“Windfall Bio” has just broken ground on a commercial-scale demonstration plant in Houston, Texas. The plant will showcase Windfall’s technology for transforming methane into valuable products, particularly organic fertilizer. The Amazon-backed startup’s technology leverages naturally occurring methane-eating microbes, which consume the greenhouse gas and convert it into high-value organic fertilizer.
Windfall’s technology utilizes microbes that literally eat methane. The technical name for these organisms is “methanotrophs” and they get their energy from methane or methanol, which they then convert into carbon dioxide and other substances. The microbes that Windfall uses also have the unique ability to trap nitrogen from the air. That means these methane eaters can turn their meals into valuable fertilizer.
In January, the company announced it had successfully scaled production of its methane-eating microbes. Windfall said fermentation of its microbes reached 17,000 liters, which CEO and Founder Josh Silverman said “not only demonstrates our ability to deploy a nature-based solution at scale but also redefines how industries can turn harmful methane emissions into valuable products like organic fertilizer.”
Windfall in February received Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI) certification for its nitrogen-rich “Foundation” fertilizer, which has a target NPK ratio of 12-4-2. The step was critical in establishing a market for its flagship product. For those not familiar, OMRI is an international nonprofit organization that determines which input products are allowed for use in organic production and processing. To become OMRI Listed, the product must meet strict standards for organic processing outlined by the USDA National Organic Program (NOP).
Windfall followed-up in June with results from a successful dairy farm pilot showing its microbes could remove 85% of the potent greenhouse gas from the farm’s manure lagoon. The pilot was conducted at California-based Correia Family Dairy, a supplier for Straus Family Creamery. One of Windfall’s bioreactors was placed next to a manure lagoon on the Correia farm, allowing the microbes to consume the gas continuously for more than a month.
Straus is a certified organic dairy so Windfall’s solution is attractive to help it continue meeting those standards. The diary is now considering a more expansive trial with at least five other farms in its network expressing interest. Windfall did not disclose the cost of its system but says its bioreactor offers a “cost-effective and simple-to-operate design for farmers to easily install and operate across agricultural sources of methane.”
Windfall’s new demo plant, expected to be operational in Q4 2025, will initially operate with industrial methane and pipeline gas for commissioning. Over time, the plant will operate with gas blends representing multiple feedstocks-including oil and gas flares, coal bed methane, landfill gas, and biogas-to demonstrate the technology’s flexibility and market reach. Windfall plans to have the plant in continuous operation, allowing customers to see first-hand the system’s engineering feasibility and scalability. The plant will also produce biomass that can be further processed into its Foundation fertilizer.
Windfall is also continuing to conduct larger demonstration-scale deployments across the agriculture, oil and gas, and waste management sectors to generate additional field data and further validate the robustness of its “methane-to-value” solution for other industrial use cases. In addition to Amazon, Windfall is backed by Bessemer Venture Partners, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, and Cavallo Ventures, among others. (Sources: AgFunder, Fast Company, Bloomberg)
