Staying ahead of the technology curve means strengthening your competitive advantage. That is why we give you data-driven innovation insights into smart cities. This time, you get to discover 5 hand-picked startups reducing methane emissions from waste.
Global Startup Heat Map highlights 5 Top Startups reducing Methane Emissions from Waste out of 166
The insights of this data-driven analysis are derived from the Big Data & Artificial Intelligence-powered StartUs Insights Discovery Platform, covering 2.093.000+ startups & scaleups globally. The platform gives you an exhaustive overview of emerging technologies & relevant startups within a specific field in just a few clicks.
The Global Startup Heat Map below reveals the distribution of the 166 exemplary startups & scaleups we analyzed for this research. Further, it highlights 5 startups reducing methane emissions from waste that we hand-picked based on criteria such as founding year, location, funding raised, and more. You get to explore the solutions of these 5 startups & scaleups in this report. For insights on the other 161 methane emission reduction solutions, get in touch.
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mínus manufactures Microbial Waste Disposal Equipment
Most solutions reducing methane emissions from waste disposal treat it after transporting them to collection sites or landfills. However, the transportation of unprocessed waste requires considerable effort due to its size and volume. Additionally, collecting large amounts of waste in landfills increases methane gas emissions from its continuous exposure to the environment. To solve these problems, startups are developing solutions that process waste before collecting them for disposal.
Canadian startup mínus provides a smart waste solution that reduces the weight and volume of waste its transportation. The startup’s smart waste system, ORCA, uses microbiology, water, and oxygen to digest food waste onsite. This enables greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction, including methane. The system then sends the effluent from the waste to water treatment facilities through sewers. As a result, solid waste requires lesser space on collection vehicles which considerably reduces the emissions from waste transportation.
Waga Energy enables Methane Recovery from Landfills
The amount of garbage reaching landfills is constantly increasing with more land being allotted for the construction of additional landfills. One of the major ecological problems created by landfills is gas emissions, contributing to significant methane emissions. Startups are developing solutions to harvest the gasses from landfills and use them for fuel production.
Canadian startup Waga Energy specializes in waste valorization to produce biogas from landfills in the form of biomethane. Their solution, WAGABOX, is a biogas purification unit that produces biomethane by processing biogas collected from landfills. Further, this biomethane is useful for gas distribution networks or as automotive fuel. Waga Energy’s recovery process reduces the amount of methane emitted into the atmosphere from landfills and converts it into an energy source.
SweepSmart provides an End-to-End Solid Waste Management System
The global population is set to reach 10 billion people by 2050. This rate of increase requires improvements in the current waste management infrastructure. Moreover, poor waste management practices will lead to a higher concentration of greenhouse gases such as methane in the atmosphere. To overcome the problem of inefficient waste management, startups develop solutions that improve processes at scale.
Dutch startup SweepSmart provides governments, institutions, and companies with an integrated solid waste management (SWM) system. The startup’s solution achieves this by using smart waste centers for waste collection and separation. In addition to setting up waste management systems, from collection to transport and processing, SweepSmart also tailors the solution to local requirements. The solution lowers methane emissions by reducing the amount of unprocessed or unfiltered waste that otherwise ends up in landfills.
VOCSens develops Sensors for Methane Emissions Monitoring
As cities grow and the number of sources of pollution increases, it becomes necessary to track the sources of emission to be able to stop or reduce them. Methane emissions are not equal from all sources and areas of a city. As a result, the location and intensity of the source are not factored in for the development and utilization of methane emissions solutions. Startups are developing gas sensors that track metrics such as particulates, temperature, and rate of emission and use the data to help cities manage their resources more efficiently when reducing emissions.
Belgian startup VOCSens develops gas sensors using ultra-low-power, low-cost, multi-pixel complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) microsensors. The startup’s product, EnviCam, combines gas, particulates, temperature, and humidity sensors in a smart sensing platform that uses wireless communication through low-power wide area networks (LP-WAN). The methane gas sensors allow cities to analyze the sources of methane emissions and accordingly dedicate resources to reduce them.
Mehrvarzannovinsabz pooyanzamin manufactures an Electro Compost Machine
The current techniques for methane emissions reduction include conversion of wet waste into fertilizer through bacterial decomposition or vermicomposting. Although these two methods are successful in reducing the impact of waste and gasses emitted, their processes are slow. Since the timeframe for these methods takes several weeks, it is ineffective given the scale of waste being generated by today’s cities. Startups are developing waste conversion methods that are able to convert wet waste to fertilizer in a short time frame using electro-composting machines.
Iranian startup Mehrvarzannovinsabz pooyanzamin develops an electro compost machine that separates, crushes, and converts waste to compost within a few hours. The conversion process involves the use of reservoirs to break down the cells and turn them into fertilizer that is free from contamination. One of the main benefits of this technology is that methane does not enter the environment. Instead, the methane within the leachate is retained, resulting in high-quality fertilizer.
Discover more Sustainable Startups
Methane emissions reduction solutions for waste management, such as the examples highlighted in this report, focus on reducing methane emissions from landfills, waste streams, and solid waste. While all of these technologies play a major role in advancing sustainability, they only represent the tip of the iceberg. To explore more waste management technologies, simply get in touch to let us look into your areas of interest. For a more general overview, you can download one of our free Innovation Reports to save your time and improve strategic decision-making.
