Prabhu Energy Labs Wins $1M DOE grant for methane emissions mitigation

$1M Federal Grant to Develop the Oxiperator for Compressor Engine Methane Slip

Mission Viejo, CA - March 13, 2023 - Prabhu Energy Labs was selected by the US Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management for a $1M grant. We were one of 22 picked for the Innovation Methane Measurement, Monitoring and Mitigation Technologies (iM4 Technologies) award and one of 6 grant recipients for "Mitigation of Methane Emissions from Upstream/Midstream Sources.”

Our grant project seeks to eliminate “methane slip” from lean-burn engines. There are fifty thousand such engines in the US alone, driving critical operations at gas plants and compressor stations, and increasingly, powering marine vessels. Methane slip from these engines is one of the largest sources of methane emissions in the US oil and gas industry and currently has no commercial solution. The Oxiperator will bolt-on at the exhaust and requires no catalyst.

We are honored to have leaders in advanced manufacturing, thermodynamics and engines on our team: Prof. Tony Rollett from CMU (Metallurgy, 3D printing), Prof. Vinod Narayanan of UC Davis (Heat Transfer, Thermodynamics) and Prof. Dan Olsen of Colorado State University (Lean-Burn Engines), along with their graduate research colleagues.

We’re in conversation with experts in GHG emissions reduction at some of the largest US and Canadian oil and gas companies, who are watching our progress with interest. 

The DOE award will also advance and validate the technology for use on coal mine ventilation air methane (VAM), landfill methane and other sources of “weak” methane emissions in oil and gas.

P.S. We’re hitting the road! Let's meet up ...
Washington DC, March 21-24 for the ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit 
Banff, Canada, April 26-27 for the Methane Leadership Summit

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