Technology experts have revealed plans to help seal 100,000 methane-leaking wells in the next decade, which could prevent millions of tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.
Rockit, a clean technology company based at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, aims to use a chemical injection method to transform the methane emitting rocks into a solid, permanent seal of insoluble minerals.
The team predicts the technique will lock in toxic greenhouse gases deep underground for thousands of years.
Rockit has been accepted into Scottish Enterprise’s prestigious High Growth Spinout programme, securing £75,000 in funding to elevate its solution.
Read More:
-
'Years of inaction': Scot Gov criticised by WWF over new climate change bill
-
Highland black grouse numbers on rise thanks to habitat restoration
The International Energy Agency has reported that methane has more than 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide over a 20-year period.
It is calculated that cutting methane emissions by 45% by 2030 could help meet the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting global warming to 1.5C.
Rockit has won awards for its prototype, which has been validated under lab conditions and was granted an accelerated patent by the UK Government’s Green Channel.
Oleg Ishkov, a lead researcher at Heriot-Watt’s School of Energy, Geoscience, Infrastructure and Society, said: “Using existing methods, research suggests it would take over 300 years to plug millions of at-risk wells on the planet.
“Our technology offers a radical new solution by transforming porous rocks into impermeable barriers, locking harmful gases underground for millennia.
“With Scottish Enterprise’s funding, we’re now poised to advance our research. It has also allowed us to add two commercial champions to the team in the form of expert advisers.”
The team said the plan could potentially prevent millions of tonnes of harmful greenhouse gas emissions being released into the atmosphere every year.
Mark Zwinderman, chief executive of clean tech company SAS Environmental Services, and Laurence Ormerod, a former vice-president at Weatherford International, will join Professor Eric Mackay and Dr Ishkov from Heriot-Watt to push the initiative forward.
Leah Pape, head of high growth services at Scottish Enterprise, said: “We’re delighted to welcome Rockit into our High Growth Spinout programme.
“The project is at the earliest stage of its scaling journey, but we’re confident that it can fully commercialise its cutting-edge research with our support and encouragement.”
Professor Gill Murray, deputy principal for enterprise and business at Heriot-Watt, added: “Rockit exemplifies the innovative, high-impact research we champion at Heriot-Watt University.
“This technology has the potential to make a significant contribution to global net-zero goals, showcasing how our research can deliver tangible environmental benefits on a global scale.
“As a global university, we’re uniquely positioned to help translate groundbreaking ideas into commercially viable solutions.
“Our long-standing support for Rockit, including championing its founder in the Converge Net Zero Challenge and showcasing the path-breaking research at international events like Cop28, demonstrates our commitment to fostering transformative technologies.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here