Two Co-Investigators in the GGR-Peat Demonstrator project have won a Bezos Earth Fund Greenhouse Gas Removal Ideation Prize. Dr Jonathan Ritson and Professor Martin Evans, both at the University of Manchester, were awarded the prize, along with Dr Chris Field at Manchester Metropolitan University, for their work on using Sphagnum moss in peatland restoration to reduce methane emissions and increase the ability of peat to store carbon.
Sphagnum moss helps peat to form and also provides a supportive environment for bacteria that consume methane. Human activity has, over time, led to the disappearance of Sphagnum from many peatlands. Led by Dr Ritson, the team has been working to find and cultivate optimised strains of Sphagnum that grow successfully in peatland pools, which release elevated methane levels. Most Sphagnum species do not grow well in aquatic environments, so finding and cultivating ones that do, and using them in peatland restoration, will make a difference to how much carbon those peatlands can absorb and the amount of methane they can remove.
The team’s proposal is one of 13 projects to have won $50,000 from the Fund, out of more than 700 originally submitted. It builds on a project (also led by Dr Ritson) that received funding from CO2RE’s second Pathfinders call.
Another winner in the Earth Fund competition was also a former recipient of Pathfinders funding. Dr Wei Li of the University of Edinburgh has been awarded $50,000 by the Earth Fund for his project on hybrid solar chimney power plants. The project he co-led with Dr Zhentao Wu of Aston University, which looked at using solar driven catalytic membrane technologies to remove atmospheric methane, was funded by CO2RE’s second Pathfinders call.
Learn more about the GGR-Peat Demonstrator project in this short documentary.
Photo by Journeys With Sean on Unsplash.
