Daphne Technology has secured a CHF15 million first close in its current funding round, led by sustainability investor Taranis, as it moves to expand manufacturing and deployment of its methane abatement system for natural gas engines.
The company said the funding will be used to establish manufacturing capacity in the United States, accelerate product development, and expand field deployment and technical service operations. Shell Ventures and Trafigura remain among the investors supporting the business.
Daphne is focused on methane slip, the unburned methane emitted in the exhaust of lean-burn natural gas engines. The issue is drawing closer attention from operators and regulators as methane emissions accounting becomes more detailed across gas infrastructure and marine applications.
The company’s SlipPure™ system uses a plasma-catalytic process designed to reduce methane emissions by 90%, while also cutting carbon monoxide and formaldehyde by 99% and nitrogen dioxide by 60%. Daphne said the system requires no moving parts and no engine modifications. A field demonstration is under way on a 2,000 hp four-stroke lean-burn engine with a U.S. midstream operator.
Jamie Brick, Interim CEO of Daphne Technology, said: “Our mission is to solve the methane slip problem at scale, across every natural gas engine that needs it.”
The commercial focus is on upstream and midstream gas operators running large fleets of compressor engines. Those assets remain central to gas transmission and processing, but emissions from incomplete combustion are becoming harder to leave untreated as monitoring technology improves and compliance pressure grows.
Daphne said the engineering work completed in land-based applications is also expected to support marine product development, where methane emissions from gas-fuelled engines are moving higher up the regulatory agenda. The company plans to expand its U.S. operations in the coming months across field engineering, product engineering, business development, and operations.
