The Finnish Climate Fund has granted a 2.4 million euro capital loan to Finnish Aeromon Oy for the scaling and development of a solution for the more accurate measurement of fugitive emissions. A measuring device mounted on a UAV can observe methane and other fugitive emissions in almost real time. This enables correcting harmful industrial and landfill leaks more safely, accurately and quickly than with traditional methods.
The methane emissions of industry and landfills are a major climate challenge, constituting up to 5% of global GHG emissions. Most fugitive emissions are caused by the excavation, transport, storage and processing of fossil fuels. Fugitive emissions harmful to the climate and human health are generated by industrial processes, for example from organic compounds evaporating through leaky valves. Landfill operators are also seeking to minimise the amount of detrimental greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere.
Fugitive emissions often have a significant climate impact – methane, for example, is 28 more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Fugitive emissions also include an enormous number of other substances, some of which have direct or indirect climate effects, while others can be detrimental to human health or the environment.
”Methane is a greenhouse gas that is more dangerous to the climate than carbon dioxide. For this reason, it is good that methane emissions are increasingly paid attention to also through regulatory development and that new solutions are getting into market. Aeromon’s solution not only helps to measure effectively both methane and other harmful fugitive emissions, but is also an excellent example of a digital solution that is needed to combat against climate change ” says Climate Fund CEO Paula Laine.
Aeromon’s solution can locate and quantify emissions of several gaseous compounds, particulates and noise. The results are developed into a report that gives the customer extensive information about their fugitive emissions and their sources, helping them to prevent such emissions.
”The Climate Fund’s investment enables a major international scale-up of Aeromon’s solution. The funding allows us to develop the automation of the technology underpinning our service, which is a requirement for achieving rapid growth”, says Aeromon’s CEO Maria Kuosa.
Aeromon’s solution
Aeromon, established in 2014, develops the measurement of airborne emissions and technologies that enable it (Leak Detection and Repair – LDAR). Their solutions enable the location and measurement of fugitive emissions generated by industrial plants and landfills in almost real time. The company has the capabilities to measure indirect GHG emissions, such as methane and other non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOC), hydrogen sulphide, carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides. They are also able to measure other emissions detrimental to the environment or human health, such as ammonia, totally reduced sulphur compounds, particulate matter and noise.
The company decreases emissions indirectly, as it enables the recognition of emissions, but the final reductions depend on the corrective action taken by the company’s customers instead of directly from the technology or product of the company being funded. The emissions-reduction potential created by Aeromon has been estimated based on the average leakage of landfills and biogas and natural gas plants. Its ten-year theoretical cumulative emissions-reduction potential is estimated at 2.3 MtCO2-eq. The emissions reductions are indirect, that is, they depend on the corrective measures taken by the company’s customers on the basis of the data provided by Aeromon.
The company’s operations are eligible under the EU taxonomy. Aeromon conducts its research and development in Finland, and the investment will strengthen Finnish technological expertise.
In the past year, the company has raised over €6 million in financing for the development and scaling of its operations. The Climate Fund’s capital loan is part of a €4.8 million funding package, of which €2.4 million has been raised from Vopak Ventures and the company’s current shareholders.
The Climate Fund’s €2.4 million capital loan will be allocated to the scale-up of the reporting system and to the development of automation. The interest on the Climate Fund’s capital loan is priced at the market rate and the capital loan also includes a conversion right.
More information
Saara Mattero, Communications Director, the Climate Fund, tel. +358 400 114 777, saara.mattero@ilmastorahasto.fi
Maria Kuosa, CEO, Aeromon, tel. 0400 775 408, maria.kuosa@aeromon.io
The Finnish Climate Fund is a Finnish state-owned special-assignment company. Its operations focus on combating climate change, boosting low-carbon industry and promoting digitalisation. The Climate Fund invests in large-scale projects in which the fund’s investment is crucial to enable the project’s realisation in the first place, on a larger scale or earlier than it would with funding from elsewhere.
Aeromon Oy develops and provides airborne emission measurement services and technologies for the authorities and various sectors of industry. The company offers its customers a real-time visual overview of their emissions, enabling more efficient decision-making based on insight, so that they can take action to reduce airborne emissions. Aeromon’s proprietary, cutting-edge technology generates simultaneous data on several target parameters, such as various gaseous compounds, particulate matter and noise. Aeromon was established in Finland in 2014. Aeromon’s modular measurement technology utilises unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). It is constantly finding new applications in the oil, gas and energy production, the chemical industry, the process industry, and the marine and mining industries.