The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Facility gets $3.7M grant to study reducing greenhouse gases
“It is an ingenious way of really reducing the overall emissions by essentially compressing the gathering of methane for later use potentially.” U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm
A North Haven manufacturer has been selected as one of 12 sites to research ways to reduce methane emissions from mining.
Precision Combustion has been awarded a $3.7 million federal grant to research and develop technology that aims to cut down on the powerful greenhouse gas in the coal, oil and gas industries.
The move is part of President Joe Biden’s overall push to develop more clean energy sources and cut down on emissions that contribute to global warming. Last month, Biden’s administration announced a U.S. Methane Emissions Reduction Action Plan.
The plan aims to reduce methane emissions by 30 percent by 2030, from their 2020 levels.
Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm announced the grant during a tour of the facility Thursday morning, along with Gov. Ned Lamont.
“I’m so glad to be in a state that is really focused on doing its part to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to combat climate change and to put people to work,” Granholm said.
Lamont praised some of the facility’s technologies, including one that reduces the amount of weight soldiers have to carry to charge electronics.
“What this means for our environmental future, what this means to make Connecticut, what this means to make America a leader around the world is just transformative, and these are long-overdue investments,” he said.
Subir Roychoudhury, the company’s vice president of research and engineering, emphasized that methane is a “very potent” greenhouse gas and said the grant allowed the facility to continue research into reducing its warming effects.
“That (grant) allows us to not only develop the technology, but interface with industry to get it into the mining field,” Roychoudhury said.
The 12 grants total $35 million, and the grants come through the Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy. The agency announced its Reducing Emissions of Methane Every Day of the Year program earlier this year for universities and private companies.
“It is an ingenious way of really reducing the overall emissions by essentially compressing the gathering of methane for later use potentially,” Granholm said of the technology.
Leaders also pointed to gains Connecticut would see through the Build Back Better Act, including road repair, expanded broadband and investments into the railway system.
The stop was Granholm’s second of the day in Connecticut. Her first at an electric vehicle manufacturing facility in Enfield.
The Connecticut visit was part of an overall tour of the Northeast — Granholm was next headed to Rhode Island and Massachusetts, she said.