Capacity

Submitted by

Qianlai Zhuang (Purdue University)

Assessing the Global Potential of Soil Microbial Methane Removal via Knowledge-Guided Machine Learning

Submitted by

Licheng Liu (University of Minnesota)

Methane Hunters: Bio-prospecting Insect Galleries for CH₄ Mitigation

Submitted by

Aram Mikaelyan (North Carolina State University)

An updated version of the Methanotrophy Model (MeMo) using laboratory measurements to improve Q10 and k0 values

Submitted by

Fabiola Murguia-Flores (Instituto de Investigaciones en Ecosistemas y Sustentabilidad)

Improving our understanding of the northern methane sink through better representation of alpine tundra ecosystems

Submitted by

McKenzie Kuhn (University of British Columbia)

Optimization of Methanotrophs and Solid-State Bioreactors for Atmospheric Methane Removal

Submitted by

Lisa Stein (University of Alberta)

Problem Statement Repository: Atmospheric Methane Research

Evaluation of several unexplored atmospheric methane removal mechanisms

High-resolution atmospheric chemistry modeling to maximize the effectiveness and minimize unintended consequences of atmospheric methane oxidation enhancement methods

Liquid capture of atmospheric methane: rethinking an abandoned technology

Catalyst-Coated Fibers for Room-Temperature Direct Conversion of Methane from Air to Methanol

Fundamental Investigations of Gas–Surface Interactions Towards Adsorbent Design Rules to Enable Atmospheric Capture Technologies

Single-atom solid-oxide electrolyzers for efficient removal of atmospheric methane

Atmospheric methane removal using engineered multimetallic catalysts

Establishing an efficient hollow fiber membrane unit for atmospheric methane removal

Stimulation of microbial atmospheric methane oxidation with low-concentration methane generated in situ using organic wastes

Marker species and aerosol formation from chlorine-initiated oxidation in the remote atmosphere

Ab initio calculation of kinetic isotope effects (KIE) for reaction of CH4 with ▪OH, ▪Cl, and O(1D)– towards improving the constraints for monitoring the atmospheric CH4 cycle

Halogen-Driven Sinks Using a Novel Autonomous Low-Cost Solar Spectrometer Network

Analytical system for CO isotope analysis

Improving heat recovery for thermal oxidation reactors

Impacts of anthropogenic-driven changes in reactive chlorine on the methane lifetime and its isotopes

Quantifying methane sources and sinks simultaneously

Quantifying methane removal from CO isotope measurements at global scale

Constraining the response of the hydroxyl radical to changes in its drivers with machine learning and satellite proxy data

Improved modeling of tropospheric OH to guide methane reduction strategies

Methane loss rate sensitivity to emissions, climate change and variability, and key uncertainties

Assessing Global Soil Methane Sink Capacity

Assessing the Global Potential of Soil Microbial Methane Removal via Knowledge-Guided Machine Learning

Methane Hunters: Bio-prospecting Insect Galleries for CH₄ Mitigation

An updated version of the Methanotrophy Model (MeMo) using laboratory measurements to improve Q10 and k0 values

Improving our understanding of the northern methane sink through better representation of alpine tundra ecosystems

Optimization of Methanotrophs and Solid-State Bioreactors for Atmospheric Methane Removal