Methane detection, remediation, and reporting operating system atmio, the operating system for effortlessly finding, fixing, and reporting methane emissions today announces that it has raised €5.1 million in a Seed round, bringing the company's funding to over €6.4 million.
A potent greenhouse gas, methane is the main component of the natural gas utilised by Natural Gas Companies to generate electricity, and homes to generate heat.
Methane leakages occur primarily from natural gas escaping due to maintenance issues or broken equipment such as pipelines or tanks. Methane emissions are responsible for a third of global warming, and are the second highest GHG contributor to climate change following CO2.
According to the European Commission: 60 percent of global methane emissions result from human activity, and a third of this comes from the energy sector.
Previously, natural gas operators have relied on largely manual methods of leak detection, logging and repair in response to a methane leak in their plants. This is very time-consuming and has typically meant that most leak detection efforts are focused on safety risks, over and above detecting the smaller leaks which cause big environmental impact over time.
Although operators have reported methane leaks in the past, they have often relied on rough estimates and didn’t report on a regular basis.
In May 2024, the EU announced the EU Methane Strategy, its first-ever regulation on methane emissions reduction in the energy sector. Europe’s natural gas operators must now comply with regulation on improved measurement, reporting and verification of energy sector methane emissions, incorporating mandatory leak detection and repair (LDAR).
atmio streamlines methane leak detection and repair
atmio’s all-in-one solution of combined handheld and stationary monitors, a mobile app, and integrated management platform are fully interconnected for automated reporting, offering end-to-end detection, repair and logging of all methane leaks.
The solution digitises a previously manual system to save time, integrate data into day-to-day processes, and manages overall repair-related shutdown time efficiently.
The software enables operators to manage campaigns, check and manage repairs and at the click of a button, report all works undertaken, as well as its impact on overall emissions. It can also complete yearly emission reporting, a large part of the compliance with new regulations.
Matthias Schmittmann, CEO and Co-Founder of atmio says:
“It’s of crucial importance that we target methane leaks specifically if we are to reduce harmful emissions. Our platform helps natural gas operators to comply with new EU regulations and make a big impact on reducing harmful emissions.
For example, we detected that in one customer’s single leak, our solution averted the release of methane equivalent to 160 return flights from Germany to the Maldives. This seed round will enable us to go to market in Germany and replicate this kind of success in companies across Europe.”
Notion Capital led the funding with participation from SquareOne. Other investors include HCVC and Robin Capital; as well as angel investment from Bernhard Mohr, former VP Gas Detection at Dräger, and David Rowan’s VOYAGERS Climate-Tech Fund.
Charlotte Baumhauer, Investment Manager at SquareOne, shared:
“Methane emissions are responsible for about 30% of global warming.
We believe in atmio’s unique combination of hardware and software to address this urgent problem – and the timing is just right: with the new regulation, natural gas companies are obliged to measure, monitor and report their methane emissions according to the highest standards, and to take action to reduce them. atmio’s solution delivers immediate results for an entire industry.”
atmio’s customers include gas storage operators; Crystal, EWE and Distribution System Operator, Westnetz.
The company will use the funding to go to market, develop its product, hire new engineers, and build out a new marketing and customer success team.
Lead image: atmio. Photo: uncredited.
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